Baptist Medical Office Building Renderings
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/photos/thumbs/lrg-8196-bmc-7.jpg)
Take a sneak peek at the latest expansion project planned for Baptist Medical Center's Southbank campus. The new structure will be a four story medical office building at the north end of the campus.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/961
Glad to do something with this huge parking lot. Not exactly a gem, but hey, I'll take it. It looks like there is a little setback against prudential - not the greatest thing. However, I like how they put the maintenace stuff on the railroad side. Good place, since this isn't exactly a pedestrian corridor.
I also see they have a skywalk. If that is for transporting patients, then fine. Otherwise, I say dump it - they kill downtowns.
Why the crosswalk midblock on Prudential? Move it to the corner. Also, I'd like to see something done with the corner of the building (palm and prudential). Finally, there doesn't appear to be an entrance on prudential - this is a DDRB "requirement"
(I say "requirement", since they are more like guidelines)
Looks awful.
I think the parking lot is worse :)
At least they didn't throw the building square in the center of the parking lot.
Surprised its only 4 floors. With Baptist landlocked and land there at a premium, I would think they will regret not going higher. Baptist has had to tear down several older buildings over the years to replace with ones much larger. Is this designed to go higher later?
And soon, they will probably need more parking garages to replace this lost parking and the increased employees and visitors generated by all their new construction. Seems no end in sight as they are buying up on the southern side of I-95 too.
It would be nice if they planned some green space for visitors to relax and meet in - maybe a pocket park or small 'town square" - somewhere amongst the central area of their complex. I miss the palm treed esplanade that graced the front of the original Prudential building and is now occupied by Aetna's parking garage.
I agree on all counts Steve.
While not the most glamorous building, it does appear very functional and leaves plenty of room for further expansion. Also, I really like the fact that the 2nd and 3rd floors are going to be built for future use. I can think of one such building that could have capitalized on that concept.
The placement of the Palm Ave entrance sets up for a mirror image expansion to the south.
The only thing I would change is the addition of some sort of ground level restaraunt/retail space for a possible sandwich or coffee shop that opens up to the street.
I agree with most of the comments above. It may not win any AIA awards but it will be a welcome addition to the area.
I definetly agree, future expansion is likely into the remainder of the parking lot. It'd be nice to have a 10 story or so tower with a parking garage, instead of a massive surface lot on extremely valuable and accessable land.
Big Deal. :-[
Heights Unknown
Haven't tried to attach photo before so not sure if this will work. But I am trying to attach the 1955 photo previously posted on Metro Jax in May under an article called "A Different Waterfront" that shows what the Baptist/Prudential property looked like at one time and helps to highlight how much has changed since then when one might have thought they had "lots" of property to spead out on.
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/photos/images/history/downtown_waterfront_history/prudential-1955.jpg)
It has a sort of Mad Men era look to it.
Jason, thanks for the assist on the Baptist/Prudential photo. Appears, that it worked for the post appearance on the original discussion board but not its same appearance on the "Recent Posts" board. Maybe someone from MJ can figure out why. I was not able to simply copy and paste from one board to another. How did you do this? I have deleted my version from the board since your post is more universal.
To post an image:
[-img]image web address here[/-img] **
** remove dash symbols
Lakelander, thanks for the tip. This is to test my ability to follow your directions:
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/photos/images/history/downtown_waterfront_history/prudential-1955.jpg)
Looks like a success! Thanks.