Duval County Courthouse Renderings

[heights unknown]

What was the 323 Duval project?  (sorry I'm so light brained).

Heights Unknown

[thelakelander]

Here is an early rendering of 323 Duval (the new design is pretty conservative architecturally speaking).  323 Duval is a 12 story office tower proposed to replace the surface parking lot behind the Ambassador Hotel.

[JeffreyS]

323 Duval is also supposed to have apartments and retail components.
http://downtownvision.org/directory/detail/2233/

[thelakelander]

^The vacant Ambassador Hotel (Church & Julia) would be renovated into 52 apartments and the tower would feature street level retail.

[RiversideGator]

I believe the Ambassador Hotel is currently for sale so this project is likely dead.

[JaxNative68]

What a grotesque building this has become, a complete waste of building material, time, real estate and money.  When it is finished, it will be an embarrassment to the city and the tax payers who paid for it.  If the local architects wonder and question why most large scale projects are awarded and designed by out of city and state firms, this disappointing design answers all of those questions.  Wake up Jacksonville . . . why are we paying for this bastardized architectural junk?

[thelakelander]

• The new County Courthouse should top out near the end of May, said Better Jacksonville Plan Project Manager Dave Schneider. That’s when the exterior concrete work should be completed and the tallest point reached. Don’t look for the traditional topping-out tree, though. “They don’t do that anymore,” Schneider said.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/citynotes.php?id=530417

[Keith-N-Jax]

What do they mean by the topping out tree?

[thelakelander]

In building construction, topping out, or topping off, is a ceremony held when the last beam is placed at the top of a building. The term may also refer to the overall completion of the building's structure, or an intermediate point, such as when the roof is dried in. A topping out ceremony is usually held to commemorate the event.

While common in England, Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland, the origins of the ceremony are obscure. Its practice has long been an important component of timber frame building. This tradition migrated to America with European craftsman. A tree or leafy branch is placed on the topmost beam, often with flags and streamers tied to it. A toast is usually drunk and sometimes the workmen are treated to a meal. The ceremony has also been common in the United States when a skyscraper is completed. The last beam to be hoisted is painted white and signed by all the workmen involved. In other types of building, the ceremony typically focuses on the bedding of the last block of masonry or brick. The ceremony is akin to the practice of placing a newspaper or coins under the cornerstone of a building.

http://www.answers.com/topic/topping-out

[Bostech]

So its a party on roof.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Oh ok,,thanks.

[brainstormer]

It's not that they don't do it anymore, but rather that the courthouse isn't a skyscraper.  Could a, should a been, but no.  It isn't exactly a gravity defying feat of architecture.  What's there to celebrate?

[JaxNative68]

^ not to mention the tradition was started by steel workers and typically the tree was anchored to the last beam on the ground prior to being hoisted into place.  Just doesn't seem right to do it on a cast-in-place concrete structure.

[stjr]

It's not that they don't do it anymore, but rather that the courthouse isn't a skyscraper.  Could a, should a been, but no.  It isn't exactly a gravity defying feat of architecture.  What's there to celebrate?

Right on, Brainstormer.  The Courthouse will be an up to 7 block "dead zone" in the midst of Downtown that non-courthouse seeking Downtown visitors and residents will have to navigate around (if they bother at all).  Add to it the new Downtown "dead zone" that will surround the proposed disastrously designed multi-block intermodal center that JTA is planning and all the existing non-street friendly office towers, public buildings, parking garages and lots, and FBC campus, and it becomes easy to see why downtown Jax never takes off.

[billy]

• The new County Courthouse should top out near the end of May, said Better Jacksonville Plan Project Manager Dave Schneider. That’s when the exterior concrete work should be completed and the tallest point reached. Don’t look for the traditional topping-out tree, though. “They don’t do that anymore,” Schneider said.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/citynotes.php?id=530417

It is still done sometimes.