Please note: The renderings and abstracts depicted on this website are from the original concept of the Pier Park submission and subject to change as the design evolves toward completion.
The new St. Petersburg pier, Pier Park, provides interactive experiences along its 1,380-foot length. At the beginning, middle and end of the pier, visitors can choose their experience. Exploration and activity areas along the pier provide enjoyment for people of all ages and interests. With Pier Park, the journey is the destination.
The Municipal Pier. The Million Dollar Pier. The inverted pyramid. And now, Pier Park. This $46 million project is set for a grand opening in the spring of 2018. Let’s go on a virtual walking tour.
Observation Areas | Multi-level observation platforms |
Dining Options | 7,600 SF Overlook Bar & Grill |
Activities |
|
Transportation | Electric Tram |
Fishing | 17,000 SF of floating docks for fishing w/ bait shop |
Transient Boat Dockage | Yes. Various locations |
Environmental Education | Shell Space for dry environmental classroom and adjacent wet classroom amphitheater |
Event Space | Extensive multiple event spaces including sloping lawn for possible 4,000 person capacity |
Budget Adjustments | Reduced overwater construction by 27,000 SF |
Subsidy Comparison | Equivalent to current over 10-Year Average |
Permitting Challenges | Possible - limited to area over water |
Design Approach | Keep inverted pyramid core, create new park-like experiences |
Budget: Cost/Constructability Concerns | Maintain bridge scope and cost/SF. Determine viable area of project in order to stay within cost/SF budgeted. Maintain budget while further refining design to provide scope required and currently undefined. |
The floating dock at the end of the pier includes a water lounge that lets visitors splash in about 12 inches of filtered bay water that flows into the pool-like area. To the south stretches a fishing dock, bait shop and convenience dock.
Next Location
The Bait Shack provides a concession at the pier’s end. Located between the Convenience Dock and the Fishing Deck to serve both land-loving and sea-going anglers, the Bait Shack provides last minute bait and tackle supplies and a cleaning station for the days catch.
Next Location
A large sloping lawn rises to meet the pier’s second level. The Great Lawn is overlooked by the pier’s third-floor balcony with its terraced seating. The lawn and balcony can accommodate up to 4,000 people for special events, including concerts, fireworks and festivals. Or, it can simply be a place to relax on Tampa Bay.
Next Location
The third floor is a 7,600-square-foot, air-conditioned restaurant encased in glass. The building and its roof, except for areas facing east and west, will be wrapped in tensioned ribbons offering shade but open air. A terraced viewing area leads from the restaurant to the rooftop. Visitors enter the second floor from the Great Lawn, an easy accessible entry ramp, or at the tram stop at street level. Each level of the pier will have a lobby and restrooms.
Next Location
It may feel like a nature stroll, but you’ll actually be walking in a human-sized window box set on pilings over the water. It will be 45 feet wide and planted with Florida friendly trees and shrubs growing up to 3 to 4 feet deep soil. The boardwalk over land and water begins near the Dolphin Parking Lot and continues a little more than halfway to the pier head.
Next Location
The Boat House provides an opportunity for visitors to rent kayaks, paddle boats, and paddle boards to explore within the protected waters behind the reef and beyond. Nestled below the Flight Deck, the Boat House provides a storage location for the boats at night and off-season. The Boat House deck slopes down into the water, providing a safe launch for novice paddlers.
Next Location
This area includes a “wet classroom,” and an outside amphitheater with concrete benches. Just past it is an air-conditioned classroom. A boathouse on the north side sits on a floating dock.
Next Location
The tilted lawn, created on a large concrete ramp that includes a big hole – the occulus – that allows you to peer down into Tampa Bay. Walk past the sloped lawn and turn around, and you’ll see what’s beneath it, a shaded area facing the bay. Porch swings will hang from the underside for your enjoyment.
Next Location
The water playground and splash pad is an outdoor, water-based playground for kids of all ages and abilities. Water playgrounds and splash pads provide fun and cooling activities for kids, and it creates an experience that’s enjoyable for the whole family.
Next Location
At the center of what is now the pier approach will be a grove of trees and shrubs as well as a welcome area with a covered tram stop. It includes a splash pad and a bike-share station. All surfaces are textured concrete, which can look like wood or stone.
Next Location
As you walk on Spa Beach, the sand is the same but the sea wall on the north is gone, replaced with a more natural landscape that gradually meets the water. Spa Beach will have changing rooms, restrooms and a play area.
In close proximity to the beach, a new comfort station with changing rooms will be located in the vicinity of the existing restrooms. Convenient to parking and the tram stop, this amenity helps make the short beach visit viable to visitors and local families alike. A playground adjacent to the changing rooms keeps kids occupied between dips in the water.
Next Location
The movement from concept through design and ultimate construction of Pier Park follows the direction of the recently approved Downtown Waterfront Master Plan. Through this collaboration, the city will not only see the creation of a new iconic pier, but also an innovative and interactive landscape that spans from the uplands onto Tampa Bay.
Pier Park features a new upland plaza with interactive water play area; a multi-modal transit stop; an expanded Spa Beach protected by a new reef breakwater and augmented with new changing rooms, restrooms, and beach playground; an environmental center with both indoor and outdoor experiential components; several unique flexible programming zones with differing scales and characters; and a variety of floating docks that encourage access to the water for boating, swimming, and fishing.
The Pier Park design addresses all the key elements as defined by the Pier Working Group and ensures that the pier experience itself is enjoyable, with program and amenities dispersed along the way in “zones” of activities. This strategy offers a range of activities that are both engaging and economically beneficial to the city:
The design of THE PIER PARK embodies the ideals within the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan (DWMP) by creating a park that serves as a destination and by maximizing the City’s connection to the water.
The DWMP is the result of extensive community outreach. Part of the DWMP vision is to create an engaging, open environment for everyone to enjoy – a series of opportunities to explore and enjoy the area with other residents and guests. The design of THE PIER PARK enables the uplands to become a part of that experience, accommodating the multiple visitor experiences envisioned by the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan.
Pier Park, consistent with the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan (DWMP), provides a long-term vision that enhances connectivity with the city and the waterfront and provides diverse activities to meet the growing and changing community needs. Pier Park is a flexible design that can adapt over time as the city’s needs evolve. Pier Park offers a multitude of programs and experiences for both tourists and residents of all ages, nature lovers, boaters, fishermen, and fine diners, rather than a singular and heavily programmed destination at the pier head. Several unique flexible programming zones with differing elements like the tilted lawn, lawn bowl, and water lounge are offered. The flexible spaces allow Pier Park to change and grow with the future of St. Petersburg.
The St. Petersburg Pier has been an essential icon in the city since the late 1800s. Throughout its history, it has existed in many forms – the original and highly successful Railroad Pier of 1889, the Electric Pier, the Municipal Pier, the Million-Dollar Pier, and most recently, the inverted pyramid, known simply as The Pier
To accomplish the vision for a new and revitalized pier, the city and the design team seek to create a place that embraces the dual role of the pier as both an city icon and an integral part of the vitality of downtown St. Petersburg for visitors and locals alike now and into the future.
The ASD/Rogers Partners/Ken Smith Pier Park design does more than replace an aging building. It extends the urban and recreational features of St. Petersburg into Tampa Bay through a multitude of flexible programs and experiences for both tourists and the local community – from children to seniors, nature lovers to boaters, fishermen to fine diners. It is a hub for activity, not only at the pier head, but also all along its length while offering a multitude of smaller and more flexible programs and experiences all visitors.