Bayfront in the News
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Over the years, several Bayfront Tower events have made the news many times, mostly in our local newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, now known as the Tampa Bay Times. With permission, we have reprinted columns from our local newspaper in their full length without any editing. These articles have been reprinted chronologically with the oldest at the top of the page. Note: The image to the right appeared in a St. Petersburg Times article as was scanned from the newspaper.
Birdlife to Grace Tower Lobby
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Marian Coe - Suncoasting
Reprinted from an article that appeared in The St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 4, 1974
Free lance artist Thom Street, an amiable Philadelphian, will be putting paint brush to the new Bayfront Tower lobby in a couple of months ... It will be a mural of Florida wildlife. To prepare, he and wife Joan have been doing research and sketches.
At first, architect Donald Cowan planned to put that 40 feet long, 10 feet high lobby in marble ... but nixed the idea as being too "cold."
Cold it would have been for all of us who look at soaring steel on that site and see ghosts of what use to be -- those big old green banyan trees shading the little landmark Chatterbox restaurant ... (not that the owner of the Chatterbox wasn't happy to sell). One of those who remembers, antiques appraiser Ruth Dukes Hollett buttonholed the Tower’s Robert Hildeman and the Streets at a recent party with an idea they must have heard from others: "Any lounge or dining room in Bayfront Tower should be called The Banyan.”
“I’m doing birds but we will get a banyan in there somewhere,” promised Street ... A third generation artist, who says he doesn't object to creating a painting to suit a client's decor, he says his mural style is "definitive."
Reprinted from an article that appeared in The St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 4, 1974
Free lance artist Thom Street, an amiable Philadelphian, will be putting paint brush to the new Bayfront Tower lobby in a couple of months ... It will be a mural of Florida wildlife. To prepare, he and wife Joan have been doing research and sketches.
At first, architect Donald Cowan planned to put that 40 feet long, 10 feet high lobby in marble ... but nixed the idea as being too "cold."
Cold it would have been for all of us who look at soaring steel on that site and see ghosts of what use to be -- those big old green banyan trees shading the little landmark Chatterbox restaurant ... (not that the owner of the Chatterbox wasn't happy to sell). One of those who remembers, antiques appraiser Ruth Dukes Hollett buttonholed the Tower’s Robert Hildeman and the Streets at a recent party with an idea they must have heard from others: "Any lounge or dining room in Bayfront Tower should be called The Banyan.”
“I’m doing birds but we will get a banyan in there somewhere,” promised Street ... A third generation artist, who says he doesn't object to creating a painting to suit a client's decor, he says his mural style is "definitive."
Mural Gives Walls Life
Five weeks work turn Bayfront Tower's lobby into an almost live-sized Florida bird sanctuary
Reprinted from an article that appeared in The St. Petersburg Times on Jan. 10, 1975
Painting Florida birds an scenery on foyer walls for five straight weeks would have to affect anyone and Tom Street is no exception. "They're getting to me, these birds, he says. "I had a dream last night that I was struggling to get my wings out from under my covers!"
Street is finishing a 10 feet high by 58 feet long mural covering three sides of the lobby of Bayfront Towers Condominiums. He and the Towers' architect, Don Cowan, decided the building was so much cement that it needed a "softening touch" in the entrance, says Street., who spent three weeks thumbing through magazines to find just the right flamingos, palm trees and marshes to paint from.
"I can't get birds in here to pose for me, but I looked over the stuffed ones at the Historical Museum and went to Sunken Gardens to check out some types of plumage," he says. "It's pretty interesting when you get into it - I'll be an expert on birds by the time I'm done!" Street kneels beside his array of paint cans to dab at patches of swampgrass or trudges up a ladder to smooth out a treetop. The colorful scene is a startling contrast to the cement floor and to the equipment, ladders and activity of the builders working to complete the rest of the building. “People picture a painter with a palette and beret, and here I am mixing paints in coffee cans or whatever else I can confiscate,” he says.
He started by painting the background - the only part of the job Street calls work, because it's monotonous -- then added birds and trees over that. The entire mural is done freehand, with only his 30-some birds sketched first in charcoal. Using only a "very rough" drawing of the scene as a guide, Street changes his mind on what to paint as he goes along. A huge banyan tree, half painted in the corner where the wall meets a mirrored side, was one "last minute decision."
The mirrored side of the lobby reflects most of Street's painting on the other three walls. "I kidded them and said I was going to charge for that side too.” The murals is supposed to provide a relaxing atmosphere for tenants and guests as they lounge in the lobby or wait for an elevator. “Of course, we’re liable to get some freak who hates birds, but we tried to pick a good representatives of Florida.” says Street. “If you can see the amount of work which went into them, it’s important. A lot of good artists can’t do murals. Their biggest problem is that they can’t do one fast enough. They think it will take them four weeks, only to get it half done, and then quit. I have often been called in to finish or re-do what another artist gave up on.
Besides murals, Street does paintings for hotel lobbies and model homes after they're decorated and need artwork for the walls. Finding the right painting to put over the couch in a model home can be difficult, so people pay me to paint one just for that purpose," he says. "The work is interesting - birds one minute, little girls the next. It varies.”
Street's other murals include the City of St. Petersburg as seen from the 30th floor of a building, a Mediterranean scene for a country club, and another one based on Greek mythology.
