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Iorio sees courthouse at the end of Arts Avenue

In the mayor's plan, even garbage cans will have an artistic edge, and Zack Street would get a new name.

By JANET ZINK and BILL VARIAN
Published April 29, 2005

	[Special to the Times]
	MAYOR'S MUSE: A rendering of Pam Iorio's idea to house the Tampa Museum of Art in the old federal courthouse building and creating an "arts avenue" that extends to the riverfront. The view shown is from steps of the courthouse, looking out onto Florida Avenue.
	[Times photo: Keri Wiginton]
	AVANT GARDE OR STOLID? Can the old federal courthouse become a museum? Tampa Museum of Art board vice chairman Alan Ciamporcero says, "The real question will be, can you make that old building into an interesting avant garde art space?"
	Graphic: A more artsy face for downtown Tampa

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio on Thursday presented to City Council her idea for housing the Tampa Museum of Art in the old federal courthouse and creating an Arts Avenue with the museum at one end and a waterfront park at the other.

In the weeks since financing problems dashed plans for a $76-million museum on Ashley Drive, Iorio said she has visited Curtis Hixon Park dozens of times.

"It is one of the most desolate, unattractive and unfriendly pieces of public land I have ever seen," Iorio said. "We have the ability to transform this desolate and unused waterfront into a spectacular park for our public."

The plan calls for turning the old courthouse into an art museum, building a 500-space parking garage on the southwest corner of Florida Avenue and Polk Street, and putting landscaping and public art on Zack Street all the way to the river.

Iorio said she'd like to consider changing the name of Zack Street, which honors U.S. President Zachary Taylor, to Arts Avenue.

Iorio sees an area where everything from the new parking garage to the street lights, sidewalks and garbage cans have an artsy edge. "We can take the mundane and turn it into something special," she said.

The avenue would lead to a river walk planned to extend from Tampa Heights to the Channel District and provide a link between the art museum and the Hillsborough River, downtown's biggest natural asset.

Razing the existing art museum would create an unobstructed view of the river and the University of Tampa minarets from downtown.

While city officials complete a 30-day study of costs to turn the old courthouse into a museum, administrators will prepare a request to developers interested in building residences and shops at the edges of the riverfront park.

Mark Huey, the county's economic development administrator, estimates selling off development rights on the fringes of the new park could raise more than $20-million. That money could be used to create a premier park ringed by sidewalk cafes to make over Ashley Drive, one of downtown's main gateways.

"Just imagine all of that open, and the vista down to the University of Tampa," said Huey on a recent walking tour, pausing to do some imagining. "Stunning."

Iorio said she'd like to see a development proposal incorporating the new Children's Museum, fulfilling a city promise to give its backers a home there and also masking the ugly concrete wall of the Poe parking garage.

Private-sector investment is key to the plan's success, Iorio said. Developers already have shown a keen interest in building homes downtown.

"It's transforming right before our very eyes from a business and government center to a neighborhood where people will live," Iorio said.

Iorio said she wants to change Zack Street and other downtown thoroughfares into two-way streets to slow traffic.

The city has $20-million for construction of a new museum, and the museum's previous fund-raising efforts generated $47-million.

Iorio said the city will contribute $1-million to operating costs of a new museum, half of the previous commitment. However, she said, the museum could use revenues generated from a new parking garage and rental of its ground floor retail spaces to help offset the cut.

"It's important for every nonprofit to be able to deliver their services to the public without government support," Iorio said.

City Council members returned Iorio's enthusiasm Thursday.

"I hear the passion and excitement in your voice and it excites me, too," Mary Alvarez said.

"The courthouse is a perfect place for the museum," said Rose Ferlita.

"We're with you 100 percent," said chairwoman Gwen Miller.

Tampa Museum of Art board vice chairman Alan Ciamporcero was less effusive.

The demise of the previous museum project after years of planning "was a real difficult moment for the board. They worked very, very hard for a very, very long time," he said after the mayor's talk.

Putting that same energy behind the courthouse idea will depend on what can be done with the building.

"The real question will be can you make that old building into an interesting avant garde art space," he said. "We've got to turn it into something people can get jazzed about."

Supporters of a new Tampa Bay History Center have previously explored the possibility of using the old courthouse for its home. But backers quickly concluded that it didn't have enough parking, enough foot-traffic for spontaneous visits and might cost too much to bring up to museum standards.

History Center backers are working with a more modest budget of $17-million to build a new home on land donated by the city at Cotanchobee-Fort Brooke Park near the Channel District, part of the original settlement of Tampa.

"Under our present agreement, we have perhaps more resources at hand than they did at the time," said museum board chairwoman Cornelia Corbett. "We've got to go through this study to see if the courthouse can be brought up to museum standards."

[Last modified April 29, 2005, 00:48:13]