Tampa Riverwalk

[smiley]

Tampa Has Super Plans For Downtown Park




By ELLEN GEDALIUS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 28, 2008

Updated:

TAMPA - The city is working to finish a redesigned park in the Channel District by January, hoping it could become a hot spot for Super Bowl events.

The Cotanchobee/Fort Brooke Park project features several elements, including more green space, a Riverwalk segment and a Heroes Plaza. The park runs along Garrison Channel, near the Tampa Marriott Waterside hotel.

The Super Bowl Host Committee has put holds on all downtown parks in the days leading up to the Feb. 1 game, said Sharon Graham, a special events coordinator for the city. No plans are set yet for the Cotanchobee space, but it might be used for a Super Bowl-related activity.

Plans call for adding more than 2 acres of green space and creating a Heroes Plaza, with plenty of picnic tables, shade and an interactive fountain, said Brad Souder, a city parks department project manager. The playground will be built around a Florida wildlife theme.

Heroes Plaza will feature three 6-foot glass panels, one honoring police and sheriff's deputies; one honoring fire rescue personnel; and one honoring war veterans. All will honor those killed in the line of duty.

Smaller glass panels will focus on the humanitarian efforts of heroes and the diversity of heroes, including displays on women during World War II and the Buffalo Soldiers. Hillsborough County is working with the city on the project.

The idea for Heroes Plaza came, in part, from Tribune columnist Steve Otto, who had written about the lack of recognition for local veterans. The column prompted Mayor Pam Iorio to talk to her staff about some sort of memorial.

"This will be the focal point for our community's recognition of our veterans, complemented by the county's recognition of our police and fire," Iorio said.

A separate public art piece will be called "Ceremonial Space." The sculpture, by artist Bob Haozous, will commemorate the history and significance of the Fort Brooke/Cotanchobee site, which long has featured a memorial to the Seminole tribe.

The park is the original site of an early Seminole Indian settlement.

The piece is 31 feet in diameter and 15 feet, 6 inches tall, said Robin Nigh, the city's public art administrator. The work will include information on Native American migrations and information on the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

The city also is partnering with the Southwest Florida Water Management District to complete a shoreline restoration project.

The park construction contract was awarded to W.G. Mills for almost $3 million, including $1 million from Hillsborough County.

The Tampa Bay History Center project is on schedule to be finished by mid-November, president C.J. Roberts said. The 60,000 square-foot project will cost about $52 million. Money comes from public and private sources.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jul...lans-for-park/

[JBrisco]

This is what I'm talkin about!!! Real PARKS.

[FloridaFuture]

On the front page of today's Metro section there is a pretty nice graphic showing how the park will be layed out.

[FloridaFuture]

Originally Posted by FloridaFuture

On the front page of today's Metro section there is a pretty nice graphic showing how the park will be layed out.

Admititley a bad scan, but still readable:

[Jasonhouse]

Color me a fool, but I thought that site would have made for a fine location for some vertical development, with some significant retail space on the first 1 or 2 floors. Maybe an extended stay type hotel, or even another cultural attraction. The park is nice, but the hole in the urban fabric in that area is gaping, and extending this park ensures that will be the case for a very long time. It also would have helped draw traffic to the museum, whose location is desolate right now, and also would have encouraged more traffic (and thus walking and trolley rides) from the Convention Center to the Aquarium/Shops, and was one of the few places (under city control, no less) where retail could be built right up against the Riverwalk, at grade, and really livened it up...

Ahh, but alas, this is Tampa, and we'll be damned if we're going to even think before we reflexively enact whatever myopic solution some lackey cooked up.

[JBrisco]

Well, atleast its a nice park and not a parking lot.

[FloridaFuture]

The Lightning own the lot just to the north and are thinking about putting a hotel there, no? Also, the Byrd lot may get something...eventually. I think this project will only help those get built.

It is a shame the Forum had to have its ass up against the park and not the plaza where people hang out in between the forum and garage.

[smiley]

I am fine with the park - but I wish the history center was somewhere else and there was something more useful there - with people who would use the park. I think, like St. PEte, you can be a block off the water with your development if there is decent public space in the middle. I also wish they would stop half-assed honoring and build a real, classic monument somewhere. No one relates to modern monuments that look like 5th grade reports - which is what we always seem to get.