BFT Website note: There were additional plans for Thom Street to create a golf course view to complement the putting green planned for the 28th floor. Those plans were never completed but the mural theme was repeated by him in the elevators and on a screen now on the 28th floor. The screen was not originally done for BFT. It was created by Street and purchased from him by Susan and Les Schiereck. Coincidentally, Susan worked with Suzie Sanders, of Suzie Belle, the original BFT designer and Les with Florida Federal Savings and Loan on the building project. The Schierecks later sold the screen to resident Helen Mills, who gave it to the building.
Painting Florida birds an scenery on foyer walls for five straight weeks would have to affect anyone and Tom Street is no exception. "They're getting to me, these birds, he says. "I had a dream last night that I was struggling to get my wings out from under my covers!"
Street is finishing a 10 feet high by 58 feet long mural covering three sides of the lobby of Bayfront Towers Condominiums. He and the Towers' architect, Don Cowan, decided the building was so much cement that it needed a "softening touch" in the entrance, says Street., who spent three weeks thumbing through magazines to find just the right flamingos, palm trees and marshes to paint from.
"I can't get birds in here to pose for me, but I looked over the stuffed ones at the Historical Museum and went to Sunken Gardens to check out some types of plumage," he says. "It's pretty interesting when you get into it - I'll be an expert on birds by the time I'm done!" Street kneels beside his array of paint cans to dab at patches of swampgrass or trudges up a ladder to smooth out a treetop. The colorful scene is a startling contrast to the cement floor and to the equipment, ladders and activity of the builders working to complete the rest of the building. “People picture a painter with a palette and beret, and here I am mixing paints in coffee cans or whatever else I can confiscate,” he says.
He started by painting the background - the only part of the job Street calls work, because it's monotonous -- then added birds and trees over that. The entire mural is done freehand, with only his 30-some birds sketched first in charcoal. Using only a "very rough" drawing of the scene as a guide, Street changes his mind on what to paint as he goes along. A huge banyan tree, half painted in the corner where the wall meets a mirrored side, was one "last minute decision."
The mirrored side of the lobby reflects most of Street's painting on the other three walls. "I kidded them and said I was going to charge for that side too.” The murals is supposed to provide a relaxing atmosphere for tenants and guests as they lounge in the lobby or wait for an elevator. “Of course, we’re liable to get some freak who hates birds, but we tried to pick a good representatives of Florida.” says Street. “If you can see the amount of work which went into them, it’s important. A lot of good artists can’t do murals. Their biggest problem is that they can’t do one fast enough. They think it will take them four weeks, only to get it half done, and then quit. I have often been called in to finish or re-do what another artist gave up on.
Besides murals, Street does paintings for hotel lobbies and model homes after they're decorated and need artwork for the walls. Finding the right painting to put over the couch in a model home can be difficult, so people pay me to paint one just for that purpose," he says. "The work is interesting - birds one minute, little girls the next. It varies.”
Street's other murals include the City of St. Petersburg as seen from the 30th floor of a building, a Mediterranean scene for a country club, and another one based on Greek mythology.
BFT Website note: There were additional plans for Thom Street to create a golf course view to complement the putting green planned for the 28th floor. Those plans were never completed but the mural theme was repeated by him in the elevators and on a screen now on the 28th floor. The screen was not originally done for BFT. It was created by Street and purchased from him by Susan and Les Schiereck. Coincidentally, Susan worked with Suzie Sanders, of Suzie Belle, the original BFT designer and Les with Florida Federal Savings and Loan on the building project. The Schierecks later sold the screen to resident Helen Mills, who gave it to the building.
The View from the Top
O.A.T. - Of All Things, by Dick Bothwell
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Reprinted from an article that appeared in The St. Petersburg Times on September 14, 1975
“It took $20 million and four years to produce this view of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area – and after an eye popping survey of the scene below, you are inclined to think it was worth it.
Here atop the 29-story Bayfront Tower condominium at 1 Beach Drive at the foot of Central Avenue, you get the feeling you are looking down from a light airplane. You get the feeling you’ve never seen the Sunshine City as an entity before. But there it is laid out before you like a map. Even though it’s twilight and there’s a partial overcast, it is astonishing how many landmarks you can identify.
In fact, when this writer and some colleagues went exploring atop the Tower one evening last week, the first thing we did was cluster by the west railing and enjoy identifying familiar places from a new angle. Some things are easy to spot. Like two great jeweled shotgun barrels, Central Avenue and First Avenue S. sweep away to the west and the Gulf Beaches. Look there on the horizon, that pinkish profile – the Don CeSar Hotel. Just past John Knox Apartments, the Fifth Avenue Plaza looms. That little patch of green off there to the left? Jordan Park. A white plume of jetted water marks glossy Mirror Lake. Closer at hand you see a curious contrast – the modern Hilton Hotel, next to a cluster of green roofed doll houses, white framed souvenirs of Florida boom days of 50 years ago
Off to the right you see another jeweled pointer, the long stretch of Fourth Street N heading out to Gandy Bridge. Far in the distance, the twinkling lights of Clearwater. So you lean on the railing and marvel. You think back. Two years ago I visited the Tower when it was under construction. Even then, from just the 18th floor, the view was magnificent. At the time, I thought that if you stood on the 29th floor roof you could see forever. You just about can.
You wonder why everything seems so diminished. Why the 14-story Hilton seems so much smaller than usual. Then you do some figure checking and realize how much perspective is involved. Consider: When you drive across the Sunshine Skyway’s ship channel, you are 155 feet above Tampa Bay waters. But the Tower is 315 feet tall. So in effect, you are looking down from twice the height of the Skyway! No wonder the Tower is Pinellas County’s tallest building.
