Adaptive Reuse: Meeks, Ross, Selander & Associates
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/613579977_exQDh-M.jpg)
Meeks, Ross, Selander & Associates, CPAs, LLC. is a professional service firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory, and specialty consulting located in the Springfield Historic District. Established in 1992, the firm's first office was located in the Baymeadows area of Jacksonville's Southside. Attracted by the rapid redevelopment of Springfield, the firm purchased a former furniture warehouse building in the historic district in 2003.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-aug-adaptive-reuse-meeks-ross-selander-associates
I recently went to Portland, Oregon and that city's downtown is a great example of renovating existing buildings to adapt for modern usage. I am not a native of Jacksonville, but I image that preservationist-types would have liked to see the same approach for Jacksonville's historic buildings downtown (which are now mostly gone).
Beautiful building. The owners are to be commended not only for the excellent job they did but for investing in Springfield when they did.
By the way, that gorgeous staircase was done by Rob Lytle. He had to go as far as New England to find lumber long enough to make the stringer trim in one piece. Sort of odd because the lumber most likely came from Florida to begin with! Rob also is a Springfield resident and has does beautiful work on many houses in Springfield and all over Jacksonville.
Overall, the building came out great.
I really like the fact that they used the "Tree of Life" window design that I think comes from a Wright house in Buffalo and appears on the Klutho Apts. on Main.
I always drove by this place and was awestruck by the exterior until I had them do my taxes and I saw the interior. I had to pry my jaw off the floor with a crowbar. Absolutely amazing. If every commercial venture spent the time and money to make their place look like this, we'd be the top neighborhood in JAX (in my humble opinion). Jack Meeks gets it. His attention to detail is what reeled my in. I'm a stickler for details.
Simply beautiful...
This is a wonderful and beautiful building. I realize everyone has different tastes and someone out there probably likes something different. That's not the point. Variety is good as long as the various examples are good representations of their architectural styles.
This building has great style but most Jax buildings don't. I have been in some rather mundane businesses in other parts of the country and found more detail and effort in their buildings than most any of the post WWII buildings in Jax. Style doesn't have to cost, it just mostly takes imagination and vision. I think the lack of it in post WWII Jax architecture and the destruction of our pre WWII architecture says a lot about the mindset of this city and why we are not nearly as advanced as we could have been.
Style is part of our environment and a representation of who we are as a community and if we care about that then we should care about architecture - both the new and the old. Our community should demand a lot more. Historic preservation, stylish public spaces and structures (see Fuller Warren Bridge MJ thread discussion for an example of the lack thereof), and more than boxy commercial office and retail structures.
By the way, as implied in a post above, style can go a long way toward "selling" your business and/or community too. Thus, there can be an ROI. Apple is a great example of using style to one's economic advantage.
I like how the building add a vibrant mixed use element to the neighborhood, without looking so commercial that it distracts from the overall residential feel of the street.
These are the kinds of buildings that make great streets and neighborhoods.A street that I love is Kings Ave north of I-95. There are no buildings this well done, but as a whole the neighborhood really gets it. I can't wait to see the work Meeks does to the home next door.
you should see his personal house at 2nd and Hubbard.