The Net That Ate the St. Pete Pier (In a Good Way)

When the 26-acre St. Pete Pier reopened in 2020, the city set aside nearly $2 million for original, site-specific public art — and the piece that ended up defining the skyline was a giant sculpture made entirely of knotted netting.

The sculpture made of 1.6 million knots

Janet Echelman's Bending Arc is composed of 1,662,528 knots and 180 miles of twine, spanning 424 feet and reaching 72 feet at its tallest point — Echelman's largest permanent artwork to date, in a career that includes similarly billowing net sculptures in San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Porto.

Echelman grew up along the shores of Tampa Bay, so the commission is something of a homecoming. She's said the design was inspired by historical postcards of blue-and-white striped beach parasols, combined with the geometric patterns made by barnacle colonies she observed growing on the underside of the pier itself — viewed from above, the sculpture reads as three barnacle-like parasols nestled together.

A net that changes shape with every gust of wind off the bay.

A title with real weight behind it

The name isn't decorative. While researching the site, Echelman learned about its significance to the Civil Rights Movement — it's the place where local citizens began peacefully challenging racial segregation at the municipal beach and pool, a fight that led to a 1957 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of all citizens to use the beach and pool without discrimination. She titled the piece Bending Arc in reference to Martin Luther King Jr.'s words: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

It's not the only art out there

Bending Arc gets the headlines, but the Pier's public art program includes several other commissioned pieces: Mark Aeling's "First Flight," a life-sized sculpture of the Benoist biplane commemorating the world's first commercial airline flight, which took off from St. Petersburg on January 1, 1914; Nathan Mabry's 10-foot, origami-style "Myth (Red Pelican)," honoring the city's official bird; and Xenobia Bailey's "Morning Stars," a roughly 23-foot-wide mosaic made of crocheted geometric mandalas.

Note for planning a visit: Bending Arc sustained damage during Hurricane Milton and has been temporarily removed while the city assesses reinstallation, so check current status before making it the centerpiece of your trip.