ST. PETERSBURG — When the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual meeting at the Mahaffey Theater in January, one of the sponsors of the gathering, which drew more than 1,200 people, was the St. Pete Design Group.
The group, whose banner hung from a theater balcony, is one of seven design teams vying for the city's $46 million pier project.
Some cried foul, saying the publicity has given the team an unfair advantage.
The group already has a clear edge when it comes to local clout. The St. Pete Design Group was brought together by Dalí Museum architect Yann Weymouth, who famously worked with architect I.M. Pei on the glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre in Paris.
Harvard Jolly Architecture created the iconic inverted pyramid pier. The firm is designing St. Petersburg's new police headquarters and was the architect for the Sundial shopping complex owned by entrepreneur Bill Edwards. Wannemacher Jensen, veteran of many city projects, was the local representative for the Los Angeles-based Lens design that residents rejected. And for a project where being local is prized, there's also team consultant Phil Graham Jr., a descendant of one of the city's earliest settlers and landscape architect for the Dalí.
Those deep local roots may turn out to be an important distinction that sets the group apart from the other six contenders. Their Destination St. Pete Pier plan, which reuses the inverted pyramid and surrounds it with multilevel decks, has won the endorsement of Ed Montanari, chairman of the chamber's pier task force. Two former mayors, Rick Baker and Bob Ulrich, have given advice.
On Feb. 12, the team presented its proposed design to an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Coliseum for a public meeting of Mayor Rick Kriseman's pier selection committee.
"St. Pete Design Group hit it out of the park with their presentation," tweeted Montanari, vice chairman of the pier advisory task force that produced a 2010 report that is considered the seminal guide to the landmark's future.
"That to me is by far the best solution for a new pier for St. Pete," he told the Tampa Bay Times late last week.
That the St. Pete Design Group is local helps, Montanari said.
"I think it does give them an edge. I call that design team the architectural dream team," he said. "I think one of the reasons they have an edge is they are in the community. People know them. They have seen what they have accomplished and they are engaged in our community."
Asked about Baker's role, Weymouth said the former mayor "has certainly advised me on this and any number of other issues."
"He advised me when I was working on the Dalí," he said. "Bob Ulrich has advised me on this project and others. When you're in a community, you talk with your friends about many, many things and you ask advice about many, many things. It's not connections. It's about how you listen, how you understand what's going on."
Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines
Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter
You’re all signed up!
Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Explore all your optionsEven two formerly hostile groups — Build the Pier, which championed the Lens, and Vote on the Pier, which wanted to save the inverted pyramid — have both endorsed Destination St. Pete Pier.
However, Mesh Architecture, with offices in downtown St. Petersburg and whose concept —- Prospect Pier, which reuses the inverted pyramid, with landscaped terraces at the base and roof —- is not without its sphere of influence. Chief executive officer Gary Grooms was president of the influential Downtown Neighborhood Association and remains on the board. Mesh architect Tim Clemmons founded the group and was its first president. And, says Grooms, it was the Downtown Neighborhood Association that proposed and pushed the downtown waterfront master plan.
Mesh is the local arm of a team that includes the international firms FR-EE and Arup, and Denver-based Civitas. Montanari likes their Prospect Pier, but has reservations.
"It also is good, but I don't think that the strength of their programming is as good as Destination St. Pete Pier," he said.
His third choice is Alma, from Alfonso Architects of Tampa.
It's the same three favored by Bud Risser, a businessman and a leader of Concerned Citizens of St. Petersburg, the powerful group that organized the petition drive that brought about the demise of California's Lens.
Local or not, the city is requiring design teams not to "promote or self-market" their concepts without permission. That apparently hasn't stopped teams from trying to win the support of prominent residents.
"Nobody has approached me to endorse a concept, but that doesn't mean people haven't called me up and asked me to meet with them," Montanari said. "If somebody wants to meet with me, I try to meet with them."
What about that banner at the chamber meeting?
"We are a company," Weymouth told the Times. "We were helping to sponsor an event for the chamber of commerce because we live in the city. We were not pushing our involvement in the pier."
A decision about the front-runner will come on March 20, when the selection committee will rank no fewer than three of the design teams. The City Council will be asked to authorize contract negotiations with the top-ranked team.
Contact Waveney Ann Moore at wmoore@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2283. Follow @wmooretimes.