At first glance it raises your attention, but Tampa has become a "high cost to live in" city. And if we paid our City administrators the national average salary for similar positons, would that mean we have average administrators ?
But that is not the subject of this blog posting. It is the blatant killing of Kiley.
Kiley Gardens Park on Ashley, between the former NCNB (or better known as the beer can) building and the Current Tampa Museum of Art, has been a neglected treasure for Tampa. Designed by an internationally recognized landscape architect, Dan Kiley, this park has been a subject in textbooks around the world.
This picture shows you what it looked like a few weeks ago.
And this one below shows it to you now.
Originally designed as an escape from the urban environment, this unique location provided Tampa with more than a park - a camouflage for the parking garage that is underneath the park serving the beer can building that has been so vacant for so long. As first built, the park had fountains and flowing water through various channels. But due to neglect by the City, the water part of the design was written off long ago. And speaking of water, it seems that rain water and moisture has lead to damage to the interior roof of the parking garage. And therein lies one of the reasons for the Kiley killing.
One of the other reasons was the placing of the wrong species of Crepe Myrtles that resulted in too large of trees, which combined with the neglect, might have also added to the garage roof problem.
The National Trust is a non-profit conscience for our national landmarks and treasures. They recently designated 11 projects throughout the United States that they deemed most important for saving from potential destruction. Two are in our area: the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Clearwater and Kiley Gardens in Tampa. Imagine a relatively recently designed park deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
With City committees recommending Historic Designation of Kiley, Mayor Iorio refused to sign the designation that had been on her desk for months.
The Mayor met with a volunteer committee made up of young architects (YARDOPS)that had truly worked hard to clean the park on a regular basis. I have spent two work days there and have twice arranged for a lunch to be contributed by two restaurants: The Deck Pizza and Pub in SOHO and the Fourth of July Cafe in Old West Tampa, to feed the volunteers. The Weekly Planet did an extensive article on the park as has several national publications.
Twice I asked the Mayor if she would sign the Historic Designation, she indicated that she did not think she could because it would be too restrictive. In front of WUSF Radio's Bobby O'Brien, I asked her if Kiley was in danger and she clearly indicated that the park would be saved.
The Friends of Kiley Gardens were not notified of the planned killing so that the Crepe Myrtles could be saved, relocated or even sold to help raise funds for a potential new planting when the garage repairs are completed. Instead the killing
was done with saws and blades with little notice and as our pictures indicate above, the killing was massive for the Kiley Landscape.
The previous ambitious Museum of Art plans would have seen Kiley eliminated and replaced with the Vinoly designs, but that idea was thrown out due to cost. However, most Museum of Art supporters have not been supporters of Kiley Gardens. And with the beer can building looking more and more like the site of the new Museum of Art, they do seem to have a motive in this murder.
We like this current administration, they seem to have vision and purpose. The Parks Department and the Mayor have looked to neighborhood groups to help in the stewardship of parks and other projects,frequently relying on them for funds and direction. The killing of Kiley without any communication with this volunteer group that Mayor Iorio has met with before, must shake any confidence from neighborhood groups as to whether this commitment is real or not. With the Kiley fronting the Hillsborough River, the plans for the Mayor's Riverwalk project give her a motive for this killing as well.
Will Kiley be rebuilt ? We are not so sure anymore.
5 comments:
It's a shame Kiley Gardens has become what it is today, but the city isn't completely to blame. Past landlords at the Beer Can didn't maintain it, and the bums (yeah I said it) pretty much ran everyone else off. Someone should organize a "Taking Back Kiley" event to reclaim the park for everyone, especially future downtown residents.
There are many misconceptions in regards to current looks of the park and/or the issues of 'structural problems' with the garage. These are issues not related to the design but lack of appropriate management over the construction and making bad decisions prior to construction.
First the park was originally design to have a different type of Crepe Myrtles these trees were only to mature (with of course cropping and pruning) to 8' max. The type that were planted where a northern specie which became highly encouraged by the Florida climate. Then the waterproofing was a standard membrane (imagine sheets of vinyl being laid on one another) which of course the roots of the trees lifted and penetrated. Thirdly, I have yet to see any structural damage or issues with the parking garage. Yes folks, I met with the formed committee a few times (appointed to those who are concerned with the park) and see the photos these 'structural problems'. I can honestly tell you these are superficial issues such as rebar being to close to the face of the concrete (that's why you get rusting on the concrete surface+we live in an area with high content of salt in area), bad forming of concrete and water stains. Being an architect and have some time with construction, if you have a structural problem you don’t use the facilities at all. Meaning the garage should be either completely closed and/or additional metal bracing/framing should have been implemented. This has not been the case nor has it for several years!
We recently met with the same committee, again formed to deal with those who are concerned with Kiley Gardens. Our central idea? We wished to help the city in terms of reducing financial responsibility for this project. Our first plan of action was to have our ‘tree broker’ take as many crepe myrtles as possible to start funding (these trees would have been valued well into the thousands). This was funding the mayor wanted us to do the in first place. In addition, whatever trees left behind we would be planted at other parks/schools. Secondly, we provided a list of qualified designers/green roof specialist to make sure that this time around things would be done correctly (unlike what I mentioned previously in my last paragraph). Finally we mentioned if the mayor were to sign this park up for landmark designation, we could match funds to the city…meaning we could save tax payers/city millions of dollars. Basically we straight up said that we wish to take the burden off of you Tampa. It was very understood that before we left that day the city would review our lists and contact us immediately as to any decisions made regarding the park.
About a week later, after hearing the trees were being cut I rushed to the park. I could not believe what was happening. Trucks were driving on the stones shifting and chipping them on a ‘structurally unstable’ park. The sound of chipping machines spewing the remains of the one of the most beautiful trees in Tampa and of course killing our ability to start funding for Kiley Gardens.
My personal take: Our mayor has committed a crime. She has defaced and destroyed a landmark under the ruling for Hillsborough County Land Development Codes, showed superficial images attempting to prove the garage has structural problems when it clearly does not (show me the calculations Mayor) and has allowed the an excessive use of public money to expedite a museum plan (a non-binding contract, meaning if American Capital gives Tampa the finger i'ts over and all the efforts are wasted) without allowing concern citizens to reduce the financial burden. I just don’t want to restore a landmark I want to help the city in its transition to become a ‘City of the Arts’.
We have city that at times clearly does not listen to her citizens nor respects art in the city. Anyone interested to hear more details or for further discussion please contact yardops@yahoo.com.
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