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Students design overpass
By JOHN BALZ, Times Staff Writer NEW TAMPA -- When the I-75 overpass at Tampa Palms Boulevard is unveiled in two years, it will not be the artistic vision of the architectural firm building it. It will be the vision of four Wharton High School students. After New Tampa's adults sharpened their pencils and came up with nothing, the Miami-based firm PBS & J asked 40 art students to put their creative energies into designing an overpass that will welcome visitors to Tampa. The winning design -- a scalloped effect of sunray murals and park benches along the top of the bridge -- poured from the imagination of Stacey Manchester, 18, who graduated early from Wharton in January and will attend Hillsborough Community College in the fall. She and three other finalists, Kim James, Tanisha Leach and Carinae Sears, were treated to a meeting with the mayor and lunch at the Tampa Club. PBS & J plans to use Manchester's design "predominantly" while possibly incorporating the color combinations, lighting fixtures and shrubbery from the other finalists, said Laurie Potier-Brown, a community design manager who helped organize the contest. "We were all unbelievably impressed," said Potier-Brown. "We met with 125 residents and nobody came up with something as clever as these 40 kids." The kids brushed off their accomplishment with youthful modesty. "I'm really not that talented when it comes to drawing and what not," said Manchester, who aspires to be an anthropologist, not an artist. "It took me 10 minutes," said Leach, a 16-year-old junior who lives near the University of South Florida. "I really wasn't expecting anything to come of it." Leach envisioned palm trees lining Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and bright, painted tiles of manatees and American flags on the overpass' walls. Sears, a junior, is already a rising star on the Tampa Bay arts scene. The Tampa Bay Art Museum is currently displaying her yellow and orange painting of a man with tree roots for hands, and one of the engineers who help pick the contest winner bought a wire sculpture from her. She plans to attend the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota after graduation. Most of the designs had Florida themes -- palm trees and sunrays -- but junior Kim James relied on the edgier art deco concept of half-arches and arrows for her overpass. Construction of the actual overpass is set to begin sometime in 2003 and should be completed the following year. To solicit community suggestions on the project, PBS & J organized five meetings last fall with homeowners associations and civic groups. They gave residents colored pencils and coffee table books about architecture, but most were stumped, said Potier-Brown. "It seemed like they were unable to think outside the box," she said. During a November visit to Wharton, PBS & J gave the students 90 minutes to complete their designs, which were then judged on creativity and feasibility. Manchester received $100 for her design. The following month, she and the other three winners had their photographs taken with Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, who, according to their recollections, told a lot of stories. "The courtesy laughs and cheesy smiles were killing me," Leach said. - John Balz can be reached at 269-5313 or Balz@sptimes.com.
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From the Times |
