Via the Daily Record: Reinventing the Southbank Riverwalk

[Captain Zissou]

by Max Marbut

Improvement, enhancement, renovation and remodeling.

Those are words that often precede “project” when it comes to describing City construction work.

None of those words apply to what will soon take place on the Southbank Riverwalk.

“What we’re talking about is replacement. We’re starting from scratch,” said landscape architect Chris Flagg, principal of Flagg Design Studios.

Flagg has been retained by The Haskell Company to design the concept for the $15 million project to replace the deteriorated wooden boardwalk from Friendship Park east to the School Board Building site.

Flagg said the project creates some construction challenges because part of the existing structure was built on pilings and other parts are supported by a framework attached to the bulkhead due to the characteristics of the riverbed on the south side of the St. Johns River Downtown.

The new riverwalk will be constructed of concrete, possibly precast and staged at Metropolitan Park or the former JEA site on the Southbank. The components could be transported from the staging by barge and assembled on-site.

It’s “an opportunity to create another visual element, a destination with vitality and functionality,” said Flagg. “The Southbank has a different personality than the Northbank.”

More at http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/downtowntoday.php?dt_date=2011-04-21

[CG7]

Without a reason to come to the southbank (restaurants, entertainment venues, aquarium etc) this is a lot of money to spend on something that is already there, but unused.

[Traveller]

Any idea if they eventually plan to extend the southbank riverwalk past the Acosta Bridge & FEC tracks?

[duvaldude08]

Without a reason to come to the southbank (restaurants, entertainment venues, aquarium etc) this is a lot of money to spend on something that is already there, but unused.

It is underutilized, however it has become very dangerous and someone could hurt themselves. We can just let it rot to hell either.

[danem]

Also, I must not be the only "urban hiker" out there who often just likes to walk through places that look like the illustrations in that article. And that's without anything else there. Allow some food stands to happen along the way...or something and things really could start building up.

[mtraininjax]

Flagg has been retained by The Haskell Company to design the concept for the $15 million project to replace the deteriorated wooden boardwalk from Friendship Park east to the School Board Building site.

THANK GOODNESS! The Southbank planks are in terrible shape. The Navy memorial deserves better on the Southbank as well. Glad Peyton is getting around to this, 8 years later.

[Seraphs]

There should be a lot more there, however, a good many people still walk it like me.

[dougskiles]

The southbank riverwalk absolutely needs some help.  The boards are coming apart and rotting in many places.  Eventually, they will need to either close it for safety reasons or replace it.  I had a chance to see some of Chris Flagg's sketches a while back.  He has a great vision for what it can become.  But I don't think there is any way it can be built for $15 million.  I would be in favor of something a little simpler and similar to the northbank.  The river and the bridges are interesting enough to me.

What I would REALLY love to see is a complete pedestrian loop that includes a new southbank riverwalk extending past Baptist, then turning through San Marco and connecting to Southside Park (tennis courts/library), across the tracks (using the new skyway crossing), to the Kings Avenue Station (where people stop and shop at an organic grocery store - coming soon) and finally through the JEA Southside Generating Station property (after it becomes a city recreation area).

[Ocklawaha]

JOHN W. HARDIN was a butcher in Jacksonville, before a shootout north of town eliminated the "Pinkertons" sent to get him... He even enjoyed a police escort here, because no Damn Yankee detective is going to take him in Jacksonville. Oh and that shootout, yeah he AND HIS BODY GUARD buried both of the agents.

I went walking along the Riverwalk and saw Babe Hardy leaning on a lamppost with a puppy pulling at his trouser leg, on the other side was no less then Stan Laurel, his lifetime bud. We talked a while and when I suspected we were being watched, they both laughed. Seems a fishy looking beast was half way over the railing and looking square at us... I would have ran away but John Wesley Hardin and Doc By God Holiday, and a couple of members of the Barker Gang were standing nearby and I realized no self respecting monster was going to tangle with those boys. Maw Barker had a mouth worse then the sailors waiting for the Maple Leaf or maybe the Columbine, I chuckled in my Rebel heart thinking you Yanks are going a hell of a lot farther down then you suspect on this trip! Ray Charles, was at his Keyboard over by the steakhouse, and his sweet sounds were echoing through the hedgerows. As I approached the lone sailor looking down river to the sea, I suspected he and I had met in some long ago concert hall. There I saw, the Skynyrd Boys, The Allman's, and damn, even Pat Boone was listening in THAT WAS FREEBIRD, and next up JESSICA.

After crossing the river on the Skyway I visited Mister Flagler, Mr. Plant, Mr. Williams, and we all had a photo session while Mr. Champion Davis, and Prime Osbourne looked on. Hell of a group gathered between the CSX tower and FEC'S Speedway To America's Playground. In front of the landing I could hear the cheers as Eugene “Stanky” White, wowed the crowds with story's from his days in the (Negro) Southern League of Base Ballists, he told the story of how on June 28, 2008, in Pittsburgh, the Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates honored the Negro Leagues by wearing uniforms of the Jacksonville Red Caps. As I walked east on the Northbank I noted Bob Hayes was a half a city block ahead of the other two "runners".


Down at the end of Market Street, Mr. Hart stood with his tiny ferry canoe, he was beckoning me to come aboard for 2 cents. Unfreaking believable these heroes should manifest themselves in bodily form all along our Riverwalk. Jean Ribault, and Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues was there too with his sketchbook, looking across the river to what just might have been Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who was staring back, soldiers by his side, how in the hell did I miss him when I was over there? How do I get out of this jam? Ah the names! I'm Robert Mann de Scott, THAT ought to save me!  "Peace brothers," I mumbled as I headed up to the little market under the big Bay tree to sleep off another of my incredible day's.

A dream that could come true, let's organize the "JACKSONVILLE STARS..." and stand em up along the walk for all to see and enjoy. We can get ten of them for $100,000 dollars, and I bet it draws more people downtown then all the baskets one could hang in front of the vacant buildings. One can walk over the "stars" in Hollywood and a few other places, but only here could one walk among them, and HEAR THEM, y'all bring your cameras.

OCKLAWAHA