St. Pete Pier

KEN SMITH WORKSHOP

Completion Date: 2020 City of St. Pete, Owner Design Team: Rogers Partners, Design Architects Ken Smith Workshop, Design Landscape Architect ASD|SKY, Executive Architect Booth Design Group, Executive Landscape Architect above photography - RIMO below photography 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 - RIMO below photography 7, 8, 9 - Barrett Doherty

The new St. Pete Pier represents the future of urban infrastructure. It is a highly integrated work of landscape, architecture and urbanism. The project encompasses economic development, urban resilience, environmental awareness, social equity, public access and recreation. It supports, enhances and contributes to a growing diverse community and changing world. From its conception, the new Pier was designed as a collection of open space opportunities and a diversity of experiences. The design emphasizes connectivity to the existing historic waterfront parks and the downtown community. The 26-acre Pier District has been conceived as a multi-modal area with a pedestrian-oriented emphasis that connects to the daily life of downtown St. Petersburg, tying into transportation and recreation systems including bike paths, jogging trails, parking locations, and public transit. As the focal point of the district, the 12-acre new Pier provides an armature of rich, local, and destination-based programming. It is a hub for activity, not only at the pier head, but all along its 1,380-foot length. The Pier quite simply does not take you to a place, the Pier is itself the place. The St. Pete Pier has been integral to the identity and image of St. Petersburg, Florida throughout its recent history. St. Pete’s waterfront has its roots in the early twentieth-century City Beautiful movement when visionary city leaders acquired waterfront properties to create a string of continuous waterfront public parks. The St. Pete Pier, at the center of the downtown waterfront, originated in 1889 with the Railroad Pier where the Orange Belt Rail Line terminated. Originally lined with warehouses, it soon became popular for swimming and fishing. It was replaced by the Electric Pier in 1906, The Municipal Pier in 1914, The Million Dollar Pier in 1926 and the Inverted Pyramid Pier in 1973. The 1973 Pier was envisioned as a tourist destination with a simple design of a long concrete driveway leading to an architectural folly structure, which was demolished in 2015. The redeveloped Pier is a new model for waterfront cities as an example of urban infrastructure with social, economic and environmental aspirations. It is just as importantly a satisfying place with engaging landscape and architectural spaces, beautiful design, and active public programming. It is distinguished by an integrated approach to design, architecture, landscape architecture, programming, services, access, resiliency planning and engineering. In supporting and building it, the City of St. Petersburg has created an economic engine that serves the widest possible range of people - children, seniors, students, tourists, residents – with the broadest range of reasons to visit and to enjoy the Pier District.

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