The Threat

The integrity of Kiley's NationsBank Plaza Park design already has been affected by the removal of key design elements, including the 400-foot glass-bottomed canal (the source for nine water runnels and pools throughout the garden) and three 78- by 39-foot reflecting pools along North Ashley Drive. In addition, the landscape currently faces multiple threats, including potential construction of:

•  an Art Museum that would cover the eastern boundary of the site (including the former water features adjacent to Ashley Drive );

•  a new park that would be adjacent to and impact the northern boundary of the project; and

•  a Riverwalk that would impact the western boundary of the site.

Thus this landscape is in serious and eminent peril. However, the Museum of Art's site selection has been delayed and the plans for the park and the Riverwalk are still in the preliminary design phase.

The Florida Chapter of both the American Society of Landscape Architect's (FLASLA) and the Florida Chapter of the American Society of Architects (FLAIA) support the preservation of Kiley's NationsBank Plaza Park. Area design professionals have recently formed The Friends of Kiley's Garden, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate, preserve and rehabilitate this iconic landscape. A grassroots effort has been underway for the last year to procure letters of support from local and national design professionals who feel passionately about this landscape and its importance to the body of landscape architectural work. To date, letters from architects, landscape architects, educators and historians have been submitted in support of preserving this project.

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