Tampa's Changing Skyline

The following photos document the development of downtown Tampa's skyline during a period of rapid expansion and change from the early 1970s to 1980.  These photos are a sampling of the collection donated to the City of Tampa Archives by the Tampa-Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce.  The photos donated by the Chamber of Commerce are an excellent complement to the Burgert Brother Photographic collection held by the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library.

	View of downtown Tampa (taken in 1972) with the University of Tampa campus in the foreground and the First Florida Tower as the dominating structure in the downtown Tampa skyline, taken from the west side of the Hillsborough River.  Also shows Curtis Hixon Convention Center (now demolished), Exchange National Bank building, and the Riverside Quality Hotel.  Ybor Channel and McKay Bay are in the background.
	View of downtown Tampa (taken in 1975) with the Interstate 4 Ashley Street interchange in the foreground and Davis Islands and Harbour Island in the background.  Buildings in the photo include the GTE building, the Exchange National Bank building, the First Florida Tower and the Curtis Hixon Convention Center.
	Northern view of downtown Tampa (taken in 1977)taken from Davis Islands with the Platt Street bridge and riverside docks in the foreground.  Buildings in the photo include the Riverside Quality Hotel, the First Florida Tower, the Exchange National Bank building, City Hall, and the GTE building.
	View of downtown Tampa (taken in 1977) taken from Plant Park on the west bank of the Hillsborough River with the river in the foreground.  Buildings in the photo include the First Florida Tower and the Exchange National Bank building.
	View of downtown Tampa (taken in 1980) taken from west of the Hillsborough River with the Interstate 4 Ashley Street interchange in the foreground and Harbour Island and Davis Islands in the background.  Buildings in the photo include the Exchange National Bank Building, the First Florida Tower, and the Curtis Hixon Convention Center.

In 1995 a 30-image collection titled "Tampa Changing Skyline" was donated to the City of Tampa Archives.  This collection documents the development of the downtown Tampa's skyline during a 20-year period of rapid expansion and change from the early 1970s. During this time, construction activities in the downtown area were part of the daily routine that included the completion of the First Union Center, the County Center, the One Mack Center, One Tampa City Center, the Hyatt Regency Tampa Hotel, Enterprise Plaza, the Barnett Bank Plaza, the NationsBank Plaza and the Crosstown Expressway. The collection, donated by the Chamber of Commerce, numbers more than 250,000 images and uniquely documents the social, economic, and architectural history of Tampa since World War Two.

The collection is an excellent complement to the Burgert Brothers Photographic collection held by the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library. The Burgert Brothers collection is indeed unique and is heavily used as a single source of documenting Tampa's early growth from the turn of the century to the early 1940s. While the Burgert Brothers collection tends to focus on architecture aspects of Tampa's history, the Chamber of Commerce Collection is more inclusive and takes up where the Burgert Brothers leaves off. As the Chamber of Collection becomes available to the public, it will, without doubt, receive equally heavy usage which will increase with time.

A demonstration entitled, "Tampa Changing Skyline," was unveiled at a Chamber of Commerce evening event on October 11, 1995. The event was co-hosted by the Tampa Historical Society and acquainted Chamber members with the activities of the City of Tampa. Furthermore, an expanded project, "Four Decades of Tampa Images - the 1950s to the 1990s," was proposed to incorporate more than 500 digitized images from the Chamber of Commerce Collection. Text displays and research finding aids accompanying these images will provide a detailed social, economic, and architectural history of Tampa since the 1950s.

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