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Will Dali come to town?

City Council member John Bryan is pushing the museum to relocate closer to downtown. Some on its board are intrigued.

ST. PETERSBURG - Twenty-three years ago, Cleveland art collector Reynolds Morse spotted a vacant warehouse overlooking Bayboro Harbor and knew the search for a showcase for his Salvador Dali works was finished.

The view from the 10,000-square-foot warehouse was spectacular. Space was plentiful. There was just one potentially catastrophic problem: The museum would be 15 feet underwater if a major hurricane ever struck St. Petersburg.

Despite the danger, the museum was built on the waterfront location. But for years, board members toyed with the idea of moving the museum or constructing a sturdier building - anything to relieve the anxiety spurred by each tropical storm that spun through the Gulf of Mexico.

Now City Council member John Bryan is pushing the museum to relocate closer to downtown, a move that won't completely resolve storm concerns but would placate city leaders, who fear losing the popular attraction to a location on higher ground, such as Tampa.

Bryan has asked his colleagues to schedule a workshop to discuss moving the Dali Museum to the site where the Times Arena at Bayfront Center now stands. The council voted in June to demolish the aging facility rather than sink $20-million into renovations.

"It would be better for everybody if the Dali moved closer to downtown," said Bryan. "But if they are interested in the site, they have to start making plans now."

The council is taking its annual summer vacation, and a workshop date has not been scheduled.

The museum's board voted just two months ago to remain at the current location and expand the building. However, some members have expressed interest in Bryan's proposal.

"I would be very, very intrigued by that possibility," said Robert Ulrich, chairman of the museum's building committee.

Ulrich said Dali supporters have looked at several sites over the years. At one point, developers were trying to persuade the museum to move to the corner of Beach Drive NE and Fourth Street NE, the spot occupied by P. Buckley Moss' gallery and frame shop.

But none of the sites were suitable, Ulrich said. All were either too expensive or too small.

Tom James, president of the museum's board of directors, said the board's recent vote doesn't prevent it from considering the Bayfront location if someone were to bring forward a specific proposal.

Russ Sloan, president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Dali Museum would be a "natural fit" for the Bayfront Center site.

"It would retain the waterfront presence, which I think is important to the museum," he said.

Sloan said bringing the Dali within walking distance would boost attendance at all downtown museums. The Dali Museum had 210,000 visitors in 2002, more than twice the attendance of any of the city's other five museums.

Don Shea, president of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, said that moving the Dali Museum to a more central location would make it easier for tourists.

"The Dali Museum is hard to find," Shea said. "The most frequent request we get for directions is, "How do we get to the Dali?' "

St. Petersburg became home to the world's most extensive collection of Salvador Dali works in 1982. The city was the beneficiary of Morse and his wife, Eleanor, who by the 1970s had accumulated 94 oil paintings, 150 watercolors and drawings and more than 1,000 prints.

After realizing the collection would probably be broken up after his death, Morse began searching for a museum that could accommodate the trove of artwork. They were eventually lured to St. Petersburg by an enterprising young attorney named James Martin.

But after more than 20 years, the museum has outgrown its original location, said Hank Hine, the museum's director. In addition to constructing a taller, vault-like building to protect the precious artwork, Hine said he would also like to see the museum expand to better display traveling collections.

Museum organizers are now planning a fundraising drive to raise up to $15-million needed for a new building. They have also requested plans from several architects.

But Hine said the museum will need the continued support of local art patrons to embark on the ambitious rebuilding plan.

"The community does not view the Dali Museum as an institution that has needs," Hine said. "It thinks of us as a nice little machine that operates on its own, and that's not the case."

- Carrie Johnson can be reached at 727 892-2273 or cjohnson@sptimes.com

Founded in 1982, the museum houses 95 oil paintings, more than 100 watercolors and drawings and 1,300 graphics, photographs, sculptures and objets d'art. The collection, which includes Impressionist and Cubist pieces from Dali's early period and the later Surrealist works, spans from 1917 to 1970.

- Salvador Dali Museum: 210,000

- Holocaust Museum: 79,000

- Museum of Fine Arts: 75,600

- Great Explorations: 30,000

- Florida International Museum: 25,373

- Museum of History: 23,842

- Sources: www.salvadordalimuseum.org city of St. Petersburg