riverwalk plans
After years of dreams and promises, Tampa has finally hashed out plans for a new Riverwalk along the Hillsborough, running from North Boulevard in Tampa Heights down to Garrison Channel and the proposed future home of the Tampa History Museum.
Mayor Iorio presented the Riverwalk plans at a Wednesday morning meeting downtown that included a few hundred city employees and some students from the Rampello Downtown Partnership School.
As a downtown resident, I would love to have a place to walk or ride from north downtown all the way to Channelside without having to dodge traffic and panhandlers. So I should be thrilled, right?
The plans call for picnic terraces at Laurel Street, where I live, and a floating walkway under the Kennedy Bridge. Mayor Iorio wants me (and all of you) to donate to the project (contributions are to make up half the $40 million price tag), but I’ve got a few questions.
Here’s a Tampa Tribune article on the Riverwalk; and a direct link to the renderings (opens a new window). Let’s take a look at these.
The first rendering is a photo of the existing Kennedy Ave. bridge. Fair enough. The second is a rendering of the same view with the riverwalk in place. Note the inaccurate drawing of the Trump Tower in the background, though pictures of the tower are all over the web and at the construction site itself. Notice also the magical transformation of the bridge: this bridge is much higher and has a smaller radius than the real bridge, the better to put a floating sidewalk under. I’ve paddled under that bridge; the drawing is hopeful but I’m afraid it won’t work. I’m glad they at least left the crew team artwork there (I may have once grafittied that very bridge), but it still looks like somebody is ignoring reality.
The fifth drawing shows the convention center area, but while image number two included an inaccurate drawing of the Trump Tower, which won’t be complete until 2009 at the earliest, this rendering fails to include the nearly finished Embassy Suites right behind the convention center.
The drawings leave a couple other questions open, too:
- Will there be any shade or cover over the Riverwalk, or is this an October thru March thing?
- Aside from the new dock for the Jose Gaspar, are there any plans to include a boat launch or dock, or is the river ‘look but don’t touch?’
So far, this whole thing looks like it was done with no attention to detail; it’s a beta version at best.
I think I’ll keep my wallet closed for now.
Tags: city, development, marketing, tampa, tourism
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March 17th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
well the perspective from the 1st image to the 2nd is different. I would assume that if rowboats can fit under it a floating walkway that rises and falls with the water level should be fine. I see what you mean about the continuity issues. I will be happy just to see something being done though.
March 20th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
I have seen an entirely different proposal in the city’s website in regards to Riverwalk’s issue at the Kennedy Street (it seems that no one can make their mind). It would be foolish to build another entire walk when you can scissor up to the existing walk behind Kiley Gardens. Then one could say that Kiley Gardens is a shaded path to Ashley, but as you noticed the city chopped down hundreds of Crate Myrtle trees. I have attempted to give EDAW and the public (during an input meeting) a design that would works despite I am opposed to the Riverwalk entirely.
It pretty sad when a ‘young’ or ‘naive’ architect figures out a professional response (done free of course) to a design issue in a matter of minutes, yet the city wants to spend millions on a ‘design’ that is entirely unrealistic, not shaded or not sustainable!
I say it again…City of Tampa…YOU CAN NOT BUILD AN ART/LIVABLE CITY WITHIN A LENGTH OF A MAYOR’S TERM AND EXPECT GOOD RESULTS. Good cities come from administrations passing the torch to others regarding of public and cultural needs, not trying to build some city ‘Olympics’ for political conquest.
You can’t re-build a city especially an art city when you destroy landmarks and rush to get it completed before the superbowl. Good cities take time, needs to nuture and understood from administration to administration.