It is apt to stay that way too, if you ask Donald Cowan, Nashville architect who drew the Tower plans, now president of Bayfront Tower Inc. “It’s the biggest job I ever handled, probably the biggest I ever will”, he says “A once in a lifetime building. It would probably be prohibitive in cost to rebuild it today. I would almost venture to say that there will not be another Bayfront Tower built in St Petersburg in this century.” It’s 8 p.m., time for a “First” dinner on the east side of the roof, overlooking the waterfront.
Explanation: Some time ago I realized that safe and sane “Firsts” were worthwhile collecting. Not the dumb kind of “Firsts” like First To Swim Through A Shark Infested Swimming Pool For Five Minutes. But fun firsts, like First To Walk Across The Sunshine Skyway’s Second Span. First To Have Breakfast at The Hilton With Your Own Wife. First To Have Lunch At The Pier. As a supporting cast, The St. Petersburg Times food lady, Ruth Gray, and The Times social lady, Marian Coe Brezic were on hand with their husbands. My own good wife was present and Pat Robison (later Baldwin), the Tower’s sales associate. It was a delightful experience. Cool breezes wandered about, the fried chicken and potato salad were just right. And as the sky darkened, the diamond-studded landscape looked even more glamorous.
Although Tenant No. 1, C. Russell Trowbridge, retired U.S. Department of Interior official, moved in Aug. 1 (first possible day of occupancy) the Tower is still coming to life. “CONTRACTS have been written on 42 of the 255 units” Tower officials tell you. “Seven of the apartments have been occupied.”
Most of the owners are waiting for the season to move in, still keeping cool up North. Meanwhile a lot of work is being done.
The Atlanta decorators who did the notable Regency Hyatt House, for example, will begin doing the Roof Garden and the 28th floor Tower Club beneath, come October. Right now, the roof is mostly bare, aside from the 22 by 40 foot swimming pool in the center, But when finished, there will be an outdoor dance floor, a barbecue area, a thatched roof: Bombay Bicycle Club” hut for refreshments and pool furniture. That’s right; there will be a Bicycle Club. A 6-foot-wide pathway circles the roof. Tenants can jog around or ride bikes.
Sounds a little unnerving, but it’s not. About four feet of rooftop project out beyond the railing, fortunately. Atop the elevator housing you spot an antenna – for police department purposes. Another large housing is a power plant, a propane gas generator to keep things running in an emergency. You are twice as high as the Skyway, and cool. The U.S. Weather Service tells you that rooms on the second (or higher) floor of a residence normally have a lower humidity than the ground floor. Multiply that by 29 and you can see why it’s nice to be high. The rooftop is reached by a winding stairway from the 28th floor, Tower Club; soon a small hydraulic elevator to the roof will be added. This club will be something else, including an indoor putting green, complete health spa, ballroom and library.
LOOKING THROUGH some of the apartments, which range in size from moderate large to the scale of a small public library, you realize one thing. If you have to ask what it costs to live here, you wouldn’t live here. Apartments range from $54,000 to $170,000 – 1,200 to 3,500 square feet – and everything is first-class, indeed. The space, particularly, is impressive. “There are two parallel corridors on each floor, this allows for more privacy, since there are only half as many people on the corridor,” says Cowan. The elegant rooms have 9-foot ceilings; an unusual feature which probably cost two floors. There are generous storage areas on each floor as well.
Tenants have had apartments built to suit, there are Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pfeffer (he’s a retired Army colonel). In their three-bedroom, three-bath apartment, they eliminated a bedroom and bath, obtained a 40-foot long kitchen area with a picture window overlooking Tampa Bay. Maintenance? It starts at $236 per month and up, predicated on square footage of your apartment. See what I mean about not asking the price? Yet the maintenance of a $100,000 plus home could easily be that and more. The maintenance fee does not include taxes or electricity. The figure, you’re told, is based on an assumption that 255 families will be occupying the building.
“A large amount of the maintenance money will be put aside as a reserve, and applied the following year if not used.” Says a Tower representative. “The Condominium Owners Association will set up their own budget in January.” What about the first and third floor commercial area, and the second floor’s Tony Sweet restaurant? “We’ll probably start with the restaurant by Oct. 1,” says Donald D. Rosselli, corporation vice president, “It will be a French-type gourmet restaurant, continental cuisine.”
“We plan a mall on the first floor – barber-shop, small apothecary, shops, so that all the essential requirements of the residence will be met.” Floors four through seven are for tenant parking. (A 13th floor is included – the builders don’t hold with the old superstition which used to omit this number).
Who will live in the Tower? Tenants will include; Mrs. Viola Shouppe of Shouppe’s Travel Center Inc., whose bridge club gave her a surprise housewarming last week, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Van Kesteren. From their top floor corner apartment, they can keep an eye on their Bay Air Service Inc. at Whitted Airport nearby. Mr. and Mrs. Robert V. Workman; he is chairman of the board, West Coast Title Co. Mr. and Mrs. Steve Kirby; he’s a financier active in civic circles. Mrs. Lillian Green, widow of John B. Green, prominent realtor who developed the Brightwaters section of Snell Isle. Mr. and Mrs. Roland Butler, husband and wife travel team; he is managing partner of Hill Tours; she manages the nationwide wholesale aspect of the business.
