City, Museum of Art settle feud.... We'll See.

So apparently according to the St. Pete Times City, art museum end feud with deal the city and the Tampa Museum of Art have ended their feud over the museums future location. The original plan the museum had was for a grand new building designed by Rafael Vinoly.

Instead now the deal with the city and museum calls for the museum to move into the Pavilion at Rivergate Tower. These buildings are commonly referred to the cubes.


The deal calls for the city to purchase the cubes from the owners of Rivergate Tower for $5.7 million dollars, then spend $10 million to renovate them. The museum will also be looking to construct a new building just north of this site for future expansion.

I thought the whole point was to move the museum away from the water, which will be done if they vacate their current building, but if they're going to construct a new building north of the cubes they will still be building on the waterfront in a sense. I guess only time will tell what the museum plans to do and how well it will be received. I would like to hope though that Dan Kiley Park just north of Rivergate Tower is preserved and fixed up to what it should be. More about the park can be found here, Kiley Gardens website.

The park is a true masterpiece and should be restored to its original state and preserved for the future. The city should also use it to their advantage more. The fact that it has an abundance of trees to provide shade as well as it's location on the Hillsborough river along with the future Riverwalk could be a great selling point for a city looking to grow.

As for the museum I like the plan to move into the cubes but we'll see how I feel when the expansion is announced. I'm sure it won't be cheap but if they are able spare the waterfront and still have an exciting new structure then I'm all for it.