Interior designer in Fort Pierce, Florida

Fort Pierce has run a historic preservation program since 2001, as a Florida Certified Local Government with a tax exemption program for historic properties. Its six local districts are Downtown, Edgartown, Lincoln Park (the former Avenue D district), Sample Oaks, Oakland Park and River's Edge. Their buildings include Mediterranean Revival, Mission, Bungalow, Colonial Revival and Frame Vernacular examples, with Art Moderne downtown and in Sample Oaks, and Ranch and Minimal Traditional houses in River's Edge and Oakland Park.

The city's Historic Preservation Board approves or denies certificates of appropriateness for alterations, rehabilitation and demolition of historic sites. We confirm early which parts of a project need one, design kitchens, baths and living spaces that keep original floors, trim and tile where they survive, and coordinate with the licensed contractor, and an architect when needed, on the application.

• Kitchen and bath redesign that keeps original floors, trim and tile
• Finishes and lighting suited to Mediterranean Revival, Mission and Bungalow interiors
• Design documents prepared for certificate of appropriateness review
• Coordination with licensed contractors and architects on exterior work

Across the South Bridge, the city's end of South Hutchinson Island runs along Seaway Drive to the traffic circle at the Fort Pierce Inlet, with platted residential streets, condominiums, restaurants and Jetty Park. North Hutchinson Island, across the inlet, is unincorporated and governed by St. Lucie County, so a beachfront home on one side of the inlet answers to different lighting and permitting rules than one on the other.

Condominium work here follows whatever the association sets for contractors, hours and deliveries, and Florida's milestone inspection law applies to condominium buildings three habitable stories or taller. The City of Fort Pierce enforces its own sea turtle lighting ordinance, so we plan window treatments, lamps and exterior fixtures for beachfront units with it in view, design kitchens and baths within the fixed structure, and specify finishes for salt air.

Downtown Fort Pierce is a working main street on the lagoon, with 1920s commercial buildings such as the Arcade Building and the Sunrise Theatre, along with restaurants, professional firms and the city marina. Lincoln Park grew around Avenue D, which in the 1950s and 1960s was St. Lucie County's center of African American-owned shops and businesses, and the neighborhood was home to Zora Neale Hurston in her last years and to the Highwaymen landscape painters.

We design commercial interiors for these districts: restaurants and shops in historic storefronts, professional offices and medical suites, with concept work, 3D renderings for landlord or board review, and design direction through the build-out with licensed contractors. When a business also needs a name, signage or a website, our branding and digital design service works alongside the interior.

Inside city limits, the City of Fort Pierce issues building permits, and the Historic Preservation Board handles certificates of appropriateness. St. Lucie Village, the small town on North Indian River Drive just north of the city, has its own building official. Fort Pierce North, Fort Pierce South and Lakewood Park are unincorporated census-designated places, so permits there go through St. Lucie County's Building and Code Regulation Division.

Gava Studio Design is a design and consulting practice, not a licensed contractor. Permits are pulled and structural, electrical, plumbing, window and door work is done by licensed contractors, with an architect or engineer when the scope requires one. Our project direction service coordinates them with the design and with the association or review board involved.