A New Hut: An Ideas Competition for a New Museum

Emerging Tampa Bay Architects, AIA Tampa Bay, Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History

Purpose: The museum is looking to expand beyond their current building. The desire is to create a new interactive learning experience and museum for all guests. Two possible sites are under consideration. The first is at the entrance of Philippe Park, site of the Tocobaga Temple Mounds. The second site is the current museum location, also a Tocobaga historic site. The results of this design ideas competition will be used by museum directors and city leaders to garner support and funding for a new facility.

Background: The Safety Harbor Museum, rich in historical and archeological artifacts is located on the site of a Tocobaga Indian shell mound, on the shores of Old Tampa Bay. Established in 1970, the museum offers the public an opportunity to trace the history of Safety Harbor and the surrounding Tampa Bay area, from the Paleo Period to modern times. The museum’s vast collection includes the fossilized remains of mastodon, mammoth, and giant ground sloths, tools used by early human inhabitants, whole pottery vessels and Spanish glass trade-beads. The photographs and historic memorabilia recall the turn of the century era when visitors were first drawn to the place “Where the Healing Waters Flow”.

http://www.aiatampabay.com/re_tbarch.html