Architect Michael Maltzan’s “Lens” Wins St. Petersburg Pier Competition

A jury <a href="http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/30969">has announced</a> that <a href="http://www.mmaltzan.com/">Michael Maltzan Architecture</a> is the winner of the international St. Petersburg Pier competition. Maltzan's winning proposal, "Lens," is a collaboration with Oakland-based landscape architecture firm Tom Leader Studio, and it calls for the construction of a sweeping, curved pier with walking paths, a water park, a tidal reef and an open-air amphitheater. But what's with the name? "The new Pier is not an icon unto itself," MMA explains in the proposal. "It is instead a lens that frames the City’s relationship to the water, changing how St. Petersburg views its present and its future." The metaphorical lens will be directed both towards the city and the water, providing views of the bay and bringing people closer to the marine life.

Viewed from the air, Michael Maltzan's "Lens" is a long, criss-crossing pier that is ringed by a large, oblong canopy.

"The new Pier is not an icon unto itself," MMA explains in the proposal. "It is instead a lens that frames the City’s relationship to the water, changing how St. Petersburg views its present and its future."

In the Lens' interior, a series of below-water panels will dampen wave action, creating a calm water surface.

Part of the structure from the existing pier will be used as the foundation for a new aquatic reef. Sea grass and trays of oyster habitat will be suspended between underwater caissons, creating an ecosystem where create mollusks, fish, turtles, and manatees can thrive.

A central dock will be devoted to kayaks and paddle boats, and it will be ringed with transient slips.

The new water park will be a dynamic area, with trees, spilling water, a spa beach, and tide pools.

People will be able to visit the new pier on foot, by bicycle, or by taking the new Pier Tram.

Maltzan's Lens doesn't start and stop at the shoreline; where the pier meets the shore, another complementary loop will extend towards the city's downtown.

The multi-tiered pier will provide visitors a variety of vantage points from which to take in the bay.

The Lens will incorporate a series of micro wind turbines into the canopy of the pier, and an array of solar panels will be positioned on the northwest edge of the bowl. The plan also calls for a rainwater collection system.

Twenty-seven firms entered into the competition to redesign the iconic pier, and in recent months the list was cut down to nine, and then three. The runners-up were Bjarke Ingels Group, which proposed to build a giant wave-shaped structure, and West 8, which pitched a round structure surrounded by a large sandbar.

Construction of the Lens is expected to take one year.