Check this out. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/us/24garage.html
Great looking building and a really creative use of what could have been a very boring space. When is the last time a parking garage made the NYT?? That should tell you something about how important good design is.
Very interesting! I know that some of the car clubs use the Pearl and Clay parking garage for club meetups and such. So at least that's some alternative use. But nothing we have downtown is nearly as extravagant as that one.
EMPTY LOT IN DOWNTOWN JACKSONVILLE PLAYS HOST TO WEEDS, BROKEN GLASS
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A vacant lot in downtown Jacksonville, one of many scattered across the city's empty Downtown landscape, becomes vibrant and alive when seen through the eyes of local residents, in the area for the occasional fireworks show. "When we saw it, we was in total awe," offered one baseball capped gentleman.
The lots are in high demand for overpriced parking during downtown events. They present an exciting obstacle course for the young, encouraged to avoid tripping over exposed rebar or slicing their flip-flopped feet on shards of old beer bottles.
"It's a great place t' pay somebody ten bucks t' park th' car, long as yuh steer clear o' the broken glass," explained Ronnie James Davis Johnson, decked out in Jaguars ballcap and Lynyrd Skynyrd vintage tee. "Not to mention, you just leave your Bud Lite cans right there," his wife commented, as her husband nodded in agreement. "Cigarette butts, too. You ain't gotta worry about findin' a trash can."
Additionally, UNF botanists celebrate the vacant lots downtown as miniature ecosystems supporting a wide variety of weed life. "Many of these weeds are extinct in other areas, where buildings have been built and not torn down, and in lots that have been cleaned. The pristine nature of these abandoned lots coupled with their tendency to retain dirty rainwater provide an excellent environment for many rare varieties of Florida weed to thrive."
LMFAO!
Nailed it, Bativac! ;D
I would love to do some kind of "KNOW YOUR LOT" feature, going over each empty lot downtown and showing what once stood there and what kind of shape it's in now. MetroJacksonville does a great job with those types of articles but I'd love to start a blog or something. If only I had the time.
Regarding the article originally posted, it's a pretty cool thing going on in Miami that would never in a million years happen in Jacksonville. Maybe at the Town Center or the beach or something but certainly not in a downtown parking garage. And the Town Center doesn't need it! Neither does the beach! They're doing well enough already.
It would be neat (if the lots downtown were clean enough) to have some kind of LOT PARTIES or something. Not that the property owners would ever allow it.