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Museum mediocrity

The latest plan to build a new arts museum in Tampa falls short.

Building a new arts museum in Tampa was supposed to put the city on the cultural map, remake Ashley Drive and open up the downtown riverfront. The latest plan, the fourth in five years, falls well short of those goals. Mayor Pam Iorio is right that a smaller building is more practical and in line with Tampa's artistic place. But the plan does little to beautify Ashley. It puts an already hidden museum further out of sight and would clog the riverfront even more.

Iorio's plan calls for putting the museum on Curtis Hixon Park, facing the river along the south side of the Poe Garage. The move would achieve two political breakthroughs: Museum philanthropists get a waterfront site, and the mayor saves money and headache by building on vacant land. The building would be one of three in a battleship row between Ashley and the river; the first two, the children's and fine arts museums, would form a buffer hiding the garage from the park. A third plot, for the museum to expand, would jut out nearest to the riverbank.

Building a museum on Curtis Hixon takes away park land. It pinches the view of the green and the waterfront from Ashley and nearby. From a business perspective, how does tucking the museum behind the garage, further from view, get more people through the door when the existing facility on Ashley already is difficult for people to see?

Then there are the aesthetics. Museums are an opportunity for the government to contribute architecturally to their communities. Taxpayers should expect that from buildings that cost tens of millions and will stand for decades. But building behind Poe makes it difficult for the city to get much bang from the new facade. As to the museum's role as a buffer, ivy would conceal the garage and look more natural than steel and glass. The children's museum shouldn't even be on the park. Buffering is a weak rationale to drive where a museum should go.

The most promising idea is to add the museum to the downtown library next door. The two have crossover appeal, could share dining and event facilities and give residents moving downtown a place to go in the evenings. Building over the library, or demolishing the annex, would give the museum waterfront views without using up park space, along with connecting the facility by skywalks to the garage and the performing arts center. The move would make the downtown library more dynamic, open up the park and give Ashley a more artistic feel.

The museum could transform downtown living, if not Tampa's reputation, and will be here for decades. It's worth doing right, no matter how long it takes.