The Different Faces of the Jacksonville Shipyards

[hiddentrack]

A very small bit of news today courtesy of this tweet: "Lamping said he hopes to open talks with new mayor Leonard Curry over the Shipyard project to start in month or so."

[thelakelander]

Mayor Curry: Shad Khan's Shipyards proposal has to make 'financial sense' for Jacksonville

Mayor Lenny Curry said Thursday that Jaguars owner Shad Khan's Shipyards proposal is an important deal for Jacksonville, but has to make "financial sense" for the city.

Khan unveiled his Shipyards proposal at a news conference last February, but talks have been slowed because of the mayoral election, among other factors. Curry, who took over July 1, seems ready to move forward now that he has submitted his budget to the City Council.

Khan's proposal is a private-public partnership that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars on 48 acres of city owned property on the Northbank of the St. Johns Rivers that will bridge EverBank Field and the sports complex to downtown Jacksonville.

"It's an important deal," Curry said after he spoke at a news conference at EverBank Field dealing with providing full-time athletic trainers at Duval County high schools. "We' re going to figure it out. Look, it's got to be a deal that's good for the taxpayers, that's good for the organization, that's good for Jacksonville and that's what we're working toward."

He said he will be personally involved in the negotiations.

"We'll have to work the on the specifics," Curry said. "That's a conversation with the deal makers, with the negotiators, that's me, and with the citizens of Jacksonville. My metrics on any deal that will be a private public partnership — it has to be good for Jacksonville and have metrics that give the taxpayers a return."

The Jaguars have not revealed how much money they are willing to put in the project and how much they are looking for the city to contribute. That will probably be a key point in the negotiations.

"I think that Shad Khan and what the Jaguars bring to this city is a tremendous asset," Curry said.

"You have to leverage all the assets you have, particularly those that get the highest return. I want to get it done, but it has to make sense. It's got to make financial sense. There's a lot of negotiations to go in the months ahead. We've got a great working relationship [with the Jaguars]. I'm looking toward a win-win for everyone."

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/sports/football/2015-07-30/story/mayor-curry-shad-khans-shipyards-proposal-has-make-financial-sense

[hiddentrack]

Someone I'd mentioned the Shipyards project to told me about Victor Civita Square (Praça Victor Civita) in Sao Paulo and shared this link from ArchDaily. It sounds like an interesting way to approach a contaminated site, and it looks great, too.

I'm not sure how contaminated that site was in comparison to what we have on our hands at the Shipyards, but this sounds like a great way to adapt the design to the contamination of the Shipyards site.

The project was launched in 2006, when the local government and Editora Abril established a partnership in order to enable the renewal of the site. Like other post-industrial areas, the existing site was degraded and polluted exemplifying the urban challenge most metropolises now have to face.

Conscious of this issue Anna Dietzsch, in association with Levisky Arquitetos Associados, proposed a design that remediates the contamination and proposes a sustainable solution, incorporating social political, cultural and environmental elements into a productive design.

A deck of certified, recycled Brazilian hardwood sits above the site, supported by steel structure, to minimize contact with the contaminated soil. Like the frame of a ship, the deck unfolds between the horizontal and vertical in a curve, creating places that are defined by the three-dimensionality of the form, great urban rooms that invite public use.

I've had a difficult time finding info on their site it in English, but I let Chrome translate (from Portuguese) some of the pages under the Revitalization section of their site to get more info:

Areas of recycling

Between 1949 and 89, the land that houses the Victor Civita Square was a warehouse and processing center of home and hospital waste. After disabling the incinerator Pinheiros, the area was occupied by recycling cooperatives, which remained on the ground until the end of 2006. As a result of this process, especially by the release of waste not destroyed in the burning of materials, the soil was contaminated by traces of dioxins, furans and heavy metals such as lead, aluminum and zinc, pollutants that can only be dispelled by the nature of the action over the centuries.

When the Abril Group and its partners have undertaken to promote the rehabilitation of the former incinerator of the land for public use, the Secretary of Green and Environment of the City of São Paulo, CETESB and GTZ conducted studies and surveys on site, which culminated the Terms of Reference for Recovery of Degraded Areas.

It was found, then the possibility of adding a layer of 50 cm of soil for monitoring contamination processes, isolating dangerous points and build protective surfaces - were more than 3500 cubic meters of cleared land around the ground.

Currently a  deck  legalized wood in three different Brazilian species (ipe, garapa and sucupira) delimits the tour of the square, preventing passers-by have direct contact with the soil of degraded areas.
For further study, CETESB maintains the woods a place for the demonstration surveys, polls and monitoring of soil and groundwater.

Sustainability and Innovation

A pioneering initiative in Latin America, the architectural design of the Victor Civita Square aims to inspire reflection about the environmental degradation condition of the space in which it was deployed.

To prevent visitors to have contact with the soil degraded areas, built up a large  deck  wood legalized and alveolar slab. Displays information distributed by the  deck  allow the visitor to understand all the environmental revitalization techniques used in the project, appropriate rules techniques regarding accessibility.

The architecture also includes a series of sustainable measures such as lighting LEDs  (more durable than ordinary light bulbs) and rainwater recycling system. Your landscape design consists of different plant species with bodily functions, herbal or likely to use in the production of biofuels.

The Square of architectural design is the responsibility of Levinsky Architects, with architects Adriana Levinsky and Anna Julia Dietzsch. The structures were designed by Cia projects under the responsibility of the engineer Heloisa Maringoni.

In addition to the photos on the ArchDaily site, there's a great photo gallery here.

[Tacachale]

Mayor Curry: Shad Khan's Shipyards proposal has to make 'financial sense' for Jacksonville

Mayor Lenny Curry said Thursday that Jaguars owner Shad Khan's Shipyards proposal is an important deal for Jacksonville, but has to make "financial sense" for the city.

Khan unveiled his Shipyards proposal at a news conference last February, but talks have been slowed because of the mayoral election, among other factors. Curry, who took over July 1, seems ready to move forward now that he has submitted his budget to the City Council.

Khan's proposal is a private-public partnership that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars on 48 acres of city owned property on the Northbank of the St. Johns Rivers that will bridge EverBank Field and the sports complex to downtown Jacksonville.

"It's an important deal," Curry said after he spoke at a news conference at EverBank Field dealing with providing full-time athletic trainers at Duval County high schools. "We' re going to figure it out. Look, it's got to be a deal that's good for the taxpayers, that's good for the organization, that's good for Jacksonville and that's what we're working toward."

He said he will be personally involved in the negotiations.

"We'll have to work the on the specifics," Curry said. "That's a conversation with the deal makers, with the negotiators, that's me, and with the citizens of Jacksonville. My metrics on any deal that will be a private public partnership — it has to be good for Jacksonville and have metrics that give the taxpayers a return."

The Jaguars have not revealed how much money they are willing to put in the project and how much they are looking for the city to contribute. That will probably be a key point in the negotiations.

"I think that Shad Khan and what the Jaguars bring to this city is a tremendous asset," Curry said.

"You have to leverage all the assets you have, particularly those that get the highest return. I want to get it done, but it has to make sense. It's got to make financial sense. There's a lot of negotiations to go in the months ahead. We've got a great working relationship [with the Jaguars]. I'm looking toward a win-win for everyone."

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/sports/football/2015-07-30/story/mayor-curry-shad-khans-shipyards-proposal-has-make-financial-sense

I find this really encouraging. I think Khan can probably bring some real value to the project, but it needs to make sense for the city.  We shouldn't be in a situation where we pay a billionaire for the privilege of letting him take our public land away.