John Kearney, partner in CPA firm, civic minded sportsman. Mrs. A. Franklin Green; she is the widow of the former Pinellas County School Board chairman and Science Center president. It is obvious that the Tower and its people will play an everlasting role in the city’s life, both economic and social.
The ambitious Tower enterprise was launched when the nation’s economy was going downhill. It has been through some rough financial waters; construction stopped in October 1974 because of construction and cost problems. Then First St. Petersburg Service Corp., a subsidiary of Florida Federal Savings and Loan Association, assumed management and marketing. Now the great $20-million monument to the Condominium Age is coming alive, slow but sure. Its career can’t be anything but fascinating, for it is one of a kind in St. Petersburg”.
“It took $20 million and four years to produce this view of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area – and after an eye popping survey of the scene below, you are inclined to think it was worth it.
Here atop the 29-story Bayfront Tower condominium at 1 Beach Drive at the foot of Central Avenue, you get the feeling you are looking down from a light airplane. You get the feeling you’ve never seen the Sunshine City as an entity before. But there it is laid out before you like a map. Even though it’s twilight and there’s a partial overcast, it is astonishing how many landmarks you can identify.
In fact, when this writer and some colleagues went exploring atop the Tower one evening last week, the first thing we did was cluster by the west railing and enjoy identifying familiar places from a new angle. Some things are easy to spot. Like two great jeweled shotgun barrels, Central Avenue and First Avenue S. sweep away to the west and the Gulf Beaches. Look there on the horizon, that pinkish profile – the Don CeSar Hotel. Just past John Knox Apartments, the Fifth Avenue Plaza looms. That little patch of green off there to the left? Jordan Park. A white plume of jetted water marks glossy Mirror Lake. Closer at hand you see a curious contrast – the modern Hilton Hotel, next to a cluster of green roofed doll houses, white framed souvenirs of Florida boom days of 50 years ago
Off to the right you see another jeweled pointer, the long stretch of Fourth Street N heading out to Gandy Bridge. Far in the distance, the twinkling lights of Clearwater. So you lean on the railing and marvel. You think back. Two years ago I visited the Tower when it was under construction. Even then, from just the 18th floor, the view was magnificent. At the time, I thought that if you stood on the 29th floor roof you could see forever. You just about can.
You wonder why everything seems so diminished. Why the 14-story Hilton seems so much smaller than usual. Then you do some figure checking and realize how much perspective is involved. Consider: When you drive across the Sunshine Skyway’s ship channel, you are 155 feet above Tampa Bay waters. But the Tower is 315 feet tall. So in effect, you are looking down from twice the height of the Skyway! No wonder the Tower is Pinellas County’s tallest building.
It is apt to stay that way too, if you ask Donald Cowan, Nashville architect who drew the Tower plans, now president of Bayfront Tower Inc. “It’s the biggest job I ever handled, probably the biggest I ever will”, he says “A once in a lifetime building. It would probably be prohibitive in cost to rebuild it today. I would almost venture to say that there will not be another Bayfront Tower built in St Petersburg in this century.” It’s 8 p.m., time for a “First” dinner on the east side of the roof, overlooking the waterfront.
Explanation: Some time ago I realized that safe and sane “Firsts” were worthwhile collecting. Not the dumb kind of “Firsts” like First To Swim Through A Shark Infested Swimming Pool For Five Minutes. But fun firsts, like First To Walk Across The Sunshine Skyway’s Second Span. First To Have Breakfast at The Hilton With Your Own Wife. First To Have Lunch At The Pier. As a supporting cast, The St. Petersburg Times food lady, Ruth Gray, and The Times social lady, Marian Coe Brezic were on hand with their husbands. My own good wife was present and Pat Robison (later Baldwin), the Tower’s sales associate. It was a delightful experience. Cool breezes wandered about, the fried chicken and potato salad were just right. And as the sky darkened, the diamond-studded landscape looked even more glamorous.
Although Tenant No. 1, C. Russell Trowbridge, retired U.S. Department of Interior official, moved in Aug. 1 (first possible day of occupancy) the Tower is still coming to life. “CONTRACTS have been written on 42 of the 255 units” Tower officials tell you. “Seven of the apartments have been occupied.”
Most of the owners are waiting for the season to move in, still keeping cool up North. Meanwhile a lot of work is being done.
The Atlanta decorators who did the notable Regency Hyatt House, for example, will begin doing the Roof Garden and the 28th floor Tower Club beneath, come October. Right now, the roof is mostly bare, aside from the 22 by 40 foot swimming pool in the center, But when finished, there will be an outdoor dance floor, a barbecue area, a thatched roof: Bombay Bicycle Club” hut for refreshments and pool furniture. That’s right; there will be a Bicycle Club. A 6-foot-wide pathway circles the roof. Tenants can jog around or ride bikes.
Sounds a little unnerving, but it’s not. About four feet of rooftop project out beyond the railing, fortunately. Atop the elevator housing you spot an antenna – for police department purposes. Another large housing is a power plant, a propane gas generator to keep things running in an emergency. You are twice as high as the Skyway, and cool. The U.S. Weather Service tells you that rooms on the second (or higher) floor of a residence normally have a lower humidity than the ground floor. Multiply that by 29 and you can see why it’s nice to be high. The rooftop is reached by a winding stairway from the 28th floor, Tower Club; soon a small hydraulic elevator to the roof will be added. This club will be something else, including an indoor putting green, complete health spa, ballroom and library.
