W was just awarded an American Architecture Award for the St. Petersburg Pier Approach! The American Architecture Awards are organized by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, The European Center for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press to honor the best, new significant buildings and landscape and planning projects designed and/or built in the United States and abroad by the most important American architects and planners practicing nationally and internationally.

The Pier Approach is a 20-acre area space between the downtown and the pier which has become the heart of the City. Originally a vehicular oriented parking area, the goal was to create a pedestrian oriented place, with integrated vehicular and bicycle traffic that links the downtown and the pier. The implemented plan reduces roadway and parking, while increasing attractive pedestrian uses that provides a series of events to lure people out towards the pier and the Bay. The oval-shaped landscape forms and pathways are inspired by the unique karst/sinkhole landscape local to the Tampa Bay region. The waterfront edges provide a variety of spaces for gathering and interacting with the water, including hard and soft edges. Storm water management provides wetland areas that attract wildlife. The centerpiece is a sculpture by Janet Echelman hanging over the central lawn, called “Bending Arc.”

The full list of winners is here. To read more about the Pier Approach, click here or here.

Photo credit: Maria Flanagan