BOSTAN, MA.-The contract for the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and the Tampa Museum of Art was approved by Tampa City Council on Thursday, April 3. Construction will begin soon on the projects and completion is scheduled for June 2009. The Tampa Museum of Art board of trustees voted unanimously on November 30, 2006 to select architect Stanley Saitowitz from San Francisco, CA, to design a 120,000 square foot master plan, with phase one consisting of 66,000 square feet. The selection of Saitowitz followed a public forum a day earlier where three architectural firms made presentations to 14-members of the museum’s building committee. The two other firms considered were Charles Rose Architects, Somerville, MA, and Robert A.M. Stern Architects, New York, NY. “The selection of an architect is another significant step forward in realizing our vision for the Tampa Museum of Art. We are very excited about our choice,” says Cornelia Corbett, chairman of the board of trustees.

The site for the new museum is located in Curtis Hixon Park, adjacent to the Poe Garage overlooking the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa. During the two-month selection process, the building committee – consisting of board members, City of Tampa administration and community members – reviewed the credentials of 104 architectural firms from throughout the country as well as Florida. The field of candidates was narrowed to three firms based on criteria that included: a review of their projects to assess how specific work respected and enhanced the design objective and context, as well as an assessment to determine if completed work was architecturally significant, and supported its intended use. The committee also considered if a firm has the ability to work within the museum’s financial, program and schedule parameters. “The architectural selection process was extremely thorough and the final candidates each have impressive design experience. In the end, the committee selected the architect who will assist the museum to realize its vision for a signature building to serve the museum and the community in an exemplary manner,” says Ken Rollins, interim executive director.

Public and private sectors of the community will fund the new facility. The City of Tampa has allocated $18.5 million of Community Investment Tax Funds, which is earmarked for a new museum facility and demolition of the existing building. Additional monies are being generated through a museum capital fundraising initiative. It is expected that site work will begin on the new museum in early 2008, and the opening of the new facility is anticipated by the fall of 2009.

Stanley Saitowitz is Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Principal of Natoma Architects Inc. in San Francisco. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1975, and his Masters in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. He began his practice in South Africa in 1975.

Completed projects include the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, 1022 Natoma Street, a live/work building in San Francisco, residences at Stinson Beach, Los Gatos, Napa, Almaden, Oakland, Berkeley, Marin, San Francisco, Tiburon, and Davis, Nine Structures at Mill Race Park, Columbus Indiana, the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston, the Capp Street Artist Workshop, the Quady Winery, the Auditorium at Wurster Hall, the San Francisco Embarcadero Promenade, the Coffee Pavilion at Stanford University, the Oxbow Art School in Napa, UCSF Mission Bay 23B Building, Lofts on Lafayette Street, Third Street, and at Yerba Buena in San Francisco. Current Projects include, The Visual Arts Library and Wurster Hall Forth Floor Link at the University of California, Berkeley, Beth El Synagogue in La Jolla, Beth Sholom Synagogue in San Francisco, First United Methodist Tower in San Jose, 1234 Howard Street, 1601 Larkin Street, 1029 Natoma Street, McArthur/San Pablo, and 555 Fulton Street.

Awards include The American Institute of Architects 1998 Henry Bacon Medal for Memorial Architecture, and the Boston Society of Architects 1997 Harleston Parker Award, the 2003 AIA San Francisco Design Award, Best of the Bay, for Yerba Buena Lofts, the 2004 AIA San Francisco Design Award, Best of the Bay for the Lieff Residence, the 2005 AIA San Francisco Best of the Bay for Unbuilt Projects for Beth Sholom, the 2006 AIA San Francisco Best of the Bay for UCSF Mission Bay 23B Building, the Shaw Residence and Unbuilt Projects for First United Methodist Tower. The Transvaal House was declared a National Monument by the National Monuments Council of South Africa in 1997. The book, ‘Stanley Saitowitz - Architecture at Rice 33’ published by Rice University, Houston, and Princeton Architectural Press, New York, received a 1998 AIA International Architecture Book Award for Monographs.