LOOKING THROUGH some of the apartments, which range in size from moderate large to the scale of a small public library, you realize one thing. If you have to ask what it costs to live here, you wouldn’t live here. Apartments range from $54,000 to $170,000 – 1,200 to 3,500 square feet – and everything is first-class, indeed. The space, particularly, is impressive. “There are two parallel corridors on each floor, this allows for more privacy, since there are only half as many people on the corridor,” says Cowan. The elegant rooms have 9-foot ceilings; an unusual feature which probably cost two floors. There are generous storage areas on each floor as well.
Tenants have had apartments built to suit, there are Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pfeffer (he’s a retired Army colonel). In their three-bedroom, three-bath apartment, they eliminated a bedroom and bath, obtained a 40-foot long kitchen area with a picture window overlooking Tampa Bay. Maintenance? It starts at $236 per month and up, predicated on square footage of your apartment. See what I mean about not asking the price? Yet the maintenance of a $100,000 plus home could easily be that and more. The maintenance fee does not include taxes or electricity. The figure, you’re told, is based on an assumption that 255 families will be occupying the building.
“A large amount of the maintenance money will be put aside as a reserve, and applied the following year if not used.” Says a Tower representative. “The Condominium Owners Association will set up their own budget in January.” What about the first and third floor commercial area, and the second floor’s Tony Sweet restaurant? “We’ll probably start with the restaurant by Oct. 1,” says Donald D. Rosselli, corporation vice president, “It will be a French-type gourmet restaurant, continental cuisine.”
“We plan a mall on the first floor – barber-shop, small apothecary, shops, so that all the essential requirements of the residence will be met.” Floors four through seven are for tenant parking. (A 13th floor is included – the builders don’t hold with the old superstition which used to omit this number).
Who will live in the Tower? Tenants will include; Mrs. Viola Shouppe of Shouppe’s Travel Center Inc., whose bridge club gave her a surprise housewarming last week, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Van Kesteren. From their top floor corner apartment, they can keep an eye on their Bay Air Service Inc. at Whitted Airport nearby. Mr. and Mrs. Robert V. Workman; he is chairman of the board, West Coast Title Co. Mr. and Mrs. Steve Kirby; he’s a financier active in civic circles. Mrs. Lillian Green, widow of John B. Green, prominent realtor who developed the Brightwaters section of Snell Isle. Mr. and Mrs. Roland Butler, husband and wife travel team; he is managing partner of Hill Tours; she manages the nationwide wholesale aspect of the business.
John Kearney, partner in CPA firm, civic minded sportsman. Mrs. A. Franklin Green; she is the widow of the former Pinellas County School Board chairman and Science Center president. It is obvious that the Tower and its people will play an everlasting role in the city’s life, both economic and social.
The ambitious Tower enterprise was launched when the nation’s economy was going downhill. It has been through some rough financial waters; construction stopped in October 1974 because of construction and cost problems. Then First St. Petersburg Service Corp., a subsidiary of Florida Federal Savings and Loan Association, assumed management and marketing. Now the great $20-million monument to the Condominium Age is coming alive, slow but sure. Its career can’t be anything but fascinating, for it is one of a kind in St. Petersburg”.
Bayfront Towers, 30 floors of empty elegance, is beginning to come alive
Now that the first Resident has moved in - and more are on the way
Reprinted from an article that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on August 18th 1975
You can smell banana oil and fresh paint as you round the outside corner, and workmen still carry boards and machinery across paper-covered lobby carpeting and up the four elevators.
A guard sits at his desk, with an intercom at his fingertips. But the lobby mural of Florida pelicans, herons and roseate spoonbills is complete and colorful, lending an air of elegance to the new Bay Front Tower, despite its incompleteness. Incompleteness? So what, thought Charles R. Trowbridge, retiring from a 30 year position with the U.S. Department of the Interior. To St. Petersburg a year ago, from Denver. Trowbridge moved into his 11th floor apartment, overlooking Al Lang Field and the south end of St. Petersburg, on Aug 1st, the first permissible day of occupancy. For two weeks Trowbridge has been the only occupant, except for the lobby guard, whom he could always see by turning his TV to Channel 2 if he got lonely. “To be in this great big building 30 floors high and a block long, doesn’t feel any different than any other place” Trowbridge confided Friday. “Maybe I should say it feels lonely or different, but there are no ghosts or memories. It’s not like a castle. It’s really just like starting from scratch.”
And what's the difference from being alone in a big house or a small cottage, or being alone in a big building? I don’t know what I would have done if this place hadn’t been here. Go to Ireland, I guess.” Trowbridge isn’t fully settled yet, (except for his English clavichord shipped directly from London to Tampa) and his bedroom. He still has boxes and belongings to be installed or stored. But he’s at home. And there’s the difference. "Humidity here,” he said “Denver was so dry. My friends back there don’t understand that, and they can’t understand how I can afford such a place. But, I just sold my home and bought this. And the maintenance cost is no different than (the cost of) having a car. I don’t need a car here. Driving’s lost its fun now anyway. I can walk everywhere I want to go. St. Peters (Episcopal Cathedral) is only four blocks away, and I can get to Maas Bros, and all these delightful shops along the street here.”
