The weather couldn't have been better. The crowd was big, but not overwhelming. Local emissaries and media were hanging around, taking in the city's sentimental farewell to the upside-down pyramid. Some attendees — we heard crowd estimates went beyond 600 — picked up commemorative bricks on a first-come-first-served basis.If it wasn't for the protesters (and Mayor Rick Kriseman's mic cutting out here and there) the event would have gone off without a hitch.
Kriseman noted how the St. Petersburg Pier has taken on multiple shapes over the years.
“There's been many chapters in our city's history, many different piers," he said. "This pier is but another chapter in the history of the City of St. Petersburg. And after today we start writing the next chapter in the city.”
Those nostalgic for the inverted pyramid were not amused. Among those who stood behind the mayor as he spoke were a handful of activists holding signs with phrases like "our pier not a damn pier" and others, a reference to Kriseman's assertion that most residents just want the city to 'build a damn pier,' a phrase critics have used to their advantage.
Jeff Cobbe, president of Harvard-Jolly, the architectural firm that developed the inverted pyramid more than 40 years ago, spoke of the history of the concept, and how Bill Harvard, the firm's principal, was trying to break from the norm at the time, which was Mediterranean Revival style.
“In 1973 the iconic pier behind us was completed. Its revolutionary inverted pyramid design altered the downtown St. Pete skyline and shaped, organically, to provide open views of the water and the city. It was his idea to make the building disappear at the bottom so you could enjoy the view the waterscape and then got to the top and look back at the city,” he said.
It was at that point when a heckler shouted from the audience.
“Why tear it down, then? Why? Why tear it down?” she screeched.
“Don't shoot the messenger,” Cobble said.
The crowd laughed, and she went on for a little while longer before fading away.
Harvard-Jolly also happens to be a firm that was on the design team behind Destination St. Pete Pier, a concept that would have preserved and perhaps in some ways modernized the inverted pyramid. That's the design activists and others rallied behind, and it also came first in a public survey conducted over the web.
“The firm is proud of its ongoing relationship with St. Petersburg and we look forward to continuing our design work for the new police headquarters,” Cobble continued.
Demolition of the St. Pete Pier began earlier this week, and has been punctuated by nostalgic posts on social media.
The current building and the concrete approach leading out to it are set to be replaced by a totally different concept, Pier Park. The inverted pyramid had been a place where people shopped, dined, fished or took in live music. Occasionally, there were special events.
Pier Park, which is slated to open in 2018, takes a different tack. It conceptualizes the entire area, including the approach, as a public space with attractions along the way.
Those protesting on the perimeter of the event warned of a petition drive they think could block that undertaking. It was only two years ago that a petition drive-led ballot initiative led to the torpedoing of the Lens, a design the city chose to replace the inverted pyramid.
City officials have assured this time it would be different, despite the staunch inverted pyramid supporters.