Recreating Jacksonville: The Urban Facelift Project

[Metro Jacksonville]

Recreating Jacksonville: The Urban Facelift Project



The Urban Facelift project, by the Content Design Group, showcases the potential of under-appreciated and often neglected buildings in Jacksonville. Several sketches are now available for the public to see.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/1081

[jeh1980]

Hey, not bad! Great article. Let's do it!   

[zoo]

I love this initiative! Maybe some of the vision-less property owners will get to work...

[Deuce]

Loved the first one you posted and love all the new ones. Might I recommend doing the property at 4th and Market. It's in amazing condition but could use an upscale upgrade.

[hanjin1]

The Lerner shop at 118 Main St. had a sign on it when I drove by the other day. It looked like a city sign, has anyone seen this? I hope it is not a go ahead to demolish this building.

[TPC]

I really like what the Content Design Group is doing with these. I would love to see 118 revitalized, I just really like that building but after inquiring about it I found this out.

The property at 118 N. Main St. has been condemned by the City’s Code Compliance Division. A sign posted says the building is “unsafe and unfit for human habitation.”

[grimss]

These are terrific! What a great concept.  Looking forward to more designs . . .

[Cliffs_Daughter]

It says that the ceilings are collapsing and there are back cracks in exterior walls.

The city's CARE case number for this is 2009-77591.

[hanjin1]

So I am assuming that this building will be demolished as well.

[Ocklawaha]

I met with the Realtor at the LEARNER SHOP, interested in buying the building, but I wasn't allowed to explore it completely! Couldn't go beyond 20 feet of the front door - DANGEROUS I was told! The Realtor has the listing as a LOT, they don't count the building. "It's a Given that this place must be torn down," he was pointing out the brick and explaining that none of the courtyard wall was stable.

I was thinking streetcar Museum-Shop, maybe fill the void with the old subway car and get friend Stephendare to open a killer restaurant there??

The building is unbelievable, beautiful, 1929 expo of The Arts Deco. Nothing else even close to this building this side of South Beach in Miami. A little TLC and this place could be ANYTHING good.

OCKLAWAHA

[fletcher1990]

The Chris Hionides Bathroon Tile!

Apparently Ebay has the market cornered on this one!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chris-Hionides-Slum-Lord-of-Jacksonville-1000-6-Tile_W0QQitemZ120417843016QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c09767748&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

[brainstormer]

My partner and I have always loved the building at 118 Main.  Every time we walk by we talk about how it would be a really cool townhouse and fun to live in.  We even talked about a rooftop patio.  Then at art walk on Wednesday we saw it was taped off with a big orange "Condemned" sign and our hopes were crushed.  Then today I see an article with a facelift of the building and townhouse infill next to it, and I had to chuckle.
So what now?
Well I don't know much about construction, but isn't it feasible to somehow preserve the facade and then rebuild the rest of the building?  Rebuilding could actually make it taller and fill in the empty space to the left of it.  Has this been done anywhere else in Jacksonville.  Or is there a way to build an exact replica of the building?

As far as the rest of the article, just about every vacant building along Main Street could use a facelift.  And there are endless opportunities for infill.  I really think we should focus on the blocks between 1st and 8th because with clustering, this has the potential to become a neat little district of retail, residential and restaurants.  Perhaps we should get the folks at Content Design Group to join a meeting of some of the property/business owners and residents of Springfield for a positive brainstorming session.  Perhaps bring in some local contractors, who are bored right now, and get an idea of what some of these ideas might cost.  This would not be a whine session, but a positive "What if?"

[hanjin1]

I drove by tonight and saw that it now has a big sign that say demolish on it. Lokks like COJ is going to win again.

[b real]

I will cry if they demo that building! What is wrong with our city/owners of these building? Don't buy a building if you're going to let it deteriorate beyond a reusable state. The city needs to take a stand against the people buying our historically buildings! WTF! Where is our money going?

[jason_contentdg]

Project #5 is finished, 937 Main.  The building actually faces Orange however:



http://www.contentdg.com/the-urban-facelift-project-5-937-main/

Hopefully this won't get the kiss of death that 118 main received.