Basis of Design Book 2 - City of St. Petersburg

scientific community and the design team on the feasibility of including an underwater design feature within
the Lens that provides an attractive habitat that improves ecosystem services, access, and educational
opportunities for visitors and citizens of St. Petersburg. The meeting focused on three key concepts;
perception, opportunity, and partnership.
Mr. Jaap stated that he has kept up to date on the pier as a citizen and scientist mostly through the media. He
was familiar with the original design of the underwater feature and thought it had little chance of success as
portrayed.
Mr. Jaap thought it was feasible to design an underwater feature that could highlight the estuary and engage
the public.
We spoke at length about regional successes with using constructed reef systems in inshore and offshore
waters. He participated in a mitigation process for a natural gas pipeline run in Tampa Bay where constructed
reef and hard bottom were used in mitigation. He said algae and hydroid sponges recruit fairly rapidly to the
substrate and that gorgonian octocorals (Sea whips) also commonly recruit to the substrate. He stated that in
his experience, limestone boulders produce the greatest success due to their rigosity compared to formed
concrete modules.
Mr. Jaap provided some pictures and pdf documents detailing efforts in utilizing constructed reef projects
including studies designed to evaluate the efficacy of these reefs in mimicking natural (or reference) reefs.
Mr. Jaap suggested several ways in which the design feature might be utilized to enhance public education of
the estuary. He suggested that turtle and manatee rehabilitation releases might be conducted at the facility to
promote education regarding impacts to these species.
Mr. Jaap serves on the board of directors for SCUBAnauts, a non-profit organization dedicated to marine
science education of high school age children http://www.scubanautsintl.org/index.html. He suggested that
this group could play an active role utilizing the feature as a platform for research and education by monitoring
and documenting biological occurrences and changes to the underwater feature over time.
Lastly, we discussed schedule of upcoming events including the “round table” workshop scheduled for July
26th. He is available and is looking forward to attending.
Technical Interview 9
Summary of Initial Interview for:
Suzanne Cooper, Principal Planner
Agency on Bay Management
Janicki Environmental spoke with Ms. Cooper on Friday morning, July 20th, 2012 to discuss the underwater
design feature associated with the Lens. The interview included some background on the intent of the
meeting which was to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas between key members of the local
scientific community and the design team on the feasibility of including an underwater design feature within
the Lens that provides an attractive habitat that improves ecosystem services, access, and educational
opportunities for visitors and citizens of St. Petersburg. The meeting focused on three key concepts;
perception, opportunity, and partnership.
Ms. Cooper stated that she has kept up to date on the pier principally through the media and from a
presentation that the MMA team gave to the Agency on Bay Management (ABM) this spring.
Based on the presentation to ABM, Ms. Cooper did not feel that she had sufficient information to assess the
feasibility of the success of the proposed design. She also didn’t think that the goals of the underwater feature
were clearly expressed but needed to be.
Ms. Cooper was somewhat skeptical that one could design an underwater feature that could highlight the
estuary and engage the public as effectively as other venue’s such as the local aquaria.
We spoke at length about water clarity and ways in which amenities or technologies might be used to
overcome limitations in water clarity. She thought that water clarity was a significant constraint to the success
of the feature. She suggested that, potentially, membranes or screens could be used to increase water clarity
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