Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Back in April 2005, the TBBJ told us that the Hotel Floridan was purchased with plans for renovations. We too were excited about Tampa’s long dormant historic landmark getting fixed up, too.

But some people have remained skeptical that the Hotel Floridan would truly be renovated and restored to former glory. Even after renovation started, some of the readers here said they didn’t believe it would happen unless they saw dumpsters outside filling up with debris.

To be sure, other than Fox 13 airing a video report of the internal work ongoing at the Floridan in August of 2007, there has not been many tell tale signs of the reconstruction under way at the Hotel Floridan. Though you may or may not have noticed the facade and window restorations/repairs from the last few months, besides that, there hasn’t been much of anything..

We now, however, submit to you Exhibit C of the restoration in progress: The sign atop the old building identifying it as HOTEL FLORIDAN has once again been erected on the southwest corner of the hotel.

A bunch of local fans of urban development and architecture hang out at Skyscraper City’s Tampa/St. Petersburg forums, and have been watching exterior renovations through the Skypoint construction webcam. Forum contributor and all-around good guy Cavernw works nearby, and took this fantastic photo of the completed sign. Nice shot, Cavernw!

You can also see the completed sign and watch other ongoing exterior renovations by visiting the Skypoint webcam and zooming in on the Floridan building in the upper right portion of the camera’s viewing range.

For further discussion on the restoration of the Floridan, come hang out with us at SKyscrapercity.com.

Possibly related posts (auto-generated)

• collage of the history of the floridan (2)