Elements of Urbanism: Mobile

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Mobile



Metro Jacksonville explores the downtown of Alabama's port city: Mobile

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-apr-elements-of-urbanism-mobile

[David]

Didja know the Battlehouse tower is taller than our own BOA tower? 745 ft with the spire to our tallest, 560(ish) 617 ft. I remember when it was under construction in 2006, I was driving back from upstate Louisiana and right before I plunged into the Mobile Bay tunnel I saw it on the horizon...it was like "BAM! In your face Jacksonville, Mobile's winning at the height game"

I had been through Mobile before on numerous trips across I-10 to New Orleans so it caught me off guard to see such a tall building in a city the size of Mobile.  

I'm sure the Independent Life building had the same effect on I-95 travelers back in the 70's, considering our size back then.

[Lunican]

The Bank of America Tower is 617 ft. I think Modis is 535.

[JaxNative68]

Wow!  Mobile looks great.  From a quick drive by, Mobile seems to have their act together a lot better than Jax.  I like the fact that they seem to embrace their past and historic structures, invest in their downtown area, and have a general sense of identity, but I must say their high-rise structures are not very ascetically pleasing.

The part I find tough to agree with is:
"Who's Downtown is more walkable?

Mobile: 89 out of 100, according to walkscore.com (Downtown Mobile as keyword)
Jacksonville: 88 out of 100, according to walkscore.com"

Mobile's downtown has a lot more reasons to be walking downtown.  Retail, restaurants, residential units, office buildings and etc.; they actually have an Urban core that is worth walking.  I don't think I can honestly say this about Jax.

Looks like Jax could learn alot from Mobile.

[David]

The Bank of America Tower is 617 ft. I think Modis is 535.

Yeah, I was going on the false equation of feet = meters multiplied by 3.  Good catch.

Either way, they're winning!.

[fsujax]

hard to believe downtown Mobile has more of a demand for downtown office space than Jacksonville. The last major office tower constructed in DT Jacksonville (northbank, excluding Riverside) was the BofA tower in 1990. what a shame!

[mbstout]

another interesting fact - the origins of the Mobile Home:
http://www.snopes.com/lost/mobile.asp

[reednavy]

RSA Tower cheates with that gigantic ass spire.

[thelakelander]

One thing that really stuck out to me in Mobile was the city's maintenance of public park space.  It was pristine compared to what we have locally.





Also, I remember having a discussion about convention centers and the possibility of integrating parking within them.  I was trying to prove that you could integrate parking with a convention center.  Mobile's waterfront convention center (which is larger than ours) is a good example of one that does just that.

Front of convention center


Back of center with parking underneath

[ChriswUfGator]

Another city that's clearly screwing everything up! I don't see parking meters everywhere, and they're making their downtown 2-way streets? Sheeeesh...someone needs to write them and let them know what horrible mistakes they're making!

[JaxByDefault]

Even before the reinvestment in downtown and the boom (arguably, the ruination) of the Eastern Shore, the heart of downtown Mobile was always like a sleepy, unknown New Orleans neighborhood. I spent my high school years in Fairhope, and downtown Mobile offered good food, good dives, good music, lovely architecture in various states of decay, and some eclectic places, the grit of working port, and like its larger cousin NOLA, carnival and a flexible drinking age. But the city largely ignored itself until the late-nineties, paying more attention to the western suburbs.

The city permitted the destruction of umpteen historic homes on Government Blvd. in the 1960s and it wasn’t too long ago that the city council was thinking of tearing down a bunch of houses from the early 1800s near Fort Conde. Instead, they wisely pumped money into renovation incentives.

If anything, the Mobile example proves to Jax that if you keep your historical building fabric and your working waterfront in tact, you can overcome a lot of obstacles in terms of a population that ignores downtown, a lack of funds, the less-than-scenic elements that come with a working port, and city government who learns planning acumen as they go.

Oh, and Mobile didn’t pass on the chance to have a large Navy vessel anchor its downtown waterfront (and smartly used it to hide an ugly part of the ship channel).

*Edited. Stupid small blackberry keys.

[thelakelander]

Another city that's clearly screwing everything up! I don't see parking meters everywhere, and they're making their downtown 2-way streets? Sheeeesh...someone needs to write them and let them know what horrible mistakes they're making!

Dauphin Street is the main historic commercial corridor through downtown Mobile.  While side streets do have meters, the street with most of the retail shops and restaurants does not.  Instead parking is free, for up to two hours.  There's no reason this can't be done in Jacksonville in the heart of the Northbank.

[JaxNative68]

after looking at the pictures more closely, I want to know who's brother-in-law is in the truss business.  I looks like all new buildings Mobile have them, including the high-rises.

[I-10east]

"BAM! In your face Jacksonville, Mobile's winning at the height game"

BAM! In your face to alotta other cities too, like Birmingham, New Orleans, Tampa, Orlando, Nashville, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and on, and on, and on.

Mobile is also home of the original U.S.Mardi Gras; They started theirs fifteen years before N.O.'s according to wiki.

I can see alotta cities being envious of Mobile.

[heights unknown]

Mobile is not what it appears to be.  It's losing population, the Battlehouse Tower does cheat with the spire (imagine a 150 foot spire on BOA), and what the hell is that second tall building that looks similar to the Battlehouse Tower (or am I seeing things...it is not even listed in skyscraperpage.com)?  That one is new, I've never seen that tower before; how tall is it?  It looks taller than BOA as well.

"HU"