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Crafting St. Pete's Next Art Museum

By Waveney Ann Moore, Times Staff Writer

January 5, 2018


Construction on the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement continues in downtown St. Petersburg.

Construction on the Museum of the American Arts and Craft Movement continues in downtown St. Petersburg.

ST. PETERSBURG — The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, under construction since 2015, is scheduled to be complete by the summer of 2019.

The five-story, 137,100-square-foot building will house businessman and collector Rudy Ciccarello's extensive collection of furniture, pottery, tile, metalwork, lighting, photography, and other decorative arts from the American Arts and crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ciccarello is building the $90 million museum, which includes and already complete 303-space garage, mostly with his own money.

Tom Magoulis, executive vice president of the museum, and Tampa architect Alberto Alfonso recent gave an update about the project to the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership.

Ciccarello's $90 million investment does not include the value of the collection, Magoulis said. He said that the museum is the first of its kind in the nation, in fact, the world, and expects to attract 150,000 domestic and international visitors annually.

Describing it as "a project of epic proportions," Alfonso said Ciccarello's commitment to excellence can be seen in the quality of the building and materials of the museum, whose exterior will be clad in granite from South American and feature bronze detailing. The interior will include an atrium, a circular staircase and 40,000 square feet of gallery space, he said.

Construction on the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement continues in downtown St. Petersburg.

Construction on the Museum of the American Arts and Craft Movement continues in downtown St. Petersburg.

The new Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement will also include a retail shop, event space, 100-seat auditorium, an area for children's education, a graphic arts studio and administrative offices. A 9,000-square-foot destination restaurant is also planned.

The facility was also on the agenda of the St. Petersburg City Council's Dec. 14 meeting. Under an agreement approved unanimously, the city will give the museum, which occupies 3.2 acres at 355 Fourth St. N, $500,000 for streetscape improvements.

That type of agreement is not unusual, said Chris Ballestra, the city's managing director of development coordination.

"We've worked with a couple of comparable projects that have substantial economic impact to the city, and regionally, as well," he said during an interview. "We provided the Dali (Museum) with $2.5 million and we got the county to provide them with $2.5 million and those were unrestricted funds they could use towards the physical building."

In August, the Pinellas County Commission agreed to give $6 million in bed tax money to the facility over the next three years.

According to the agreement between the city and the museum, the streetscape improvements will include replacing existing sidewalks on Third Avenue N. Work will also include a "bulb-out" or curb extension, at the intersection of Third Street and Third Avenue N. A curb extension will be built at the intersection of Third Street and Fourth Avenue N. Sidewalk improvements are also being planned along Fourth Street. The work, all on the city right-of-way, will include landscaping.

The work will be done by the museum's contractor and be reimbursed by the city, Ballestra said. As part of the agreement, the museum will be responsible for maintenance, while the city will install signs and help to market the facility.

"We're looking forward to them completing their project," Ballestra said. "We have a lot of projects that will be coming online in 2018 and 2019, the pier and the James Museum in 2018, and the Arts and Crafts Museum in 2019.... We are very excited for what this museum will bring downtown."