Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park is an public park located along the Hillsborough river in downtown Tampa,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

that opened in its current configuration in 2010. It is adjacent to the

Tampa Riverwalk The Tampa Riverwalk is a open space and pedestrian trail along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida. The Riverwalk extends along most of the downtown Tampa waterfront from the Channelside District on the eastern terminus to the mouth of ...

Florida Museum of Photographic Arts The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (FMoPA) occupies the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Cube, Rivergate Plaza's six-story atrium building. Since 2012, FMoPA has been located in the Cube, which was selected as one of the Top 100 buildings in Florida ...

Tampa Museum of Art The Tampa Museum of Art is located in downtown Tampa, Florida. It exhibits modern and contemporary art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. The museum was founded in 1979 and debuted an award-winning new building in 2010 just north ...

Glazer Children's Museum The Glazer Children's Museum is a non-profit children's museum located in downtown Tampa, Florida, next to the Tampa Museum of Art and Curtis Hixon Park, alongside the Tampa Riverwalk. It is part of the Waterfront Arts District. Housed in a 53 ...

, and

Rivergate Tower The Rivergate Tower, also known as the Sykes building or the Beer Can Building, is a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida. With 31 floors, it is the seventh tallest building in Tampa. Rivergate Tower's principal tenant is Sykes Enterprises, a publicly-t ...

. The park overlooks the

University of Tampa The University of Tampa (UT) is a private university in Tampa, Florida. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UT offers more than 200 programs of study, including 22 master's degrees and a broad variety of majors, ...

's Plant Hall, which is directly across the river. The park is in an area known as the Waterfront Arts District.

Description

Much of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park consists of an open grassy lawn that slopes gently towards the river in a series of wide terraces. Around this greenspace are several fountains, a large playground, a public boat dock, a dog park, several shaded pavilions, an amphitheater, various sculptures, a garden area designed by

Dan Kiley Daniel Urban Kiley (2 September 1912 – 21 February 2004) was an American landscape architect, who worked in the style of modern architecture. Kiley designed over one-thousand landscape projects including Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis ...

, and a small concession kiosk with restrooms. The park is bordered by the Tampa Museum of Art and the Glazer Children's Museum on the north, Ashley Drive on the east, and the

and parking garage to the south. On the west side of the park is the Hillsborough River and the

, a 2.4 mile long walkway which connects Curtis Hixon Park to several attractions and facilities (including the

Tampa Convention Center The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in downtown Tampa, Florida at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. It has both waterfront views of Tampa Bay and views of the city's skyline. Harbour Island is across the epony ...

and the

Straz Center for the Performing Arts The Straz Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts venue in Tampa, Florida, United States. It opened in 1987 as the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and was renamed in 2009. The Straz Center is located downtown on a site along the e ...

), many hotels and restaurants, and a series of smaller parks along Tampa's downtown waterfront. Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park regularly hosts a wide variety of events large and small, including concerts and music festivals, food festivals, arts and crafts shows, evening yoga classes, temporary ice skating, and many other activities. Though relatively new, the public space has become a popular local destination and has been called "Tampa's town square".

History

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park is located adjacent to the former site of

Curtis Hixon Hall Curtis Hixon Hall was an indoor sports arena, convention center, concert venue, and special events center which was located at 600 Ashley Drive along the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa, Florida. It opened in 1965, and was the primary co ...

, Tampa's first convention center and general purpose indoor arena which was built in 1965. Both the park and the former building were named for

Curtis Hixon Curtis Hixon (November 23, 1891 – May 21, 1956) was mayor of Tampa, Florida, from November 1943 until his death in 1956.

, a

mayor of Tampa The Mayor is the highest elected official in Tampa, Florida. Since its incorporation in 1856, the town has had 59 mayors. Tampa had no mayor from 1862 until 1866, during which time the city government was temporarily suspended during and immediate ...

who died while in office in 1956. After Curtis Hixon Hall was made obsolete by newer facilities and demolished in 1993, the original Curtis Hixon Park was built on the site. This small park was not widely utilized due to a poor connection to both the river and the rest of downtown, few amenities, and a lack of other things to do in downtown Tampa during evenings and weekends. By the early 2000s, Tampa's long-planned Riverwalk project began taking shape. The city razed the old Tampa Museum of Art building and its adjoining parking garage, which had hemmed in Curtis Hixon Park on the south and limited public access to the riverfront. A new art museum building plus the Glazer Children's Museum were constructed on the north side of the park, while the old park was greatly expanded to the south and was completely reconfigured by landscape architect

Thomas Balsley Thomas Balsley (born 1943), FASLA, is the founder and principal designer of Thomas Balsley Associates, a New York City-based design firm best known for its fusion of landscape and urbanism in public parks and plazas. Balsley's firm has been active ...

to allow for open views from Ashley Boulevard across to the Hillsborough River and the University of Tampa beyond. The park opened in its current configuration in 2010.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park
Map of Riverwalk
Parks in Tampa, Florida Landmarks in Tampa, Florida 2010 establishments in Florida Buildings and structures in Tampa, Florida