Tampa Bay's New Cookie Cutter High Rises

"After a drought of development, high-rises are again blooming in Tampa Bay. Nurtured by the richness of flowing capital and investor optimism, more than 10 new residential towers are rising on both sides of the bay, from Tampa’s Channel District to downtown St. Pete," reports Linda Saul-Sena.

"None is likely to grace the cover of Architectural Record, but all will bring vitality to the city centers. Most of the buildings will cater to renters rather than condo owners, and both ends of the demographic scale will be well-represented — from young urbanites in their late 20s to empty-nesters and snowbirds."

The article goes on to make a subtle criticism of recent wave of development's cookie cutter designs, which, according to Saul-Sena, "have little relevance to the region's subtropical setting."

"The context of the structures, their relationship to a body of water or downtown streetscape, do not appreciably alter their designs. Visit Atlanta or Charlotte to see what these developers have created there and you’ll find buildings that are identical."