Kiley Gardens

Kiley Gardens is a 4.5-acre public park located in downtown Tampa, Florida. Designed by renowned landscape architect Dan Kiley and completed in 1988, the park sits atop a two-level parking garage between a 33-story office tower and two six-story bank pavilions overlooking the Hillsborough River and the University of Tampa.

The garden's design is based on the Fibonacci mathematical sequence, which Kiley used to determine the plaza's distinctive checkerboard pattern of grass and concrete panels. Eight feet above street grade, the garden is accessed by steps and a concrete ramp that cross over five rectangular pools, each containing an island with an individual tree.

Originally, the garden featured five palm allées serving as central avenues, with 800 randomly spaced crepe myrtles planted underneath. Nine narrow concrete runnels originated from circular basins with bubblers and crossed the site, culminating in a 400-foot long plexiglass-bottomed canal. A water garden near the Tampa Museum of Art was designed as a children's play area, with plantings of jasmine, parkinsonia, and dwarf yaupon hollies.

In 2006, reconstruction of the garden began due to structural issues and water damage to the underlying parking garage. This work included the removal of the sabal palms and crepe myrtles, structural, electrical, and drainage repairs, reconstruction of the plaza's small amphitheater, and garden surface reconstruction, re-paved to the original patterns. However, plans to replace the crepe myrtles and palms have stalled due to lack of funding.

Despite its current state, Kiley Gardens remains an important example of modernist landscape architecture and continues to serve as a public space in Tampa's urban core.