JEA Selects Downtown For New Corporate Headquarters

[thelakelander]

Would a customer service center be considered retail?

[Tacachale]

Would a customer service center be considered retail?

Good question. It's a similar effect, a space that draws people in and out all day. Depending on how it's set up it could be quite like retail.

[Ken_FSU]

Would a customer service center be considered retail?

Good question. It's a similar effect, a space that draws people in and out all day. Depending on how it's set up it could be quite like retail.

Here's what the setup is currently envisioned to look like, with the customer service center, waiting area, and public hearing space fronting North Pearl. I'd be surprised if there's any additional retail in the headquarters building, just because building security was such a concern for JEA during the bid process.



Here's the garage though, which - for now - is planned with 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail:

[Steve]

So, a few things

- The rendering and first floor plan don't exactly match, but I get the idea (it looks like the greenspace entrance corridor and the mail center was swapped; seems like the actual floor plan makes more sense in that regard).
- Employees enter either through the greenspace between the garage and the building, or from Adams Street. The general public enters off of Pearl or in that same greenspace.
- The Garage is interesting. I'm assuming the Monroe Street Entrance is perhaps public parking (a royal PITA to get to with the One way situations of Pearl and Julia - they really need to at least make most of the N-S streets 2 way but that's another issue), and the Julia Street Entrance is for employees, but I can't figure out the extra parking on the ground at the corner of Julia and Adams (in the scheme of things it isn't that many spaces). Perhaps that's space that could be retail later? It makes the corner of Julia and Adams is underwhelming. It would almost be better if the retail and parking were flipped. There also doesn't seem to be logical pedestrian connections out of that parking area.

[thelakelander]

^Without more information, it would appear the ground parking could be limited off-street parking for the retail spaces. However, if that entire section of the garage was for public parking, retail spaces could be integrated with the rest of the public parking.

[FlaBoy]

Adams and the corner of Julia need to be the focus of retail.

[jagsonville]

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/designs-for-new-jea-hq-submitted-to-downtown-development-review-board

New rendering looks sharper imo

[vicupstate]

A big step down, IMO.

[thelakelander]

It looks better than the previous rendering. It's a style of architecture that DT Jax doesn't have much of. However, I'll be interested to see how the corner of Adams and Julia is addressed at ground level.


Before:



After:

[Steve]

A big step down, IMO.

Aesthetics wise, I disagree. I thought the first one was basic and bland. At least this gives something different.

[marcuscnelson]

It took me a little time, but I'm starting to really like it. It's definitely a little more distinctive, although somehow the garage seems to have less detail than in the original. The other thing of note is that the structure still appears to be fundamentally the same, just with a new exterior.

[acme54321]

I think it looks pretty good.  I like how it seems to front the courthouse lawn a little better.  hard to tell what's going on the the garage without a rendinering from the back side.  It does look a little more bland, especially compared to the building.

[Steve]

It's hard to tell the ground floor detail of the new rendering. The old one aside from paint color doesn't look like anything to write home about.

To me the garage "bar" is set by the BofA tower garage. It doesn't even look like a garage.

[Captain Zissou]

This rendering brought to you by Audi...

[Papa33]

Ha ha.  I see a BMW and what appears to be a Tesla as well.