Tra Ponti at Ground Zero -- The view from above (video)
Tra Ponti will be six and five stories -- in the city's words, this is to transition from Miller's nine story towers to the three- and four-story buildings already along Business 41 and Venice Avenue -- wait, what? What three- and four-story buildings?
-- John Patten, 09/24/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Tra Ponti is going to transition to... what?
One of the things that has baffled me in the Tra Ponti propaganda push is this idea that there are already all of these three- and four-story buildings on U.S. 41 across from where Tra Ponti is slated to be built (Pam Johnson's letter to the Herald-Trib, e.g.).

There's one -- The Venice Gondolier building, but that's not across U.S. 41 from Tra Ponti, it's on the same side of U.S. 41 as Tra Ponti. The Gondo building is directly south of the Tra Ponti project, set back from U.S. 41 by a couple of blocks. It's at the end of a cul-de-sac, right next to the highest part of the Venice Avenue Bridge, so three stories at that particular location is hardly noticable.

Everything else that is adjacent to where Tra Ponti will be is one- or two-stories. Putting a five- and six-floor Tra Ponti box right up to the Business 41 and Venice Avenue sidewalks (with balconies overhanging the sidewalks) is not going to transition to anything, at least from the pedestrian perspective. You'll have the ground, the sidewalk, then a huge wall going up to the sky with five-and six-stories, then a "transition" to Miller's three nine-story towers, which you actually won't be able to see anymore as Tra Ponti will block out the view of them from Venice Avenue and U.S. 41.

That's not a transition, that's a jarring downtown Sarasota-style high wall with even higher walls hidden on the other side of it, with yet higher walls behind that. The one upside for those who have complained about Miller's three Waterfront Towers is that once Tra Ponti is built, you'll likely not see the towers again from the island or from downtown. You'll be able to catch a glimpse of them from the north bridge and of course they will be prominent from the train station across the Intracoastal, but other than that, they'll be pretty well hidden from view.

The video below will hopefully give you a better idea of where Tra Ponti is slated to go and what is already there. If you're still a bit confused, here's an interactive satellite overview pic of the area in question from Google (pops in new window).

TWO MINOR CORRECTIONS:
1.)  Early on in the video, the train station is shown and the narrative states that the camera is facing south. The camera is actually shooting in the direction of east by northeast when the train station is shown.
2.) In the very last edit, Waterfront Towers is misidentified as Bella Costa, this after several clear and correct mentions of Bella Costa and Waterfront.
I'll redo the voiceover in a day or two, right now I'm burned out on this video short after editing it down to its present form.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.