St.Pete "Pocket Projects"
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Pocket parks are small parks that are accessible to the public, but they are usually very tiny in comparison to larger parks (think Central Park). However, despite their size, they can create a network of green space to help enhance neighborhoods and communities. I see smaller real estate developments the same way. These so-called "pocket projects" can enhance urban corridors and revitalize neighborhoods. Because many pocket projects lack the size and scale of larger developments they usually receive less publicity, but I think they are just as important. While there's no definition of what makes a development a "pocket project" I'm going to share a few local developments I would consider pocket projects that you may not have heard about.
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The Florida Holocaust Museum in downtown St. Pete is planning a $15 million renovation that will create an immersive theater for interactive Holocaust survivor testimonies and expanded exhibition space.
Located at 55 5th Street South, the museum will renovate existing first- and third-floor spaces rather than expand the museum’s physical footprint.
The new first-floor Immersive Theater will become a larger home for Dimensions in Testimony, a digital experience that allows visitors to ask questions of Holocaust survivors and receive answers drawn from pre-recorded interviews.
Developed by the USC Shoah Foundation, the technology uses voice activation and natural-language processing to match visitors’ questions with relevant recorded responses.
“Each survivor has been asked over 1,000 questions,” Museum President and CEO Eric Stillman said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “When a viewer asks a question, the technology picks up certain words and responds with the survivor’s recorded response from the earlier questioning. It becomes like a real in-person dialogue.”