[DShenise]

Monuments/Public Art are difficult because 90% of the public does think enough about the actual work. It becomes an immediate judgement for them, that very second what they feel, they don't do any thinking about it. Personally I tend to like most, I love "Family of Man", the Horses, the Sundail thing at USF (next to Cooper Hall), and the monolith thing at USF-St. Pete (and the hump in the ground and retaining walls are part of the piece). I hate the exploding chicken on Kennedy/Ashley and the twisted slinky in front of BofA tower is pretty derivitive too. But its all a taste thing. They just opened a new arch up here in Atlanta and even though its traditional in design I like it, and think it provides a contrast next to the contemporary buildings next to it.



is next to this



and I think they work together, but its all subjective. I think the Channelside area in general though suits contemporary designs for monuments/public art.

[randommichael]

^ It looks like there is a Novare building on the other side of the arch.

[DShenise]

There is a Novare building on the otherside of every building in this town. They are everywhere, fortunately there are enough other towers around that its not so striking. But, they do stick with a design style.

We do have this though.
http://www.sovereignbuckhead.com/

Its probably the best looking condo tower I've seen (in the US). Its totally different from every angle. I find it so attractive I think I'd rather live near it so I could look at it as opposed to living in it. Fortunately there is a Novare building across the street.

[randommichael]

^ That is a pretty cool building. I love the Buckhead area.

[DShenise]

Its grown on me. Its particularly nice if you are into female R&B singers, they are always hanging out at Phipps and Lenox. My wife caught me leering at Mya a couple months ago..... We don't have a beach, but the mall is quite the fashion parade.

[HARTride 2012]

EDIT

[HARTride 2012]

Tampa's Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park Gets Gift Of Fountains

By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 8, 2008

TAMPA - For many people, a public park without a fountain is like a beach without water.

But when city officials worked out cost estimates for the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park project this year, they reluctantly decided to shelve plans for fountains and other amenities. That is, until philanthropist Norma Gene Lykes came into the picture.

Her nonprofit group, the F.E. Lykes Foundation, last week donated $1 million to pay for a giant fountain at the gateway to the park and two smaller ones on the riverfront.

Mayor Pam Iorio called the donation a prime example of the private sector contributing to downtown redevelopment.

"It is very generous and will have a lasting effect on our community," Iorio said.

The park is considered a vital part of the city's riverfront redevelopment efforts, which also include the new Tampa Museum of Art, under construction nearby.

City planners envision the park as a destination spot for large, outdoor events.

The $12 million project, expected to be completed in 2009, is being funded mostly with Community Investment Tax dollars.

"We wouldn't have the fountains without this donation," said Public Works administrator Steve Daignault. "We just didn't have enough money to do them."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at cwade@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7679.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/newrep...e=1&p=23361040

[Robert.Maddrey]

Great news, the scale-backs on that park were going to make it even more useless then its predecessor... Mean while we have a few dirt lots and a concrete jungle that used to be Kiley Gardens.

[HARTride 2012]

Oh I agree Robert, this will be nothing more than an smaller, but extravagant copy of what the city has underneath I-4. Not to mention that it will become another "wonderful" homeless bath.


I want to know how the heck the city accepts these crap ideas?

[FloridaFuture]

Great to see fountains added to the park plan.

I'm not really concerned about scaling down amenities of the park for the time being. What I was a little more disappointed in was they didn't take down that stupid parking garage with those nets that give off a strip-club ambience. Taking that down would've made the park noticeably larger.

As far as the homeless bath goes, the downtown area including its immediate surrounding neighborhoods need to be cleaned up before the homeless go away. I really wouldn't want the presence of homeless to destroy the prospects of getting some nice fountains.

[JBrisco]

Im hoping they put a lot of oak trees or trees that really offer shade and not just palms.

[Robert.Maddrey]

Amen to that! This is Florida after all and despite what our norther visitors may like to see (non-indigenous palms) what any public space needs is shade and lots of it. Shade trees, make all the difference in creating an invite outdoor public space. Too bad all streets downtown don't look like Marion St!

Originally Posted by JBrisco

Im hoping they put a lot of oak trees or trees that really offer shade and not just palms.