Strategic Property Partners, LLC (SPP) released its vision for Water Street Tampa’s public spaces today, showcasing a collaboration of work by a talented team of architects, planners, and landscape architects, who have together crafted the overall vision of Water Street Tampa, the 50-acre mixed-use waterfront district located on historic Hillsborough Bay. The vibrant waterfront neighborhood will seamlessly blend a variety of buildings and experiences around lushly shaded green spaces, dynamic pedestrian and bicycle accommodations, extraordinary neighborhood shopping and culinary experiences, and a variety of cultural, educational, and entertainment venues.
Once complete, more than 23,000 people will live, work, dine, shop and visit Water Street Tampa daily. The neighborhood will be a place where great streets and vibrant, accessible, open spaces encourage the community to come together and enjoy the outdoors. The public realm master plan has been designed around three core values: reveal and improve connections, prioritize pedestrian comfort, and provide a diversity of public spaces. Reveal and improve connections: The neighborhood is oriented towards the waterfront, and internal connections within the neighborhood are distinctive and walkable. Further, Water Street Tampa ensures strong connections to the existing Central Business District of downtown Tampa and surrounding neighborhoods of Harbour Island and the Channel District.
This will make it much easier and more comfortable to travel between Water Street Tampa and other close-in neighborhoods, as well as between the area’s numerous existing cultural amenities. Prioritize pedestrian comfort: Streets have been organized for pedestrian comfort, providing shade, improved safety, and distinctive beauty. Sidewalks within the Water Street Tampa neighborhood give priority and space to people, and range from 16 feet to 45 feet in width, regularly exceeding City of Tampa requirements. Streets that run throughout the neighborhood focus on people, and are designed to accommodate cyclists, pedestrians, transit, and vehicles – encouraging freedom of movement and ultimately, freedom of expression. Lighting and wayfinding are integrated for safety and ease of navigation. High-efficiency parking structures will make it easy to leave the car behind and explore the district on foot or by bicycle.
Water Street Tampa will become the world’s first WELL-certified community under the WELL Community Standard, developed by the International WELL Building Institute. The community will feature amenities and public spaces that have been designed to improve the health and well-being of those visiting, living, and working within the neighborhood. Water Street Tampa also intends to be LEED Neighborhood Development (ND) certified, which was created to shape more sustainable and well-connected neighborhoods. Permeable pavers and absorptive planting beds used throughout Water Street will allow the neighborhood to ecologically and efficiently weather severe rainfall. An innovative centralized district cooling facility will serve the buildings in Water Street Tampa with lushly landscaped green roofs and active amenity spaces, such as a rooftop lounge on the top of the new JW Marriott Hotel. The centralized cooling facility will reduce redundant mechanical systems, provide operational efficiencies, and reduce energy consumption. Source Strategic Property Partners, images Courtesy of M18 Public Relations.
Design Team
Reed Hilderbrand, a Cambridge-based landscape architecture firm, serves as the master landscape architect, working in partnership with Water Street Tampa’s master planner Elkus Manfredi Architects, a renowned Boston based firm with work that spans the globe.
The Tampa office of Stantec, a multi-disciplinary engineering firm, is working to coordinate Water Street Tampa’s infrastructure and roadway improvements. Construction on this work began in the summer of 2016 and is ongoing. Joining Reed Hilderbrand on the design of the many interspersed public spaces that total nearly 13 acres are seven different landscape architecture teams:
- Reed Hilderbrand — Master landscape architect; landscape architect for Water Street and buildings being designed by Pickard Chilton on the block bound by S. Morgan Street and E. Brorein Street
- EDSA – Landscape architect for the new JW Marriott Hotel, working in collaboration with architect Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates
- Nelson Byrd Woltz – Landscape architect for COOKFOX-designed office and residential buildings located along Water Street between Channelside Drive and E. Cumberland Ave, and the new plaza that fronts the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine
- Raymond Jungles – Landscape architect for a new residential building on the west side of Water Street at E. Cumberland Drive being designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, as well as the 815 Water Street residential towers designed by Kohn Pederson Fox
- Madison Cox Associates – Landscape architect for The Tampa EDITION Hotel and Residences, in collaboration with Morris Adjmi Architects and Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates. The Tampa EDITION is located at the northwest corner of Water Street and Channelside Drive.
- Coen + Partners – Landscape architects for a boutique office building being designed by Olson Kundig on the block bound by Channelside Drive, S. Jefferson Street and S. Nebraska Avenue
- David Conner + Associates –Tampa-based landscape architect working on the redevelopment of the Channelside Bay Plaza
- OJB – Landscape architects for 400 Channelside Drive, a new office building designed by Gensle