Downtown, Tampa

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Favorite thing: Located at 315 John F Kennedy Blvd, E in downtown Tampa is the City Hall, built in 1915. Architects Bonfoey and Elliott designed the building with a three-story base and its narrower 8-story central office tower. This building was placed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks in 1974 and is open to the public. The clock is named Hortense in honor of Mrs Hortense Ford, its key donor, and the daughter of Tampa's first doctor.

City Hall is home to Tampa's City Council.

Favorite thing: Curtis Hixon Park provides a really interesting point of view to take photographs of both the University of Tampa and downtown. This is directly downtown on the Riverwalk. I've gotten some really good sunset pictures from that location. Also, depending on how far you can walk, about a mile up Bayshore Blvd the road curves along the bay and all of downtown can be photographed from that vantage point.

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Favorite thing: Downtown Tampa's core is the central business district where Bank of America, Suntrust, and Verizon have major offices. This area is home to the Tampa Convention Center, historic Tampa Theater, the University of Tampa, and the old City Hall. The tallest buildings are the AmSouth Building and the Bank of America Tower, both at 42 stories and 577 feet tall. This downtown area has good trolley and bus transportation, as well as several small parks, a handful of restaurants, bars, and clubs. Channelside is considered part of downtown and it includes the The St Pete Forum, the Aquarium, and numerous shops and restaurants. There are plans to create a "riverwalk" to connect the Waterworks, Cultural, Downtown, Gateway, and Channelside Districts

Favorite thing: Tampa is a city of History. Founded in
the early 1800's as Fort (George Mercer)
Brooke, at the mouth of the Hillsborough
River where it empties into Tampa Bay,
its original reason-for-being was to quell
the "Seminole Menace", but afterward it
became central to activities both military
and civilian. From there Tampa City has
grown into a sprawling metropolis of
huge proportions.

Fondest memory: The Tampa Bay History Center.