What remains of the St. Petersburg Pier looks more or less like a Rubik's cube left to melt in the sun.

A new pier, Pier Park, is expected to take its place, fully, by 2018. 

At an additional cost of $20 million (a windfall derived from a surplus), the city opted to fund redevelopment of the area between the Pier approach and Beach Drive, often referred to as the uplands.

Friday, according to a media release, a committee charged with overseeing the process selected a design team to carry that project out, W Architecture and Landscape Architecture, LLC as well as two others that could take on the overhaul if the first doesn't work out.

Those two are Alfonso Architects and ASD Architects, which ranked second and third, respectively.

You may remember them from such Pier design concept selection processes as the one that happened earlier this year.

Alfonso designed Alma, the tower thingy, and ASD came up with Pier Park (they won!).

The winner, W etc., was the team behind the Blue Pier idea.

Here's the criteria the committee, consisting of city officials and community members, used to create the list.

  • Team background and experience
  • Relevant project examples
  • Project approach to include community engagement during the design process
  • Whether or not the firm or individual is a Minority Business Enterprise

The concept itself has to blend seamlessly into the Pier area, sort of serving as a buffer between downtown and Pier Park.

The committee consists of a range people from various backgrounds, including Dave Goodwin (the city's planning & economic development director), interim public works administrator Thomas Gibson, Justin Bean of the St. Petersburg Young Professionals and Phil Graham of the Waterfront Parks Foundation

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the city will enter into negotiations with the top team and, assuming all goes well, there should be a contract by January.

This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2015.