City crews on Tuesday began clear-cutting Kiley Gardens in downtown Tampa – known officially as NCNB Plaza Park to international landscape architecture fans who recognize 
its creator, the late Dan Kiley, as its foremost practitioner in the last half of the 20th century – in a move that had preservationists hopping mad. The future of the park is murky, as Mayor Pam Iorio has cut a deal to remove it in order to fix the parking garage underneath. While Iorio has vowed to recreate part of the park as a tribute to Kiley, the city has not revealed exactly what that will entail.
Last week, the Friends of Kiley Gardens met with city officials and thought they had forged a good working relationship to help the city restore Kiley’s geometric, if underappreciated, masterpiece. Until the chainsaws started on Tuesday.
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2006.