The Best New Urban Parks in the U.S.

[Metro Jacksonville]

The Best New Urban Parks in the U.S.



With the futures of Metropolitan Park, the Shipyards and the Duval County Courthouse greenspace in question, Metro Jacksonville highlights five of America's best recently completed urban parks. These cities have been hard at work designing and implementing spectacular urban parks.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-sep-the-best-new-urban-parks-in-the-us

[arteest]

our city is not smart enough to execute a green space as beautiful as the above mentioned.

[copperfiend]

I have zero faith that anybody from out city is capable of getting something built close to those pictured above. I would say there is not a chance in hell that they could accomplish it

[Keith-N-Jax]

You mean to tell me the Main Street pocket park is not on this list. Somebody dropped the ball on this one.

[thelakelander]

We figured we would at least show Jacksonville residents what real urban public spaces (that attract a diverse amount of users around the clock) look like.  They are a far cry from the Hemming Plaza's, Metropolitan Parks and Main Street Pocket Parks of the world.

[acme54321]

LOL @ St. Louis woman with the ankle monitor 

[BridgeTroll]

I would be happy with removal of chain link fence... a little grass seed... and a sidewalk along the river at shipyards.

[St. Auggie]

All of those cities have something in common.  People living downtown.  I dont believe Jax needs an $80 million park downtown at this point.  Metro park is nice, just out in the middle of no where.  People need to live near a park before it can be used, and I am of the opinion people are not going to move downtown for a park.  So again it goes back to this city failing to develop a cohesive plan, rather than just flinging things against the wall and seeing what will stick.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Jax doesnt have 80 million. So dont worry. Too bad the shipyard project failed. I was looking forward to that on the water front. Now with the city in controlled who knows and Metro park is not nice its poorly landscape and designed.

[St. Auggie]

I guess what I meant to say about metro is that it is a nice starting point.  It would not take much to turn that into a premier park. Certainly not $80 million.  If the river property would just fill in, then having it across from EB Field would be a nice addition.  Until then, its close to nothing.  Jax seems spread out, dont ya think? I wonder if anyone has ever noticed that...

[thelakelander]

There is a lot of focus on the river but there are public spaces off the river like Hemming and the proposed Courthouse green that need a little love and thought too.  You are correct, DT does not need an $80 million park.  Campus Martius Park in Detroit is an example of a well designed urban space at a much smaller scale.













Lakeland's Lake Mirror Park is also pretty nice.















Anyway, it's not about how many millions you dump into a public space.  It's also not about having to have a population or density equaling Chicago before justifying investing in great public spaces.   What stands out to me is using common sense to design public spaces in a manner that integrate with their immediate surroundings, while including features that appeal to a diversified population.  If Lakeland and Detroit can do these things on a smaller scale, there's no reason Jacksonville can't.

[St. Auggie]

That park in Lakeland looks GREAT, especially for a city that size.  Wow, very nice.  Thanks for sharing.

[fieldafm]

I guess what I meant to say about metro is that it is a nice starting point.  It would not take much to turn that into a premier park. Certainly not $80 million.  If the river property would just fill in, then having it across from EB Field would be a nice addition.  Until then, its close to nothing.  Jax seems spread out, dont ya think? I wonder if anyone has ever noticed that...

Having a public pier at the Shipyards property, with seperate public access from Bay Street, that would ultimately connect to Metro Park and the rest of downtown via a completed riverwalk wouldn't cost multi-millions of dollars... but it would have a heck of an impact.  It offers better bang for the buck than a bunch of unused water fountains at Metro Park, that's for sure.  In the meantime, a passive area along the riverfront could be used for all sorts of things.  There are many intramural sports leagues around town.  Would you rather play kickball at a park in the suburbs off Kernan, or play along the banks of the might St Johns with a view of the city?  Would you rather trek all your kayak gear all the way up to Hugenot, or launch out in the heart of the city?  How about the movie events COJ holds at Treaty Oak in the spring... wouldnt one or two of those be pretty nice to attend along the riverfront?  You could alternate half of those events b/w the Treaty Oak site and right on the riverfront 680' out on the water?

Public spaces don't need to be as expensive as Chicago's Millenium Park(which is awesome btw).  Especially when you highlight and integrate the ABUNDANT natural resources Jacksonville is so fortunate to have.  Take a look at East Boston Pier Park.  It doesnt have the fancy bells and whistles of Millenium Park, but its a tranquil setting with an amazing view and integrates access to watersport activities... which are popular in the city. 

[simms3]

Indianapolis has a GREAT park with museums and monuments and greenspace and great landscaping and sculptures, etc without having tons of people living around it.  It would equate to what the Klutho parks could be.  I think if the city focuses on just Laura Street all the way up to the park and touches up Union/State and redoes those parks, that would create all the publicly instigated connectivity necessary for the private sector to do the rest.

Thanks Ennis and Daniel for proving my (and others') point that even our best parks are no match for parks in other cities (currently) and that our "#1" rating is completely bogus!  Would it be possible to do another thread where all major city parks are highlighted?  There are so many awesome parks throughout the country in just about every city but ours.

[mbstout]

The list should be expanded to include New York's High Line Park and Governor's Island Park in NY Harbor.
For Jax:  remove the Hart Bridge fly-over (it's not needed), move the jail elsewhere, and remove the fence to open up the Shipyards land; emphasize more of the connection to Hogan's Creek (a park connecting Springfield to the river would be AMAZING for synergy), put some playing field's in and the people will come.  You've got to show the developers a reason they'd want to develop there.