The Tampa City Council on Thursday approved an $837,000 contract with a New York landscape architect chosen by Mayor Pam Iorio to redesign Curtis Hixon Park.
The council voted 5-1 in favor of the contract, with council member Mary Alvarez absent.
Tom Balsley's contract calls for providing three designs for Curtis Hixon Park that would take into account the proposed children's museum and Riverwalk. Two of the designs will include a pedestrian bridge over the river between the downtown park and the University of Tampa.
City Council member Rose Ferlita cast the lone dissenting vote on the contract, saying she didn't think it wise to move ahead on the project when the new location for the Tampa Museum of Art hasn't been decided.
Iorio wants to tear down the current building and redesign Curtis Hixon Park as a showpiece for downtown.
