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Sky bridge to add artistic flair downtown

By JANET ZINK
Published August 12, 2005

TAMPA - City Council members on Thursday approved building a sky bridge over Franklin Street between the Tampa Convention Center and the Embassy Suites Hotel now under construction.

But it won't be just an ordinary sky bridge.

It will be a work of art.

New Orleans artist Mimi Moncier incorporated colored resin circles into the bridge to cast prisms of sunlight across the open-air walkway's floor.

The city requires developers in Tampa's central business district to spend 0.75 percent of their project's cost on public art, up to $200,000. The open-air bridge, accessible from the sidewalk below as well as the two buildings it connects, fulfills the public art requirement for the hotel.

Robin Nigh, who administers the city's public art program, wouldn't comment on the aesthetics of the project.

"It meets the definition of public art," she said.

In past discussions, the City Council and city planners fretted over the construction of the sky bridge. Council member Linda Saul-Sena once likened them to gerbil tunnels.

They say pedestrian traffic belongs on the sidewalk to support businesses.

"As a city, we discourage skywalks," said Wilson Stair, the city's urban design manager. "It takes away from the street energy and activity."

The trend across the country, he said, is to remove sky bridges, which is being done even in Denver and Cincinnati, where pedestrians often seek shelter from the snow and cold in enclosed walkways.

This particular intersection, though, will be crossed by hundreds of people going to and from the hotel and the Convention Center.

"It's an extreme case of safety," he said. "There has to be a great concern before we agree to put these things in and take pedestrians off the street."

Janet Zink can be reached at 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 12, 2005, 00:45:04]