More Downtown Mixed-Use: Beaver Street Villas

[Metro Jacksonville]

More Downtown Mixed-Use: Beaver Street Villas



605 North Broad Street opened as the Central Hotel in 1912, serving black patrons during the Jim Crow Era. What is now known as the Jacksonville Urban League originated out of one of its storefronts.  Now, one of a few historic LaVilla landmarks still standing, the Clara White Mission has plans to refurbish this this structure.  Here is a look at what has been conceptually proposed.





Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-jul-more-downtown-mixed-use-beaver-street-villas

[hightowerlover]

Am I the only one confused with what these drawings are supposed to represent?  What are the exterior stair towers all about, they look crazy.

[CityLife]

^"Clara White Mission is also proposing new construction to the rear of the structure to house necessary ADA elevator and access facilities."

[urbaknight]

Will they sidewalks be urban too? (extending from the building all the way to the curb)

[hightowerlover]

Is it supposed to look like it's crooked though?  What material is it made out of?  Is it see through?  Just having a hard time visualizing such a drastic deviation from the historic lines to this modern mashup?  It could be neat, just hard to envision from a black and white line drawing...

[JayBird]

Hard to get a feel for what it will be from the rendering, however it is great to finally see some progress.  I remember when then they announced this project at the 2011 Miracle on Ashley Street lunch.

[thelakelander]

Here's the revised elevations for Clara White's Beaver Street Villas project.  I wonder what happened.  I actually like the stairwell towers because they were more architecturally modern than the typical Jacksonville box.  Architects like Klutho would roll over in their graves if they found out how architecturally conservative our community has become. However, I guess someone doesn't agree with pushing the architectural envelope within the urban core.

Original


Revised



However, I can't wait to see the Broad Street facade when complete:

Current


Proposed

[jcjohnpaint]

and why does everything have to be tan?

[thelakelander]

Lol, good question.

[tufsu1]

and why does everything have to be tan?

because there aren't many ground breaking architecture firms in this town...especially ones that primarily focus on engineering

[jaxjaguar]

I noticed that work seems to have stopped on this... I used to see construction crews here all the time, but haven't seen any activity for months... Did something happen?

[Bill Hoff]

The 1st floor is planned to be VA offices......which means getting through the federal contract process.

That can takes a very long time.

[blizz01]

and why does everything have to be tan?

I may be wrong, but isn't that the norm in warm climates?  Doesn't it correlate directly to energy efficiency?  Maybe that's just specific to roofs, but I know that Masonite won't warranty a dark colored front door with western exposure in the state of Florida. 

[videojon]

Did construction halt on this?

[camarocane]

Did construction halt on this?

+1, havnt seen much (any) work on this building in a few months.