St. Petersblog, FL
#1, "Growing Pains"
Not that the Bayfront Center was ever much to look at in its day, but the new Mahaffey Theater, which was erected on the site of the recently demolished Center, makes me feel ill.
It is large and cold, and made of steel and glass, and that is all there is to it. This doesn't make it ugly by default, but it does mean that it lacks the character and uniqueness that has, in large part, attracted this recent surge of commercial and residential development to the area; there's no sense of it being a structure that represents the flavor of the city that I know and love.
What it does represent to me is a paene to The New St. Petersburg; Mayor Rick Baker's utopian seaside (er, bayside) retreat, replete with all the amenities that any retired Baby Boomer who can afford to spend half a million dollars on a condominium in a large, cold building made out of steel and glass could possibly want.
Of course, the residents of New St. Petersburg won't have to worry about encountering the local "riff-raff"; for instance, once the Grand Bohemian is open for business later this year, it will be across the street from Jannus Landing and Williams Park.
If you've been following this up until now, then you're probably familiar with Demens Landing. You know, the little outcropping of land where American Stage puts on "Shakespeare in the Park" every year? Did you know that they used to have concerts out on Demens Landing? And I don't mean "Florida Symphony Orchestra Pops" concerts, I mean rock and roll shows.
In the late 1980's, the blue-haired Bettys of Bayfront Towers, that masoleum of a condominium on the corner of First Street and Central Avenue, complained to city officials that the noise coming from the shows on the Landing was making it hard for them to get any sleep (Wah!! And, for the record, Demens Landing is three blocks west of Bayfront Towers. What the hell?). The city responded by rezoning the property, making it impossible for promoters to organize concerts on the Landing.
If the Grand Bohemian, which, without hyperbole, will be the largest and grandest (no pun intended) of all the condominiums currently under construction in the downtown area, will be across the street from Jannus Landing (an open-air courtyard venue which attracts national touring acts), then how much longer do you think Jannus will last?
And, wouldn't a Bed, Bath and Beyond look nicer where Williams Park is right now?
Actually... (lol.)
Unfortunately, isn't just Jannus Landing that is in dire straits; so is the State Theater.
Are you familiar with The Arts Center? If you've never been there, you should go over and take a look around inside. Soon. Because soon, it will be gone. Demolished.
You may be thinking to yourself, "What might they be planning to build on the property next? A bar, maybe? A Spanish restaurant? A Planned Parenthood clinic?"
No. This.
If there is one thing that has given the proponents of New St. Petersburg a larger collective hard-on than the Grand Prix, it is the name Dale Chihuly.
A world-renowned glass artist, Chihuly is working closely with the developers of a new property called "The Arts", which will be a street level Chihuly museum, with eighteen stories of (you guessed it) condominiums rising above it on either side of the road.
Two doors west down Central Avenue from the proposed site of The Arts? The State Theater.
How many mohawked gutter scrubs or hyperactive hipster types hanging around on the Avenue after a show lets out do you suppose it will take for the "concerned" residents of The Arts to go running to the Mayor's office with their complaints, their tails wagging between their legs all the way?
FACT: Albert Whitted Airfield, an operation municipal airport on the southeastern most tip of downtown St. Petersburg, is the birthplace of scheduled commercial aviation. Tell your friends!
#1, "Growing Pains"
Not that the Bayfront Center was ever much to look at in its day, but the new Mahaffey Theater, which was erected on the site of the recently demolished Center, makes me feel ill.
It is large and cold, and made of steel and glass, and that is all there is to it. This doesn't make it ugly by default, but it does mean that it lacks the character and uniqueness that has, in large part, attracted this recent surge of commercial and residential development to the area; there's no sense of it being a structure that represents the flavor of the city that I know and love.
What it does represent to me is a paene to The New St. Petersburg; Mayor Rick Baker's utopian seaside (er, bayside) retreat, replete with all the amenities that any retired Baby Boomer who can afford to spend half a million dollars on a condominium in a large, cold building made out of steel and glass could possibly want.
Of course, the residents of New St. Petersburg won't have to worry about encountering the local "riff-raff"; for instance, once the Grand Bohemian is open for business later this year, it will be across the street from Jannus Landing and Williams Park.
If you've been following this up until now, then you're probably familiar with Demens Landing. You know, the little outcropping of land where American Stage puts on "Shakespeare in the Park" every year? Did you know that they used to have concerts out on Demens Landing? And I don't mean "Florida Symphony Orchestra Pops" concerts, I mean rock and roll shows.
In the late 1980's, the blue-haired Bettys of Bayfront Towers, that masoleum of a condominium on the corner of First Street and Central Avenue, complained to city officials that the noise coming from the shows on the Landing was making it hard for them to get any sleep (Wah!! And, for the record, Demens Landing is three blocks west of Bayfront Towers. What the hell?). The city responded by rezoning the property, making it impossible for promoters to organize concerts on the Landing.
If the Grand Bohemian, which, without hyperbole, will be the largest and grandest (no pun intended) of all the condominiums currently under construction in the downtown area, will be across the street from Jannus Landing (an open-air courtyard venue which attracts national touring acts), then how much longer do you think Jannus will last?
And, wouldn't a Bed, Bath and Beyond look nicer where Williams Park is right now?
Actually... (lol.)
Unfortunately, isn't just Jannus Landing that is in dire straits; so is the State Theater.
Are you familiar with The Arts Center? If you've never been there, you should go over and take a look around inside. Soon. Because soon, it will be gone. Demolished.
You may be thinking to yourself, "What might they be planning to build on the property next? A bar, maybe? A Spanish restaurant? A Planned Parenthood clinic?"
No. This.
If there is one thing that has given the proponents of New St. Petersburg a larger collective hard-on than the Grand Prix, it is the name Dale Chihuly.
A world-renowned glass artist, Chihuly is working closely with the developers of a new property called "The Arts", which will be a street level Chihuly museum, with eighteen stories of (you guessed it) condominiums rising above it on either side of the road.
Two doors west down Central Avenue from the proposed site of The Arts? The State Theater.
How many mohawked gutter scrubs or hyperactive hipster types hanging around on the Avenue after a show lets out do you suppose it will take for the "concerned" residents of The Arts to go running to the Mayor's office with their complaints, their tails wagging between their legs all the way?
FACT: Albert Whitted Airfield, an operation municipal airport on the southeastern most tip of downtown St. Petersburg, is the birthplace of scheduled commercial aviation. Tell your friends!
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Yeah so I am editing this to add the fact that the above diatribe makes me sad
[Edited on May 04, 2006 8:29PM]