On weekdays, the corner of Ashley and Kennedy bustles with office workers strangling in ties and pantyhose and dodging noisy, exhaust-belching cars. Most are unaware that a cool, quiet oasis is only steps away. Its delicate crepe myrtle trees provide shade and filter out the soot in the atmosphere. Its geyser fountains baffle the clamor of nearby traffic and cool the air sweetened by the scent of grass.
The garden, nestled at the base of Tampa's most beautiful — and most maligned — skyscraper, doesn't really have a name. We don't seem to love it enough to give it one. (At least we haven't given it a snide label, as we have done to the building it complements, known as the beer can building, now occupied by the Bank of America. But that's another column.)
In this elegant urban nook, harried worker bees can sit on a bench and enjoy a brief respite from the hubbub. And, despite what some critics of the park have said, visitors are rewarded with an exquisite view of the Hillsborough River, the University of Tampa minarets, and the Kennedy Boulevard bridge.
No, you can't see any of this from your car as you drive by, and many people have called that a failure of the park. They say it should be more open and welcoming to passersby. But it's precisely the park's concealment that makes it a sanctuary and lends a certain enchantment to discovering it. If the garden were visible from Ashley Drive, it wouldn't be the peaceful spot it is, even though more people would undoubtedly enjoy a drive-by view of the river.
Orienting our cities to the car has created an environment hostile to pedestrians by putting them at the mercy of murderous traffic and inhumanly large-scale buildings. Cities like St. Petersburg that never destroyed human scale and pedestrian friendliness in their downtowns are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and their urban cores are thriving. Other cities, like Tampa, are struggling to revive their moribund city centers.
It is the garden's offense to the car-loving public that has partially paved the way for its undoing. First, the garden's reflecting pools were obliterated because they leaked into the parking garage below, damaging the paint on some cars. Never mind that the pools were an integral part of the design, created by Dan Kiley, who is known as the dean of American landscape architecture in international cultural circles. The garden is essentially a work of public art that has been altered without consulting the artist. Kiley was never even informed of the leakage problems and allowed to find a solution.
Now, in a supremely ironic move, the city plans to demolish the garden — one of the most significant cultural landmarks in Tampa — to make room for the proposed cultural arts district. Architect Rafael Vinoly has arrogantly plopped his new design for the Tampa Museum of Art on top of the site now occupied by the garden, violating the design of the Bank of America building and the garden, which were designed to work together as a unit.
When asked recently why the garden was not integrated into plans for the cultural district, museum director Emily Kass said it had been too severely compromised to save. There's a circular argument for you.
At the unveiling of the updated museum design, Mayor Dick Greco bragged about having a landmark building by a famous architect and told reporters that "the kind of people we want to attract here are used to having these kinds of things." He mentioned the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, designed by Frank Gehry, and said his friends drove two hours to see the famous building, never bothering to go inside and see the artwork. He seemed unaware of the irony of creating a building that eclipses the art it was designed to showcase.
But since our dear mayor is impressed by fame and by rubbing shoulders with loudly proclaimed greatness, it is worth noting that Dan Kiley has designed gardens for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., New York's Lincoln Center and La Defense in Paris, among many others, and has worked with such architectural luminaries as I. M. Pei and Edward Larrabee Barnes. This year he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The awards recognize "extraordinary contributions to design." First Lady Laura Bush, who hosted the ceremony, called recipients "talented innovators and visionaries who shape and influence the way we experience our world." Kiley was also awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton in 1997.
At the same time Tampa is planning to destroy our Kiley garden, Milwaukee has built a new museum complemented by a Dan Kiley garden, which by the way, has a name: Cudahy Gardens. Architecture critic for The Dallas Morning News David Dillon enthused over the garden, calling it "a seamless blending of nature and architecture." He said the garden has "transformed a derelict stretch of Lake Michigan into a civic destination by providing a setting for festivals, concerts and the relaxed contemplation of the lake, the skyline and museum's spectacular brise soleil." He also said the project might be the last one for Kiley, who is 90 and frail.
In a Weekly Planet article written in 2000, reporter Susan Eastman said Greco suggested that Kiley might want to design a new park for the cultural district. Although no landscape architect has yet been selected for the project, Kiley's firm has not been contacted. Peter Meyer, a landscape architect with Dan Kiley's firm, said Kiley and the firm would be pleased to work with the city to preserve or possibly alter the garden.
With his passing, Dan Kiley's works will become even more rare and valuable. It is unfortunate that Tampa lacks the sensitivity to preserve this jewel.
Contact Senior Editor Susan F. Edwards at 813-248-8888 ext. 122 or ed@weeklyplanet.com.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2003.