Old church's new offering is a lifestyle of loftiness

THOMPSON E-mail: Click here

© St. Petersburg Times
published November 16, 2002

It's just like me to miss the biggest party in town, but a week ago Friday I was not among the hundreds and hundreds of people packed into the historic Tyer Temple in Tampa Heights. Oh, we could hear the music and see the people standing on the porch with the huge white columns, festively done up in multicolored lights. But we didn't go in, because we couldn't find a parking space.

The significance of this may not be immediately apparent, but this was Tampa Heights. On a Friday night. Miles off the beaten track, on Ross Avenue, in a block that dead-ends into the interstate.

We went back the following night to see the art show, called the Gala Corina after the cigar factory that was its original site, and, for us, even more important, the building. It's an enormous nearly 100-year-old Methodist church that is being turned into a place to live and work: 32 residential lofts and some office space to be called the Sanctuary.

Tampa architects Vivian Salaga and John Tennison, who are married, have been at this project for about four years, mostly looking for financing. Now they've got the partner and the money, and the thing is a go. Construction started in August, and Tennison says, they're on target for a Feb. 15 opening.

If you go past the building during the day, as I did, you have to just shake your head. Oh, it's a beautiful building, all those stained-glass windows, but those great columns are so much in need of paint they look like they're shredding. During the day, too, that end of the block is pretty deserted. Monday afternoon, I was driving the only car on the street.

But Friday night, wow!

And Saturday, when we toured the building along with a dozen or so others who had stopped by, we saw the possibilities for some really interesting living space. The organ pipes are leaving, and the domed ceiling in the main sanctuary will be used for Salaga and Tennison's architectural firm, Atelier, but still -- a loft with almost ceiling-high stained-glass windows?

And these will be true lofts. That is, the space will all be open. No walls. Living, eating, sleeping, possibly working in the same room -- so it's up to you to decide how to live in your space. These are rentals, $750 to $950, not cheap but affordable for young and other non-rich people. Since the building is a kind of oasis among the big Victorian houses and residences like A Safe Place, a mental health care facility across the street, it seems like a kind of community would naturally develop here.

In a word, this could be fun.

Sure, you don't have a dry cleaner or a bank or a supermarket in your immediate neighborhood -- and these are not small considerations -- but, hey, the Tampa Heights Civic Association, which just got agreement on its neighborhood plan this week, is working on it.

I keep hearing that Tampa Heights will be the next Hyde Park, and that makes me cringe. It won't be, for one thing. Hyde Park kept its grand old houses; they went to seed, but they weren't torn down, so there was no break in the historic texture of the neighborhood and no room to build junk. Tampa Heights wasn't so lucky. It lost a lot of its old buildings, and while more recent construction is architecturally in synch, before the neighborhood started its climb back uphill some pretty awful stuff got built. A lot of it is still there.

But why -- other than dollar signs -- would Tampa Heights even want to be the next Hyde Park? Why does everything have to be the next same-as-something-else? It would be more interesting, wouldn't it, to save along with the historic buildings some of the diverse mix, the close-knit community feel and the reputation as a place for people who want something a little different.

I wish you'd been there Friday night, even if you couldn't join the party. Just driving by felt hopeful.

PS: The Gala Corina show ends tonight with an artists' reception from 9 to 11.

-- Sandra Thompson is a writer living in Tampa. She can be reached at tampa@sptimes.com. City Life appears on Saturday.

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