Future Tropicana Field site vision now has a model

(Follow link for full article.)

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2016/08/22/future-tropicana-field-site-vision-now-has-a-model.html

Future Tropicana Field site vision now has a model

Aug 22, 2016, 9:22pm EDT Updated Aug 22, 2016, 9:29pm EDT

The architecture firm tasked by the city of St. Petersburg to create a redevelopment master plan for the 86-acre Tropicana Field site has a tangible vision of what it could look like, without the iconic dome that’s graced the skyline along Interstate 275 for more than two decades.

A small-scale model shows a would-be site with an open-air baseball stadium in the northeast corner of the site near where a U-Haul building is currently located.

The rest of the site blends retail, office, housing and park space into a concept that shuts down artificial borders now created by a giant stadium and a sea of asphalt.

At the center of HKS Architecture’s preliminary plan is expanded transportation and transit access in what project manager Randy Morton describes as “maybe the most important” component of the redevelopment plan.

“The first idea is about knitting the city back together,” Morton said.