"I can walk to the Bayfront Center and the Museum, and I may become a baseball fan with this view I have. Each morning I get up and have my breakfast on my balcony and see the boats on my left, the aircraft on the field and the city of diminutive houses and cars. Beyond is the arch that bridges the inlet to Tampa Bay. My ship’s chronometer tolls 6 bells (7 am) and revile sounds from the bugle at the Coast Guard Station.” Trowbridge wrote all that to his friends. He was so enamored with the place his first night that he also wrote: “August 1, installed by my nephew’s family. Champagne dinner. The first night, sole occupant save for guard at entrance, visible on my TV. In bed, can see the jewel like illumination from the city far below, the ships at sea, the flashing harbor light, the blue airport runway lamps. Love it all.”
Towbridge had his first fellow building occupant Friday night. Mrs. Edward G. Acheson moved into her 12th floor apartment August 15,th with her toy French poodle Beau Bijou. She paid the deposit on her apartment when the building was merely a hole in the ground. Her furniture was moved in last October (in storage). She has visited the site many times, but Friday was her first permanent day of the premises. “It’s not real yet, really.” Mrs. Acheson said Friday. “I am just thrilled to death. I moved here from a large house, and now I can just sit back and enjoy it. I am not timid, and didn’t mind being alone in the house. But why do that if you don’t need to? It seemed foolish to stay in a big home. And as you get older you don’t want the responsibility either. Bayfront Tower isn’t the first high rise apartment Mrs. Acheson has lived in. “We lived on the 17th floor in New York City.” She said, “so I knew how high up I wanted to be. ‘(This 12th floor) works out nicely. If you’re higher, automobiles and people seem small, like toys. From here they seem more real.
The only momentary problem she had was with Beau, who’s housebroken and simply won’t use a newspaper, or box, or artificial turf. “We had to work something in case I couldn’t take Beau out.” Mrs. Acheson said “So my son built a special box, like a long seedling box with five or six pieces of real sod. I can keep this on my balcony for Beau to use when we can’t go out to walk.
Mrs. Acheson’s view to the east takes in the pier, park areas, boats and air field. I wanted the water view, but also something else. The Yacht Basin was just right. I am very pleased to be here. I think it’s going to be just lovely.” Both she and Trowbridge are now at home at No. 1 Beach Drive. Which was a very controversial building with a price tag of about $25 Million. They won’t be alone much longer. Other owners of the 260 Unit, tallest building in Pinellas County, are completing their personalized apartments and the next occupant will be moving into the 29 story luxury apartment (four years in the building) by the end of August.
You can smell banana oil and fresh paint as you round the outside corner, and workmen still carry boards and machinery across paper-covered lobby carpeting and up the four elevators.
A guard sits at his desk, with an intercom at his fingertips. But the lobby mural of Florida pelicans, herons and roseate spoonbills is complete and colorful, lending an air of elegance to the new Bay Front Tower, despite its incompleteness. Incompleteness? So what, thought Charles R. Trowbridge, retiring from a 30 year position with the U.S. Department of the Interior. To St. Petersburg a year ago, from Denver. Trowbridge moved into his 11th floor apartment, overlooking Al Lang Field and the south end of St. Petersburg, on Aug 1st, the first permissible day of occupancy. For two weeks Trowbridge has been the only occupant, except for the lobby guard, whom he could always see by turning his TV to Channel 2 if he got lonely. “To be in this great big building 30 floors high and a block long, doesn’t feel any different than any other place” Trowbridge confided Friday. “Maybe I should say it feels lonely or different, but there are no ghosts or memories. It’s not like a castle. It’s really just like starting from scratch.”
And what's the difference from being alone in a big house or a small cottage, or being alone in a big building? I don’t know what I would have done if this place hadn’t been here. Go to Ireland, I guess.” Trowbridge isn’t fully settled yet, (except for his English clavichord shipped directly from London to Tampa) and his bedroom. He still has boxes and belongings to be installed or stored. But he’s at home. And there’s the difference. "Humidity here,” he said “Denver was so dry. My friends back there don’t understand that, and they can’t understand how I can afford such a place. But, I just sold my home and bought this. And the maintenance cost is no different than (the cost of) having a car. I don’t need a car here. Driving’s lost its fun now anyway. I can walk everywhere I want to go. St. Peters (Episcopal Cathedral) is only four blocks away, and I can get to Maas Bros, and all these delightful shops along the street here.”
"I can walk to the Bayfront Center and the Museum, and I may become a baseball fan with this view I have. Each morning I get up and have my breakfast on my balcony and see the boats on my left, the aircraft on the field and the city of diminutive houses and cars. Beyond is the arch that bridges the inlet to Tampa Bay. My ship’s chronometer tolls 6 bells (7 am) and revile sounds from the bugle at the Coast Guard Station.” Trowbridge wrote all that to his friends. He was so enamored with the place his first night that he also wrote: “August 1, installed by my nephew’s family. Champagne dinner. The first night, sole occupant save for guard at entrance, visible on my TV. In bed, can see the jewel like illumination from the city far below, the ships at sea, the flashing harbor light, the blue airport runway lamps. Love it all.”
