St. Petersburg seeking demolition permit for the Pier

ST. PETERSBURG With a majority of the design teams competing for the $46 million St. Petersburg Pier project indicating they want to reuse the closed inverted pyramid, the iconic structure could survive.

But because the city is facing a deadline to complete the project in three years, officials are making plans should demolition be in the cards for the 1973 building. They've submitted an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to demolish the inverted pyramid.

The potentially lengthy permitting process requires an assessment of the historic significance of the iconic structure, which a study has found eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as part of a St. Petersburg Municipal Pier Historic District.

The determination offers no protection against demolition, but in keeping with federal regulations, the permit process also requires the city to work with the state historic preservation office, the corps and St. Petersburg residents on ways to mitigate potential adverse effects of the new Pier project.

Emily Elwyn, president of St. Petersburg Preservation, described the inverted pyramid as "an iconic part of our history."

If the city decides to demolish and replace it with something else, "we feel it is important that we are left with something positive," said Elwyn, a member of a city committee that has been discussing the Pier and ways to record its history.

"Because the architect of the inverted pyramid was William Harvard, one of the most important mid-century architects in St. Petersburg, we would like to see a comprehensive historic resource survey of his work and other important mid-century structures in the city," she said.

Ideas for preserving and recording the Pier's history also are being offered by Rui Farias, executive director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

"We have had Pier exhibits in the past and we currently have a photographic exhibit of all the piers," he said of the museum nestled at the start of the Pier approach.

"We would love to have something from the Pier there," he said. "If we could save some of the core architectural pieces, we would love to have them outdoors."

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St. Petersburg seeking demolition permit for the Pier