Content

1. Synopsis

2. Objective

3. Role

4. Big Picture

5. Exterior Skin

6. Next Steps

Synopsis

Commanding a prominent site along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida, the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts (formerly Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center) is the sixth largest performing arts center in the U.S. The Straz Center currently hosts over 600,000 patrons / 9,600 events, annually. Extending the city grid down to the river and the river’s alluvial edge up to the Straz Center, the master plan merges both public and patron amenities, bringing the unintended user into contact with the arts and reciprocally delivering the arts to the riverfront. 

Objective

With a goal of maximizing the performing arts center's potential within the context of the city’s Riverwalk, museums, and new developments, our team started the planning process by establishing an appropriate site program to resolve several key challenges. These include: pedestrian and vehicular circulation (drop off, parking and bus staging); connecting the Straz Center both to the River and to the downtown core; and developing a new parcel on adjacent land to accommodate parking and mixed-use development. 

• Develop site as campus, not just a building

• Integrate public enjoyment of the campus with the daily life of the Straz Center

• Make the arrival experience to the site as prominent as the arrival at the event

• Create interior and exterior venues for use beyond core Straz Center

• Establish a visual icon to the river and city

Role

Contributed as 1 of 2 designers that took over the project after additional programmatic elements were introduced at the owner/client’s request. We were tasked with integrating a new restaurant, parking garage, and event center into a program we established previously while resolving the major changes that came along with the union. Through planning at both an urban and architectural scale we were able to generate a new design and complete the necessary documentation to submit to city of Tampa for the project’s approval.

Big Picture

The initial planning iteration wasn’t as complex as the current endeavor. The required expansion for the previous plan contained a new lobby, cafe, and a detached event center. The event center was a structure that existed separately so it was a more straightforward process to reconcile the layout and plans.

Initial Master Plan

However, the owner/client was not able to acquire land adjacent to the property that was intended to be used for parking. This new piece to the puzzle shifted the whole equation and was what sparked the new configuration. Not only did the new designs have to consider a relocated parking solution, they also needed to account for the new program requests from the owner/client that were mentioned previously. This dilemma forced the first scheme to be taken back to the drawing board.

Revised Master Plan

With the only space available residing between the river and the adjacent street (W. Fortune), it was a challenge to fit all of the new necessary programmatic elements into the a feasible scheme. With a lot of massaging we managed to conjure up a proposal that followed all of the necessary code and city requirements while still providing adequate sizing for the intended spaces.

Exterior Skin

As with all projects, getting the planning right was only half of the battle. In its base form the building wasn’t the greatest thing to look at. In addition to the eye sore that took the form of a parking garage on the river’s edge, we also had a cantilevered surface extending over our plaza as a result of program that needed to be squeezed onto the third level floor plate. We set out to devise a skin that could strategically shroud or reveal various parts of our facade.

Next Steps

The package submitted by our team was accepted by the city and still remains in a schematic phase. The next steps will be to incorperate whatever changes are necessary based on discussions with the board at the Straz Center in the design development phase. There are many changes still coming down the pipeline and the design is forever evolving. Once we have the big ideas solidified, we can begin thinking about how everything will come together technically.