The St. Petersburg Catalyst covered the opening week at the Pier District. Bill DeYoung, from the Catalyst, writes “The most striking difference between the city’s latest design and its predecessors – the Million Dollar Pier and the Inverted Pyramid – is that this one has been designed to look and feel like a contiguous park. From the moment a visitor faces east and begins to move, there’s something to see, and experience, just about every step of the way.” DeYoung goes on to say that it is rewarding to walk through the Pier District, and to experience the open marketplace, the grassy field under Janet Echelman’s sculpture, and native Florida plants everywhere. All of the plantings and unpaved spaces decrease the Urban Heat Island Effect. There were 500 new trees planted, which provide shade, and almost all of the existing trees were saved. Read the entire Catalyst article here.