 Back to Landslide Profile
|
Citizen's Group
"Friends of Kiley Garden"
August 30 , 2005 Update
Mayor's Commitment to Save Tampa Kiley Garden
On July 20th, our citizen's group met with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio to discuss the future of the Kiley Garden. The meeting started with the Mayor stating her support for saving the Kiley Garden !!
She further explained that she had changed her mind due to the commitment of Tampa citizens to regularly attend meetings and show their support the gardens. She said that the information our group provided her about the garden's designer, Dan Kiley, and the cultural significance of the NationsBank Plaza Park contributed to her decision to support the Garden. The Mayor requested that our citizen's group create a formal non-profit organization to assist with the future funding and the restoration of the Garden. As a part of the meeting, the Mayor also stated her support for the National Register Nomination of the Kiley Garden and was given the preliminary questionnaire to authorize her support of the project. This meeting was a milestone for our newly formed "Friends of Kiley Garden" and for all who love and have supported this effort. Thank you to all of you who sent letters to save the garden.
For those who haven't had the opportunity to send a letter showing your support, we need you now!! Currently, the City and the NationsBank Plaza Building Owner's are studying the subsurface parking lot beneath the Garden. The report is overdue and may impact the Garden if subsurface repairs are recommended! Please include in your letter of support for the Garden's nomination to the National Register, a request that the City coordinate with the "Friends of Kiley Park" to carefully catalogue the surface elements of the Garden, if the parking report indicates any subsurface repairs are necessary. Send your letters to Tampa 's Mayor, Pam Iorio via e-mail at: pam.iorio@tampagov.net please be sure to copy (Cc:) the City Council at: tampacitycouncil@tampagov.net and Sue Thompson via e-mail at SAVEKILEYPARK@comcast.net so your letters can be included in both the local and national register nomination submittals. In early August, Anne Raver, journalist for the New York Times, and Charles Birnbaum, National Parks Service and The Cultural Landscape Foundation, came to tour the Kiley Gardens in preparation for an upcoming article in the New York Times.
The newly formed, non-profit "Friends of Kiley Garden" will be kicking off their new website to provide information to the public about the NationsBank Plaza Park and our work to save it. The kick-off of the webpage will coincide with the New York Times article in September. Please visit us at www.KileyGardens.org to find out more about the Garden and what you can do to help restore it!
The Cultural Landscape Foundation has recently posted a Stewardship Story by Sue Thompson, of our non-profit group, that discusses the progress of the Kiley Garden from a threatened landscape to a commitment from the Mayor to preserve this unique, modern garden. Please read about how a group of design professionals and citizens organized to save a local treasure.
During the May garden tour, a group of young architects known as the "YardOps" were in the Kiley Garden cleaning up trash, removing leaves and debris from the drained water features, pruning the overgrown palms and crape myrtles and spreading the word of what we can do to save our endangered public spaces in Tampa Bay. As a part of the efforts initiated by the YARD-OPS, we continue to hold monthly clean-ups in the Garden on the first Saturday of the month, barring any hurricanes. In addition to gradually improving the appearance of the Garden, the continued monthly clean-ups help keep us visible to the public and City officials. If you find yourself in Tampa and would like to support our efforts, please stop by and join us. To find out more about what the YardOps group is doing to raise the awareness of neglected public spaces in Tampa, contact Chris Vela (e-mail: yardops@yahoo.com ). |
