Water Street Tampa

Phase 0

For the Sparkman Wharf Project, Pep Rally Inc had the exciting opportunity to collaborate with Strategic Property Partners beginning at phase 0 to create a unique space along Tampa’s Garrison Channel waterfront. The project is among the first of many revitalization projects for the Channelside District. We illustrated repurposed shipping containers with fun and vibrant interpretations of icons of Tampa culture. The shipping containers compose the structure where restaurateurs from the native culinary environment offer food and drinks from food-hall style windows.These containers are a backdrop for a large scale mural that wraps the surface area of the containers in a visual celebration of Tampa Bay.

Shipping Container Concept

Our concept for the shipping containers uses collaged imagery inspired by the movement of Tampa Bay as a vehicle for natural and cultural local icons. Birds, plants and other natural structures, and architectural patterns adorn the corrugated surfaces of each container to represent themes like movement and migration. The motifs flow across the ridged surfaces like the tides flow through mangrove roots and Tampa’s culture flows through periods of growth and change. Each container facade includes representative elements of the area’s thriving diversity of culture and natural beauty; a celebration of the elements that make the Sparkman Wharf concept great.

The result is a visually fun atmosphere, as the murals make use of energetic color balanced with cooler tones, mirroring the vibrant social gatherings taking place with a waterfront view. Visitors to the space frequently make use of the murals as a backdrop for photos to post on social media.

Local connection to the natural environment.

Strategic Property Partners, the developers who single-handedly transformed the Tampa skyline, took on the monumental task of transforming an old movie theater into a modern office to call home.

The forty-foot-high open industrial ceilings and giant exposed steel structures are not your typical office space. Two additional obstacles were the flood of natural light that pours through the oversized windows and the echo of conversation that reverberates through the open floor plan. Acoustic ceiling tiles could be one pragmatic solution, but that does not align with the level of creative vision SPP is known for. The interior design had a minimalist aesthetic of white walls and black architectural details that served as a perfect backdrop for a collection of pop art, but something was still missing.

When the idea of a sculpture was presented, they called us. The office needed a statement piece with texture and movement. To meet this need, Pep Rally Inc brainstormed an installation that could float like a cloud while occupying some of the space’s open volume. Because SPP is deeply committed to all things local, we chose to work with sponges. This natural material, sourced through Tarpon Springs, made the perfect material to begin our journey. Sponges solve the acoustic issues and are light and malleable enough to create organic shapes.

During our development process, we went to work building models and one-third scale prototypes, knowing the end result would be two separate sculptures: one forty-five feet long and the second sixty feet long. Both sculptures would need to weave between multiple hanging pendant lights and rise and fall with attachment hardware that is virtually invisible. We also developed a tool for attaching the cable system to the ceiling because the office is on the second floor, which eliminates the option to maneuver a large scissor lift.

The final pieces consisted of vintage cotton fishnets stitched together with hundreds of strands of sponges strung together. We connected each strand to the net, allowing us to manipulate the shape without the sponges gathering in the center. We used sliding hardware on the cables so that we could manipulate the shape of the nets on location, resulting in a dynamic sculpture that floats in midair, waving back and forth gently as if the sponges are still in Tampa Bay.

Painted Parking Lot

In addition to the shipping container murals, Pep Rally created a mural that spans the surface of Garrison Parking Lot. The team overcame the challenge of scale by using a grid to map out the artwork on paper before enlarging and transferring the gridded imagery onto the parking lot surface with rollers. This massive mural includes a black background with white topographic lines and slogans woven throughout. Strategic Property Partners provided the slogans, which use language that fosters excitement and socialization like “Feel the spark,” “Make waves TPA,” and “Group chat in person.”

Form and Function

We also created a design for the walkway and scaffolding to present wayfinding information that is visually appealing and cohesive with the Sparkman Wharf concept. Mangrove root patterns wind across sidewalks and wood panels that cover scaffolding to provide directions to the area’s landmarks.