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What's Brewing

Building has artful promise

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published January 6, 2006

When former NCNB chief Hugh McColl decided to build a Florida headquarters in downtown Tampa, he envisioned a building that would make the entire city proud. He wanted the bank's grand home to be the people's grand home.

With that in mind, architect Harry Wolf and his team designed a building like no other in Tampa, on a coveted - and controversial - site along the Hillsborough River across from the University of Tampa's minarets.

When the building opened in 1988, it had limestone imported from France. Oversized doors suited to a palace. A symmetrical garden. And, most unusual, the tower was round with two adjacent cubes.

Nearly two decades later, the building has a new owner and a new mission. Instead of one corporate tenant, it has several and plenty of room for more. Despite a new name, the Rivergate Tower, its crude nickname, the beer can building, still sticks in many circles.

What better time, then, than to turn the cubes, and possibly a few stories of the tower, into the next Tampa Museum of Art. In fact, Wolf, when reached at his office in Malibu, Calif., this week, called the idea "absolutely brilliant."

"We had always conceived of (the cubes) as great public space and imagined they would have uses beyond a banking hall," he said. "They were always meant to be in the tradition of grand public spaces."

Whether the site at Ashley Drive and Kennedy Boulevard could house a museum is anyone's guess at this point. City and museum officials cheered the idea upon announcing it in November but haven't said a word since about negotiations with the new owner, America's Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm.

Common sense suggests it will be a tough deal to execute. I know if the city publicly declared my house the top pick for a new parking garage, I would sure as heck bemoan how I just spent a ton of money replacing the toilets and regrouting the floor. Suddenly, my price would go up. Sorry. Just business.

I'm not arguing that the city should have stayed mum about the museum. The public has a right to hear about such options. And after the Vinoly design fell apart financially and the federal courthouse site flopped for lack of interest, the museum site selection committee was under a lot of pressure to come up with an alternative.

Money sat there unspent. Millions already had been wasted.

The city had to move on.

We can hope the building owners are receptive to the idea. We can only hope, because the owners aren't talking.

We do know America's Capital Partners bought the tower and cubes for $35.5-million in January 2005 - apparently a bargain, given that the previous owner paid $49.5-million in 2000.

In August, ACP said in an e-mail to the city they were not interested in selling the cubes, also known as the Pavilion, or entering into a short-term lease. They would, however, consider renting out the cubes and the second and third floors of the tower for 15 years.

According to a proposal, that lease was set to start Jan. 1. Obviously, that hasn't happened. The cubes remain empty.

Wolf said this week he heard the deal wasn't going well. But he remains optimistic. The building poses a great opportunity for the city, the museum and the building owner.

The building is featured on Wolf Architecture's Web site as an example of how design can distinguish one city from another. It has won numerous awards, including the 1993 AIA National Honor Award, 1991 First Honor Award from the Florida Association AIA, and is featured in publications worldwide.

Wolf describes it as one of his favorite children.

McColl, who has since retired from banking, was also particularly proud of the building, Wolf said. And he loves art, thanks to his mother, who drew in charcoal and sculpted in clay.

During the announcement for the Tampa building, Wolf remembers a reporter asked whether NCNB, which later became Bank of America, planned to put its name on the top of the building. McColl's response: It would be like putting a sign above Raquel Welch that says "woman." It won't need one.

It will be so beautiful and eye-catching.

Just like the vision for the new museum.

THE LAST DROP: Seems the whole world has resolved to get fit this year. Lifestyle Family Fitness on Swann Avenue was packed this week. I don't mind all the company, but it's the parking I miss. Here's hoping for a few failed resolutions.

- Susan Thurston can be reached at 226-3394 or thurston@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 08:50:08]