The St. Pete Pier attracts visitors for a variety of reasons — some come for the weekend markets or the stunning views, others for the waterfront dining.
And if you’ve been there, there’s a good chance you’ve stopped to admire the giant billowing sculpture suspended in the air.
Bending Arc spans 432 feet wide and floats over 70 feet above the ground. But after being battered by the trio of recent hurricanes, it’s being taken down.
Over 5,000 pounds of nets and ropes hold the iconic art piece in the sky.
It was engineered to withstand up to 150 mph winds, and downtown St. Petersburg’s worst numbers during hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton didn’t come close to that.
However, City Development Administrator James Corbett told the Tampa Bay Times that the recurring damage from three storms was too much for the sculpture to withstand.
Net House, the piece’s maintenance company, will take it down. They’ll examine its weight and structure for a possible future reinstallation.
Bending Arc was created by internationally renowned artist Janet Echelman in 2020. According to her website, Echelman’s piece was intended to “offer visitors an oasis where they can seek a moment of calm sensory experience and heightened awareness of nature and our place within it.”
And for dozens of Sunshine City residents, it has served as the centerpiece of that calming moment. Since August 2022, The Body Electric Yoga Company leads a free monthly yoga class under the sculpture.
The sculpture was funded by both public and private sources, as part of the $90 million investment in the St. Petersburg Pier project.
