Generosity of Place: Water Street Tampa’s Continuous Canopy
Honor Award
Urban Design
Tampa, Florida, United States
Reed Hilderbrand
Client: Strategic Property Partners
A beautiful addition to the urban waterfront. This project feels simple and lowkey, yet the thresholds and interfaces that connect disparate sections within the design are quite refined in their simplicity. It is a park that feels like it will become a special place for the neighborhood and residents who live and grow up there.
- 2025 Awards Jury
Project Credits
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 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
Nelson Byrd Woltz, Landscape Architecture
AECOM, Architecture
Stantec (Tampa), Civil Engineering
Cosentini Associates, MEP Engineering
Irrigation Consulting, Inc., Irrigation
Tillotson Design Associates, Lighting
JBC Landscape Architects (formerly Jeffrey L. Bruce & Co. LLC), Soils
Project Statement
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.
Project Narrative
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.
Products
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Furniture
- mmcité ‘Woody’ bench
- Metalco ‘Stone’ bench
- mmcité ‘Prax’ trash and recycling receptacles
- mmcité dog waste dispensers
- Dero ‘Hoop’ bike racks
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Drainage/Erosion
- Aco trench drains
- Zurn aeration grates
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Hardscape
- Hanover Architectural Products
- Tectura Designs
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Lighting
- ANP Lighting
Plant List
- Quercus virginianum (Live Oak)
- Taxodium distichum (Bald Cypress)
- Acer rubrum ‘Florida Flame’ (Red Maple)
- Ulmus alata (Winged Elm)
- Myrcianthes fragrans (Simpson’s Stopper)
- Magnolia virginiana (Sweetbay Magnolia)
- Podocarpus macrophyllus (Plum Yew)
- Elaeocarpus decipiens (Japanese Blueberry)
- Pinus elliotti ‘Densa’ (Dense Pine)
- Zamia floridana (Florida Zamia)
- Silphium astericus (Rosin Flower)
- Tripascum floridanum (Dwarf Fakahatchee Grass)
- Mimosa strigilosa (Sunshine Mimosa)
- Thelypteris kunthii (Southern Shield Fern)
- Osmunda regalis (Royal Fern)
- Hymenocalis latifolia (Spider Lily)
- Saururus cernuus (Lizard Tail)
- Spartina (Spartina Grass)
- Eriocaulon acquticum (Pipewort)
- Muhlenbergia capilaris ‘White Cloud’ (White Cloud Muhly Grass)
- Salvia coccinea (Tropical Sage)
- Viburnum obovatum ‘Withlacoochee’ (Walter Viburnum Withlacoochee)
- Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed)
- Zamia floridana (Coontie)
- Psychotria nervosa (Shiny Coffee)
- Butia capitata (Jelly Palm)
- Serenoa reptens ‘Cinerea’ (Saw Palmetto)
- Sabal minor (Dwarf Palmetto)
- Blechnum serrulatum (Swamp Fern)
- Nephrolepsis exaltata (Sword Fern)
- Epimedium x versicolor (Bishop’s Hat)
- Panicum virgatum (Dwarf Switch Grass)
- Tiarella cordifolia (Foamflower)
- Yucca smalliana (Adam’s needle)
- Eragostis elliottii (Elliot Lovegrass)
- Monarda punctata (Spotted bee balm)
- Calamintha georgiana (Georgia calamint)
- Gaura lindheimeri “white” (Lindheimer’s beeblossom)
- Mahonia eurybracteata (Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’)
- Ophiopogon japonicus (Mondo Grass)
- Trachelospermum asiaticum (Asiatic Jasmine)