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Building A Works In Progress

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: December 17, 2008

TAMPA HEIGHTS - USF architecture students envision a ground floor at the historic Tampa Armature Works building with a market, artist's studios and galleries, a coffee shop and restaurants offering a view of the lower Hillsborough River.

Above the existing structure, some students say, a mid-rise building with apartments or condominiums would be appropriate.

"It is an interesting site that offers a lot to the surroundings," said Alberto Rodriguez, one of 16 members of a class studying the building for the University of South Florida's School of Architecture and Community Design.

"I see a lot of potential."

During the fall semester, Rodriguez and his classmates studied the area of Tampa Heights, took a boat tour on the river and created individual concepts for the building, reflected in drawings and building models. Their final presentation was to a jury of USF architect professors, architects and urban planners on Dec. 8 at the Tampa Armature Works building, 1910 N. Ola Ave., just north of downtown Tampa.

The students were intrigued by the building's potential and its central location to the river, downtown, Ybor City, Channel District and West Tampa.

"It is really exciting place with a lot of natural amenities that people can take advantage of," said Fadi Sheikh-Khalil, who is pursuing a master's degree in architecture from USF. "Right now it's sort of a dead area."

Creating a dynamic, mixed-use urban community at the Tampa Armature Works and 48 acres surrounding it is the vision of The Heights of Tampa, a development company that invited the architecture students to use the building as a case study on adaptive reuse and urban development.

Darren Booth, The Heights' development manager, said the developer hopes to present designs to the city's Architectural Review Commission in the spring and perhaps begin building in the summer.

The development firm, also called The Heights of Tampa, is considering a building with restaurants, offices, a market, indoor public space and a hotel lobby on the ground floor. A hotel and residences - apartments, most likely - could be built atop the existing Tampa Armature Works building, Booth said.

"We are going to take the shell of the trolley barn and make it something useful in the 21st Century," he said.

The developer hopes to incorporate some of the concepts presented by the students.

The 1911 building, which is a local historical landmark, was the trolley barn for the Tampa Electric Company, which operated the Tampa Electric Street and Railway Company.

The electric streetcar ran in Tampa from 1892 through 1946, when automobiles became the favored form of transportation. The building is the last historic streetcar barn in the Tampa Bay area, and one of the few standing in the country.
Tampa Armature Works bought the building when the streetcar service ended. In 2004, the company used the building for light manufacturing to build and assemble electrical controls. It employed a total of 120 people in three shifts.

The owners sold the 70,000-square-foot building to The Heights of Tampa development in 2005.

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659.

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