This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around This ain’t no Mudd Club, or C.B.G.B, I ain’t got time for that now – David Burns, The Talking Heads
The ersatz Tampa Marriott five-star hotel, “The Edition,” and its lobbied, paid-for praise in Fodor’s amount to a multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign—diluting, if not outright blemishing, Tampa’s history of unique hospitality and dining.
God damn—just leaf through any edition of Condé Nast and you’ll be outraged by this parasitical, synthetic reptile farm. Famous designers and architects lend their names to a jungle motif, a spiraling staircase motif, a Michelin restaurant motif—this is tokenized, algorithmic consumerism run amok.
I’ve spoken with many New Yorkers and Europeans about how this roadside attraction engrains a regrettable memory of our town.
Strategic Property Partners and Cascade Investment do wonderful things for this city. Water Street Tampa—understandably in transition—and the surrounding projects are good for locals and tourists alike. Lark Design Studios, Madison Cox Associates, and Santiago C. Corrada are not to blame; they are simply doing their jobs.
Rather, it is a lucrative market accelerating faster than our ethical sensibilities and social standards can keep pace.
