The St. Pete Pier is all new and absolutely amazing. Twenty-six acres in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, called the Pier District, transformed seamlessly into
A park experience,
A playground experience,
A garden experience,
A dining experience,
A beach experience,
A shopping experience,
A bay watch discovery experience,
A sculpture experience,
A Tampa Bay view experience
A fishing experience
A feng shui experience
You get the idea. There are a lot of experiences going on at the St. Pete Pier.
On the St. Pete Pier’s website a headline reads:
“It’s more than just a PIER. It is an exPIERience.”
Yes, I agree, that is a bit over the top, but trust me it works!
We went to the new St. Pete Pier on a Monday morning and practically owned the place. What few people we saw wore masks and social distancing was easy.
All the walkways are wide and inviting. There is a tram, no charge to ride, that runs the entire length of the Pier. Get on and off at any stop.
Our first experience was a children’s water splash park with jets pulsing up in the air. A barely toddling child laughed and got wet while a parent stood outside the water jets, dry and nearby.
I’ve often wondered why they say this is for kids. Looks like such fun to run through the water. Right across the way is a hill. Yep. A gentle slope, man made with a purpose. Children love to roll down this hill!
And there are umbrellas inset into the hill for families to set up a picnic, chill, watch the children roll. This hillside is also a concert spot.
Next to the water thrill and hill is a public beach with a long access ramp on the sand for walkers and wheelchairs.
Imagine it – A public beach in downtown St. Pete – it boggles the mind that there is a public beach just footsteps away from towering high rises, upscale shopping,
the Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club, the Dali Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts along with the St Petersburg Museum of History and the new James Museum that features western and wildlife art.
Tearing down the old Pier, a beloved icon fallen on hard times, took many years and many bitter discussions. But consensus was reached. The new St. Pete Pier cost 93 million dollars. The St. Pete Pier opened to the public on July 6, 2020.
I don’t know the particulars but it is obvious from the landscaping and the hardscaping (sidewalks, circles of concrete around trees and more) that landscape architects played a huge role in the design.
And someone studied feng shui – a discipline that calls for no sharp edges, nothing to impede the flow of energy, so a lot of gentle curves and circles are employed. One garden area demonstrates this beautifully, with gradual curves. It takes a few steps to realize the circle and spiral designs are in play.
Native and butterfly friendly plants are abundant – firecracker, coontie, beach sunflower for starters. In pond areas, which may also serve as water retention areas, water hyacinths bloom profusely.
Their centerpiece sculpture experience is Janet Echelman’s Bending Arc.
When we took a tram to the end of the pier the tram driver told us that Echelman, originally from Tampa, tied every one of the 1,622,528 knots. Wow. The aerial sculpture floats above a grassy area at the St. Pete Pier.
It billows in the breeze and changes color at night when lights are shined at the huge net. Measuring 424 feet long and 72 feet high some 180 miles of twine were used. Not just any twine but a fiber used by NASA to tether the Mars Rover. This sculpture is built to last.
The title Bending Arc comes from a 1968 quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” While doing background research for this sculpture Echelman learned that the area had civil rights movement history. Here St. Pete citizens gathered to protest against the city’s policy of keeping municipal pools segregated, even after the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. Eventually citizens sued the city and won their case.
About half way up the pier is a small building called the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center. Do take time to visit. Adult admission is $5, children’s price is $3. This is hands on, get wet learning, literally. One display has tide pool residents, up close, personal and touchable. Learn how everything is connected and why saving Tampa’s estuary matters. There is a lot packed into this small place.
Back to the tram – if tired walking, take it all the way to the Pier Point, the Green Lawn and Pier Head Building with gift shop and restaurant. Obviously the Pier people like to name every patch of this project.
Fisherman can cast into Tampa Bay here. Climb or use the elevator to an upper floor. The views looking out at the bay or towards the city are outstanding. Have cameras ready.
A nearby sculpture captured my attention. It is Olnetopia by artist Nick Ervinck. Organic, seemingly on the verge of swaying in the tides, no matter how I walked around it every view was stunning. This too is part of the sculpture experience.
Along the way the red pelican became a symbol repeated in grate covers and sculpture. Myth by Nathan Mabry, shows a huge red pelican plus two smaller ones. Located at the start of the pier.
Note: we passed many closed shop kiosks near the beginning of the Pier. They are open on Friday, Saturday and Sundays.
No reservations required, come to the Pier any time. No charge to visit BUT be advised all nearby parking is metered. The cost is $3 an hour for the first three hours. My friend and guide, Barbara Trow, had the foresight to park at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar and Grille and pay the parking fee. This strategy worked well. After several hours of pier experiences we walked to Doc Ford’s for lunch on the porch.
I recommend the calamari salad.
Reservations at Doc Ford’s are advised. The outdoor seating gets filled up fast especially in these Covid 19 times.
Take a deep breathe. Are you still ready to rumble?
So many museums await you in downtown St. Pete and are within walking distance. Check websites for current hours and times. The Museum of Fine Arts, for example, will reopen to the public on September 19. The Dali Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday from 11am–6pm (until 8pm on Thursday and Friday). Special hours are scheduled for seniors on Wednesday and Thursday from 10am-11am.
After lunch, I was full of pier experiences and ready for a car ride home. I’ll be back. The museums are calling!
©2020 Lucy Tobias. All photographs and text by Lucy Tobias