The St. Petersburg City Council has approved the schematic design for the new St. Pete Pier. First awarded in a competition in 2015, the new site was designed by a team composed of three firms: Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers (lead designer); ASD (executive architect); and WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect (landscape architect). Although the final design was updated based on city and public requests, the core programming of the original scheme was maintained.
The St. Petersburg City Council has approved Rogers Partners, Ken Smith and ASD's "Pier Park" redesign, allocating funds towards demolition of the current pier and pre-construction work. The design, selected through a city-sponsored competition, will replace "an aging icon" - a 1970s inverted pyramid structure that occupies the pier's head - and focus on integrating flexible, community-oriented program throughout the site and surrounding area.
“Each of the pier’s past incarnations had its own set of programs and uses, some more ambitious than others,” commented John Curran, studio leader at ASD and lead project manager for the new pier. “The ones that succeeded appealed to both visitors and residents, and were active day and night, throughout the year. This flexibility was essential to our approach to the new design.”
A consortium of Tampa-based ASD, Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers, and Ken Smith Landscape Architect has been announced as winners of the second St. Petersburg Pier redesign competition. Chosen after the city failed to implement Michael Maltzen Architecture’s competition-winning proposal due to strong public opposition, the new winning scheme, "Pier Park" takes a more scaled down (and affordable) approach to redesigning the site's landmark 1970s pier by focusing on public experience rather than architectural intervention.
Read on after the break for more on the $46 million Pier Park proposal.
After deliberating over eight shortlisted proposals to reimagine the St. Petersburg Pier, the Pier Selection Committee has narrowed the competition down to three designs. Though the proposals vary widely in aesthetics, the finalists all approached the project as an opportunity to express the past while embracing modern forms and incorporating strong public programs.
Next on the agenda, the Pier Selection Committee will conduct an initial public meeting on April 23 in which finalists will present clarifications on their designs, followed later that day with a second meeting to announce the teams' rankings. Based on these proceedings, one design will be chosen for further development, in collaboration with the city. Check out the three finalists, after the break.
After public outcry rejected Michael Maltzan Architecture’s winning entry “The Lens,” which sought to replace St. Petersburg Pier with an ambitious sail-like concrete canopy and aquatic habitat, the fate of the structurally inapt inverted pyramid remained in limbo. Now, two years after the culmination of the original competition, the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, alongside the preservations of the Concerned Citizens of St. Pete, has selected eight scaled back proposals in hopes that one will provide a sensible solution that will both maximize the pier’s potential and satisfy the locals.
Shortlisted competitors, including FR-EE / Fernando Romero EnterprisE, Alfonso Architects, and Rogers Partners, received a $30,000 stipend to submit these preliminary design concepts, complete with reports, renderings and cost estimates. Take a look at all eight proposals, after the break.