Generosity of Place: Water Street Tampa’s Continuous Canopy

A series of fragmented blocks in downtown Tampa, Florida became a proving ground for city-building centered on human comfort and wellbeing. The developer appointed the landscape architect at their project’s inception, seeking a public realm master plan to articulate strong civic values and to enact a holistic vision for wellness. The landscape architect defined Water Street Tampa through mature live oaks set within sidewalks dimensioned to permit 1,200 cubic feet of soil per tree, to sustain continuous canopy above, aiming to achieve 75% coverage in 10 years. Principles of comfort, connectivity, and resilience guided realization of Water Street’s first six blocks and its certification in 2023 as the first-ever WELL Standard Community.

Water Street Tampa is a live-work-play district where public realm design stirs civic life and advances wellness by means of an extraordinary urban forest. The framework planning area addresses 53 acres, once surface parking lots and industrial parcels, rebuilding a street grid to link downtown’s central business district to Channelside district. Tampa’s form-based code is reimagined to prototype a public realm where sidewalks act as urban plazas, prioritizing room to plant mature live oaks as street trees that welcome all beneath their shade. Design principles of immersive human comfort, environmental resilience, and restored connections have shaped completion of Water Street’s first six blocks in January 2023. This success highlights potential for mature trees to define urban public realms — and for landscape architects to lead in conceiving, designing, and realizing our cities.

Immersive  Urban canopy ambitions drove the form of the public realm. Across more than one mile of continuous sidewalks, sidewalk widths were designed to accommodate adequate soil volume to support mature canopy trees. Of 300 live oaks planned for the district, 50 are planted as part of the first phase. The landscape architect provisioned diverse open spaces for people across multiple street types, each with trees and distinct furnishing zones. Of these the most generous is Water Street, the district’s namesake, featuring a 45-foot-wide, four-block “verge” planted with a double row of 7”-caliper live oaks. This is the site of many experiences, from shaded solitude to intimate music performances, holiday parades and activations by local artists. Furnishing zones are detailed to be welcoming and flexible. Overhead custom catenary light fixtures dapple evening light. Comfortable wooden furniture is specified for the best shade. Fountains along Water Street appeal to sight, sound, and touch.

Resilient   Shaded by urban forest, accessible by bike and on foot, and surfaced and planted to manage intense stormwater, this is a resilient community rooted to Gulf Coast Florida. Planting mature live oaks today begins to deliver shade and thermal comfort right away, while generous soil volumes and life support systems ensure the canopy becomes a cooling climate adaptation in years ahead. Though Water Street does not reach the waterfront, it slopes down to the Garrison Channel. Some 62% of sidewalks are permeable or absorptive surfaces. Rain gardens appear continuously. Urban plantings capitalize on the temperate ecological zone, drawing inspiration for a xeric and mesic hammock planting palette via engagement with local horticulturalists. Native and adaptive species appear; all plantings relate to topography and proximity to the Bay.

Connected Water Street makes connections and communicates connectivity. The site in 2016 consisted of parcels of a formerly industrial waterfront, disconnected from downtown and Tampa Bay. The landscape architect set the scale of the district to be welcoming, accessible, and humane. Orientation to the water is clear; east-west connections between neighborhoods are strong. Streets are narrow; blocks are short. Reclaimed brick is reused in parking areas to reduce the perception of road width. Permeable sidewalk paving includes a custom paver whose angles echo an eccentric shift in Tampa’s street-grid orientation. And a 45-foot-wide crosswalk — continuing that park-like furnishing zone of Water Street — says it all: pedestrians are welcome. 

• Gary Hilderbrand, FASLA - Principal, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Chris Moyles, FASLA - Principal, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Elizabeth Randall, ASLA - Principal, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Stephanie Hsia, ASLA - Master Plan and Meridian Project Manager, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Claire Fellman, ASLA - G Block Project Manager, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Anthony Fox, ASLA - H Block Project Manager, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• John Fishback, ASLA - C Block Project Manager, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Leah Broder - L Block Project Manager, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Shaine Wong - Designer, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Allison Chan - Designer, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Janice Tung - Designer, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Guan Min - Designer, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Boya Ye - Designer, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
• Elkus Manfredi Architects - Masterplan Architects
• COOKFOX - Architecture
• Morris Adjmi - Architecture
• Kohn Pedersen Fox - Architecture
• HOK - Architecture
• Nelson Byrd Woltz - Landscape Architecture
• Stantec (Tampa) - Masterplan/District Civil Engineering; Landscape Architecture; Construction Administration
• EDSA - Landscape Architecture; Construction Administration
• Oona Johnsen - Landscape Architecture; (Construction Administration)
• Irrigation Consulting, Inc. - Irrigation
• Tillotson Design Associates - Lighting
• JBC Landscape Architects (formerly Jeffrey L. Bruce & Co. LLC) - Soils

Products

• Furniture
• Drainage/Erosion
• Hardscape
• Lighting