Based on our reporting, there is still a considerable amount of St. Petersburg residents who don't want to change the St. Pete Pier's inverted pyramid structure for a new design.
But nevertheless, the move to convert the Pier into something that city leaders hope will make the site more friendly to tourists and locals is very much underway, as officials announced today that the committee assigned to review the new preliminary designs has narrowed the number of inquiries from 23 down to nine.
The lucky 9 design teams selected by the panel include:
BIG, lead designer Bjarke Ingels of New York; Farshid Moussavi Architecture,
lead designer Farshid Moussavi of London; Frederic Schwartz Architects, lead
designer Frederic Schwartz of New York; HOK, lead designer Yann Weymouth of
Tampa; James Corner Field Operation, lead designer James Corner of New York;
Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc., lead designer Michael Maltzan of Los
Angeles; WEISS/MANFREDI, lead designer Weiss/Manfredi of New York; West 8
Urban Design, lead designer Adriaan Geuze of New York; and !melk urban design,
lead designer Jerry Van Eyck of New York.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2011.