The other day, after my wife and I had checked out the Phillips’ collection of modern American and European art at the Tampa Museum of Art, we ambled out on that expansive second floor terrace to take in the picturesque panorama that is the perfect museum complement. That view from TMA is transformational: the aesthetics-enabling Riverwalk, the urban oasis that is Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, those iconic University of Tampa minarets–and, oops, McKay Hall.
Perhaps you’ve noticed.
McKay Hall is that long, brick, two-story, vintage ’50s building that has all the architectural charm of the Bates Motel. When it was built in 1959, Tampa was a different place, one where the Hillsborough River was aesthetically ignored–not treated like the crown jewel of downtown.
To be fair to UT, McKay Hall, which has undergone refurbishings over the last five years, is not the nondescript storage facility it appears to be to those looking west from the downtown side. It’s functional, convenient on-campus housing that accommodates 190 students, male and female. It’s near the library as well as Plant Hall and Plant Park. It’s a key cog in UT’s mission to be a “resident campus,” points out UT spokesman Eric Cardenas. “It’s part of our campus,” he underscores. “It serves its purpose. It’s the architecture of the time. … No, we don’t get a lot of queries like this.”
Just asking. And in case you’ve ever asked yourself, that’s the answer.
But there is a major consolation. No, there’s no landscape plan to front the back of Bates, oops, McKay Hall with date palms and Spartan topiary. But it’s one killer waterfront view from the dorm rooms on the UT side of the river.