Search Narrows To 3 Designs For New St. Pete Pier

Three creative and very different designs by architecture firms are in the final running to become the new St. Petersburg Pier.

Denmark and New York City-based architecture firm BIG present "The Wave" -- a curled pier design comprised of three parts: a tributary park, wave walk and a looped wave building that could house leisure activities, museum exhibitions or culinary courses.

Michael Maltzan Architecture, a Los Angeles-based firm, envisions the Pier as a way to integrate the bay water of Tampa Bay with the city of St. Petersburg in a multipurpose design titled "The Lens."  A 4,000-seat amphitheater, retail shops, green space with bicycle and pedestrian paths, and an underwater-lit aquarium are among its 35 features.

Finally, New York-based firm West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture integrates a healthy ecosystem with seagrass meadows and a mangrove coast with a "People's Pier" that connects to a panoramic pavilion known as the St. Petersburg Eye.

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