Depending on how you look at it, designers of the St. Petersburg Pier have either made modifications to the concept known as Pier Park out of budget concerns (as expected), or they are using, as former Councilman Wengay Newton put it, according to the Tampa Bay Times, the ol' bait-and-switch.
On Thursday the design team, ASD/Rogers released a more concrete design concept, and it looks a bit different than what was presented during the competition.
Naturally, critics were critical and supporters were supportive.
The overall concept is the same — a focus on the outdoors and physical activity with plenty of green space (in other words: not a mall).
But largely out of the need to stay within budget, the team scaled back the size of a large lawn, somewhat changed the shape of the building at the Pier head (they have long acknowledged the original design of that building might not be the final one) and changed the concept's orientation somewhat. (More details on those changes here.)
The St. Pete City Council "will vote on completing the balance of design development and appropriate the funds" for the project, a key development in the process.
Earlier this week, locals packed the house in a discussion of a related project, the Pier approach, which aims to serve as a seamless transition between downtown and the Pier.
Below are the latest renderings of the Pier design, and they're quite snazzy.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2016.