Towbridge had his first fellow building occupant Friday night. Mrs. Edward G. Acheson moved into her 12th floor apartment August 15,th with her toy French poodle Beau Bijou. She paid the deposit on her apartment when the building was merely a hole in the ground. Her furniture was moved in last October (in storage). She has visited the site many times, but Friday was her first permanent day of the premises. “It’s not real yet, really.” Mrs. Acheson said Friday. “I am just thrilled to death. I moved here from a large house, and now I can just sit back and enjoy it. I am not timid, and didn’t mind being alone in the house. But why do that if you don’t need to? It seemed foolish to stay in a big home. And as you get older you don’t want the responsibility either. Bayfront Tower isn’t the first high rise apartment Mrs. Acheson has lived in. “We lived on the 17th floor in New York City.” She said, “so I knew how high up I wanted to be. ‘(This 12th floor) works out nicely. If you’re higher, automobiles and people seem small, like toys. From here they seem more real.
The only momentary problem she had was with Beau, who’s housebroken and simply won’t use a newspaper, or box, or artificial turf. “We had to work something in case I couldn’t take Beau out.” Mrs. Acheson said “So my son built a special box, like a long seedling box with five or six pieces of real sod. I can keep this on my balcony for Beau to use when we can’t go out to walk.
Mrs. Acheson’s view to the east takes in the pier, park areas, boats and air field. I wanted the water view, but also something else. The Yacht Basin was just right. I am very pleased to be here. I think it’s going to be just lovely.” Both she and Trowbridge are now at home at No. 1 Beach Drive. Which was a very controversial building with a price tag of about $25 Million. They won’t be alone much longer. Other owners of the 260 Unit, tallest building in Pinellas County, are completing their personalized apartments and the next occupant will be moving into the 29 story luxury apartment (four years in the building) by the end of August.
Bayfront Tower's Board Reshuffled
Reprinted from an article that appeared in The St. Petersburg Times on August 31, 2003.
Leadership at Bayfront Tower abruptly changed last week after two years of rancorous debate over proposed repairs at the downtown condominium with sweeping waterfront vistas.
This difficult situation began when it was discovered that there were problems in the curtain walls of the units’ exterior.. They had developed minor cracks which were allowing moisture to seep into the wall’s interior and this moisture had affected the integrity of the steel studs holding the outside walls in place. Those damaged studs needed to be replaced and the walls needed to be replaced or repaired.
In addressing the problem the then acting board members called in a firm and received an estimate of about $12,000,000 for repair and replacement costs. Many owners felt the estimate was exorbitant and there followed months of rancor among many of the owners. A group led by owner Capt. William Walker felt the estimate much too high and another group lead by the existing board members, who felt the cost was necessary. There were angry words tossed out by both sides which included a challenge to board member Bill Hooper from Capt. Walker to “meet him in Pioneer Park at dawn”.
A recall election was held and Bill Hooper was removed from the board followed by the resignation of two more members. Replacement board members were appointed. The needed work’s cost was re-evaluated and with the help of a special assessment the repairs were completed very satisfactorily and at a fraction of the original estimate.
The special assessment was needed because early on the Tower’s insurance company, Crum Forester Indemnity, had refused to pay for the repairs. A lawsuit was later brought against them by the Bayfront Tower Board with attorney, Amy Boggs, of the Merlin Law Group. A number of the residents were issued subpoenas in September of 2008 but the major witness at the trial was owner Mary Jones. As a past President of the BFT Board, her long term involvement in the case and her knowledge of the events leading up to the lawsuit, Mary Jones, was recognized by the building’s board and its attorneys as the best authority on the case and she was asked by them to represent Bayfront Tower during the trial. The-three day trial took place March 23-25, 2010 and the judge handed down a settlement in late summer of 2010. The building was awarded $1.8 million and after legal costs were paid, $1.162 million was collected from the insurance settlement toward the cost of the wall replacement work and was placed in the general fund.
Leadership at Bayfront Tower abruptly changed last week after two years of rancorous debate over proposed repairs at the downtown condominium with sweeping waterfront vistas.
This difficult situation began when it was discovered that there were problems in the curtain walls of the units’ exterior.. They had developed minor cracks which were allowing moisture to seep into the wall’s interior and this moisture had affected the integrity of the steel studs holding the outside walls in place. Those damaged studs needed to be replaced and the walls needed to be replaced or repaired.
In addressing the problem the then acting board members called in a firm and received an estimate of about $12,000,000 for repair and replacement costs. Many owners felt the estimate was exorbitant and there followed months of rancor among many of the owners. A group led by owner Capt. William Walker felt the estimate much too high and another group lead by the existing board members, who felt the cost was necessary. There were angry words tossed out by both sides which included a challenge to board member Bill Hooper from Capt. Walker to “meet him in Pioneer Park at dawn”.
A recall election was held and Bill Hooper was removed from the board followed by the resignation of two more members. Replacement board members were appointed. The needed work’s cost was re-evaluated and with the help of a special assessment the repairs were completed very satisfactorily and at a fraction of the original estimate.
The special assessment was needed because early on the Tower’s insurance company, Crum Forester Indemnity, had refused to pay for the repairs. A lawsuit was later brought against them by the Bayfront Tower Board with attorney, Amy Boggs, of the Merlin Law Group. A number of the residents were issued subpoenas in September of 2008 but the major witness at the trial was owner Mary Jones. As a past President of the BFT Board, her long term involvement in the case and her knowledge of the events leading up to the lawsuit, Mary Jones, was recognized by the building’s board and its attorneys as the best authority on the case and she was asked by them to represent Bayfront Tower during the trial. The-three day trial took place March 23-25, 2010 and the judge handed down a settlement in late summer of 2010. The building was awarded $1.8 million and after legal costs were paid, $1.162 million was collected from the insurance settlement toward the cost of the wall replacement work and was placed in the general fund.
