Adaptive Reuse: Flint's Water Street Pavilion

[thelakelander]

Very few urban revitalization innovations have generated as much popularity as the festival marketplace craze by the Rouse Company during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/adaptive-reuse-flints-water-street-pavilion/

[jax_hwy_engineer]

Isn't this more or less what FSCJ did with that old mall over off Baymeadows and Southside?

[KenFSU]

Really great series of articles.

Learning something new every morning.

[Captain Zissou]

I love how the cities keep getting smaller.  Can't wait to see Starke or Green Cove in tomorrow's article.  (Green Cove actually has a wonderful adaptive reuse project that is currently under construction.  Old movie theatre into wedding venue/event space in the heart of downtown.  Let me know if you want to cover it as I know the owners.)

[DrQue]

Get out of here with this nonsense. All of these cities are clearly clueless to what our esteemed leaders have known for years: Prosperity via Wrecking Ball.

Have you noticed how many of these cities are in the Rust Belt? Why should we follow their example? It can only lead to economic collapse and tainted water. Sheesh....

/s

[thelakelander]

Isn't this more or less what FSCJ did with that old mall over off Baymeadows and Southside?

Yes it is! Structurally good buildings can be used for a ton of things. Just continuing to show what's happened with other Rouse festival marketplaces. Even when retail and dining doesn't work anymore, there's still value in a sound structure. Heck, as insane as the thought of it is, the Landing structure could even be reconfigured into an aquarium!

[Captain Zissou]

Heck, as insane as the thought of it is, the Landing structure could even be reconfigured into an aquarium!

That's the only situation where I'd support an aquarium downtown.  The Georgia Aquarium cost $300M to build.  We don't have the funds for that and it's not worth doing on the cheap.  Converting The Landing and east lot to a Florida specific aquarium with tidal marshes, reefs, mangrove forests, freshwater springs, and one big tank to be a more regional draw would be awesome.  You could preserve the plaza on the river for shows, educational events, parties, etc..  Make the whole thing LEED platinum and the park at Hogan and Water streets could feature a large bioswale with native grasses and plants.

[JaGoaT]

Yup let's make The Landing another FSCJ Campus

[jax_hwy_engineer]

Heck, as insane as the thought of it is, the Landing structure could even be reconfigured into an aquarium!

That's the only situation where I'd support an aquarium downtown.  The Georgia Aquarium cost $300M to build.  We don't have the funds for that and it's not worth doing on the cheap.  Converting The Landing and east lot to a Florida specific aquarium with tidal marshes, reefs, mangrove forests, freshwater springs, and one big tank to be a more regional draw would be awesome.  You could preserve the plaza on the river for shows, educational events, parties, etc..  Make the whole thing LEED platinum and the park at Hogan and Water streets could feature a large bioswale with native grasses and plants.

I wonder if this would further activate the walkability of the downtown core... or just be another underutilized attraction downtown that would seldom get visited.

Yup let's make The Landing another FSCJ Campus

Yeah, I appreciate these examples of how these spaces have been reused, but this one isn't feasible with a dedicated FSCJ campus like 10 blocks north.

The Landing just looks like a dead mall in the middle of Downtown. I've ridden through the Landing on my bike several times since moving to Riverside, I've never had a reason to stop there and instead find myself up on Adams and Forsyth street if I want a beer, food, or anything to do. The last time I actually stopped there was to go to Fionn McCool's when I was meeting my dad for a show at Mavericks. This was back in like 2017. It's a very dated facility and was billed as a way to revitalize downtown in 1987 when it was built...which I never really did evidently. Plus, "Festival Marketplace" (aka a mall) COULD have been super popular in the 80's but malls in general have grossly fallen out of favor in the States.

[thelakelander]

The Landing just looks like a dead mall in the middle of Downtown. I've ridden through the Landing on my bike several times since moving to Riverside, I've never had a reason to stop there and instead find myself up on Adams and Forsyth street if I want a beer, food, or anything to do. The last time I actually stopped there was to go to Fionn McCool's when I was meeting my dad for a show at Mavericks. This was back in like 2017. It's a very dated facility and was billed as a way to revitalize downtown in 1987 when it was built...which I never really did evidently. Plus, "Festival Marketplace" (aka a mall) COULD have been super popular in the 80's but malls in general have grossly fallen out of favor in the States.

The St. James Building looked like like a dated and obsolete department store when May Cohens finally closed it down in 1987 but the city administration during that era considered it worthy of adaptive reuse.



The reason for these adaptive reuse articles isn't to suggest that these are uses that would be ideal for Jacksonville specifically. Instead, they're to suggest that a building intended for niche retail can be repositioned into literally anything and that we should consider our options before spending millions to raze with no cohesive plan for moving forward. Tomorrow, we'll share the rise, fall and rebirth of Tampa's former Shoppes at Harbour Island festival marketplace.

Yeah, I appreciate these examples of how these spaces have been reused, but this one isn't feasible with a dedicated FSCJ campus like 10 blocks north.

Not saying that this should or should not be an educational facility but what you've described is essentially what SCAD is in Savannah and what FSCJ just recently did by turning the old Lerner Shops building on Adams into a culinary school restaurant and dorms above it.

A danger I see in Jax is decision making based off quick assumption that certain uses aren't feasible without including those who know more about those uses in the decision making process. IMO, this is how we end up spending $8 million to raze City Hall Annex without ever offering a RFP that considered adaptive reuse or making this Landing deal. In the end, we simply end up spending too much money on things that cause us more harm than not.