The winning competition design for the St. Petersburg Pier is an icon for the City of St. Petersburg. It reframes the relationship between the City and its most iconic element, the Tampa Bay. Visible from afar, the new pier was designed as a crown on the skyline and a marker within the daily life of St. Petersburg. Intended to provide a host of powerful and nuanced ways to experience the bay, the project imagines a vast array of new activities and experiences for individuals, families, and the residents of St. Pete to gather, to play, and to celebrate.
Like a magnifying glass on the water, the Pier is a lens, a window into the underwater world of the Bay. As its canopy rises over the Bay, the design incorporates twin bridges carrying bicycle and walking paths that arch upwards before returning to the water’s edge. Its broad canopy form shelters the main promenade from the hot sun and the rain, welcoming visitors as they arrive on foot, on bicycle, or via the Pier Tram. An oculus inscribed at the far end of the loop opens and connects the world within the Lens and the Tampa Bay beyond.