Bayfront Residents Evacuated
Reprinted from an article that appeared in The St. Petersburg Times on July 3, 2007
A kitchen fire Monday morning forced the evacuation of residents at the downtown Bayfront Tower. Nearly 75 people were evacuated from the building because of a kitchen fire in a 27th floor unit. The fire was caused by the malfunctioning of an almost new oven. The S.P.F.D arrived quickly and the fire was contained in a short time and did not spread to any other units.
The evacuated residents waited either in Pioneer Park or inside air conditioned buses brought to the scene by fire officials to provide shelter from the heat.
BFT Website Note: The fire was the first high-rise fire to occur in St. Petersburg. Though unpleasant to experience, it gave the S.P.F.D. a chance to practice their high-rise skills on a non-threatening life threatening blaze.
A kitchen fire Monday morning forced the evacuation of residents at the downtown Bayfront Tower. Nearly 75 people were evacuated from the building because of a kitchen fire in a 27th floor unit. The fire was caused by the malfunctioning of an almost new oven. The S.P.F.D arrived quickly and the fire was contained in a short time and did not spread to any other units.
The evacuated residents waited either in Pioneer Park or inside air conditioned buses brought to the scene by fire officials to provide shelter from the heat.
BFT Website Note: The fire was the first high-rise fire to occur in St. Petersburg. Though unpleasant to experience, it gave the S.P.F.D. a chance to practice their high-rise skills on a non-threatening life threatening blaze.
Former Manager Charged in Bayfront Tower Scam
Reprinted from an article that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on August 11, 2008.
Kevin Hoggarth, Bayfront Tower's former property manager, was arrested and later convicted of stealing $250,000, transferring that amount out of a Bayfront Tower Association account, writing checks to himself in an amount totaling nearly $1,990, taking a lap top computer, and other small objects. When arrested it was found he used false bank statements and lied repeatedly to cover up his crimes. Before being discovered, he resigned his job as Manager and told everyone he was going out of town. It didn’t take long for the acting board members to figure out something was amiss. They contacted the building’s legal advisor, Attorney Ellen de Hahn of Becker and Poliakof, who advised the board members to go to the Police and the White Collar Crime Division took it from there.
Kevin Hoggarth surrendered on August 11, 2008. When questioned Kevin told police he had used the money for a deposit on a $2.6 million home in Tampa. Unfortunately, the developer of the home had gone into bankruptcy and the funds could not be recovered. Nevertheless the Bayfront’s state mandated insurance covered all but a small portion of the loss.
BFT Website Note: The occurrence of this crime was one of the issues which lead to the board’s later decision to research the feasibility of hiring a professional management company. The Continental Management Company was hired by the Bayfront Tower board in the fall of 2011 and began management January 1, 2012.
Kevin Hoggarth, Bayfront Tower's former property manager, was arrested and later convicted of stealing $250,000, transferring that amount out of a Bayfront Tower Association account, writing checks to himself in an amount totaling nearly $1,990, taking a lap top computer, and other small objects. When arrested it was found he used false bank statements and lied repeatedly to cover up his crimes. Before being discovered, he resigned his job as Manager and told everyone he was going out of town. It didn’t take long for the acting board members to figure out something was amiss. They contacted the building’s legal advisor, Attorney Ellen de Hahn of Becker and Poliakof, who advised the board members to go to the Police and the White Collar Crime Division took it from there.
Kevin Hoggarth surrendered on August 11, 2008. When questioned Kevin told police he had used the money for a deposit on a $2.6 million home in Tampa. Unfortunately, the developer of the home had gone into bankruptcy and the funds could not be recovered. Nevertheless the Bayfront’s state mandated insurance covered all but a small portion of the loss.
BFT Website Note: The occurrence of this crime was one of the issues which lead to the board’s later decision to research the feasibility of hiring a professional management company. The Continental Management Company was hired by the Bayfront Tower board in the fall of 2011 and began management January 1, 2012.
Biblography
Below is a list of sources for articles cited in this website
- Bothwell, Dick (1975, September 14), “The View from the Top”, Saint Petersburg Times
- Centennial – “A Nautical Heritage: The St. Petersburg Yacht Club Story”, Second Edition, 1909-2009
- Coe, Marian (1974, October 4), “Birdlife Mural to Grace Tower Lobby”, Saint Petersburg Times
- Morre, Waveney Ann, (2003, August 31), “Bayfront Tower’s Board Reshuffled”, Saint Petersburg Times
- Patterson, Odette, (1997, March), “Our Murals”, Bayfront Tower’s Chatterbox
- Peppard, Jim, (2008, August 11), “Former Manager Charged in Bayfront Tower Scam”, Saint Petersburg Times and 10NEWS
- Raghunathan, Abhi, Cora, Casey, Anton, Leonora Lapeter, (2007, July 3), “Bayfront Residents Evacuated”, Saint Petersburg Times
- Reed, Clayton, (1975, September 14), “Most Exclusive Club in Town to Rise on Chatterbox Site”, Saint Petersburg Times
- Shenk, Mary Nic (1975, August 18), “Rooms at the Top”, Saint Petersburg Times
- Snyder, Sarah (1975, July 10), “Murals Give Walls Life”, Evening Independent
- Moore, Waveney Ann (2014, Jan. 12) "Time for a Facelift, Tampa Bay Times