“This is very strange, what’s happening here,” Toshiko Mori remarked with concern in her voice to a crowd assembled to hear her speak in Sarasota on the morning of March 11 at New College of Florida’s Sainer Pavilion.

The acclaimed New York-based architect, who has designed a small handful of private homes along this postcard-perfect stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast, was in town to receive the inaugural Philip Hanson Hiss Award, an award program launched last year by the nonprofit Architecture Sarasota that honors the legacy of the late Philip Hanson Hiss III, a powerhouse real estate developer, initiator of climate-responsive regional modern architecture, and champion of public education who, as board chairman of New College, commissioned I.M. Pei to design the school’s bayfront campus in 1963.