DIA wants the Landing to start with a park

[JeffreyS]

Still a 40 million dollar patch of grass where the landing used to be for the foreseeable future.

[jaxoNOLE]

Perkins & Will gets the nod

[Ken_FSU]

Perkins & Will gets the nod

Great job by the committee in making the correct choice.

P&W clearly checked all the boxes (though I'm surprised Agency was so close at #2).

Video, if anyone missed it the first time:

https://vimeo.com/567172349

[jaxlongtimer]

The public vote was 5 to 1 for Perkins & Will.  That appears to have put them over the top.  Thank God for public inputs !

...Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer said ultimately the scores were close between Agency Landscape + Planning's design and Perkins & Will's design. She said there were several factors that put Perkins & Will over the top.

Boyer said input from the public weighed approximately 5 to 1 in favor of the Perkins & Will proposal, called One Park Jax. The design proposal includes a 151-foot high sculpture that spells out "Jax," which was another factor in choosing that plan.

"Love it or hate it, people were talking about the sculpture. That kind of attention is part of our goal in terms of downtown activation," Boyer said in the meeting.

As previously reported, the cost of construction is around $12 million. The art installation proposed for the site would cost between $11 million and $18 million depending on the materials chosen — giving a total cost of $23 million to $30 million, with a maintenance cost of around $1 million per year....

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2021/07/22/new-design-for-site.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=bn&utm_content=ja&ana=e_ja_bn&j=24524443&senddate=2021-07-22

[heights unknown]

Good. Hope we all get to see it and even more, enjoy it.

[Ken_FSU]

Fingers crossed we don't cheap out on the finish.

Mirrored or bust.

[thelakelander]

Congrats to the winning team. I'm still highly skeptical about that cost estimate, so I hope the city commits the necessary funds when its revealed that the true cost is two to three times as much.

[heights unknown]

Congrats to the winning team. I'm still highly skeptical about that cost estimate, so I hope the city commits the necessary funds when its revealed that the true cost is two to three times as much.

Didn't they say 12 to 18 million dollars? I'll bet it will in fact be much more than that.

[Ken_FSU]

^Even less than that.

The $11-$18 million is just for the art piece.

Park is in the $12 million range, which feels very low.

Worth noting that, from what I understand, the $100 million in the mayor's budget for the next two years for parks & rec doesn't include the Landing.

Once the city negotiates the agreement with P+W, final design will begin, which is expected to take a full year.

P+W's going to give the city a final cost estimate in time for inclusion in next year's budget, which will be a separate line item in the CIP.

Based on that timeline, feels like we probably won't see dirt turning at Lenny's Lawn until Q4 2022/Q1 2023.

Hopefully the DIA gets the wheels turning quickly on private development (and any road reconfigurations) so that the commercial pads and greenspace can be developed and constructed in tandem.

[acme54321]

The cost estimates for what's shown in that rendering are ridiculously low.  That cut in the seawall with the living shoreline alone would probably cost $12 million these days.

[thelakelander]

The Bean was originally estimated to cost $6 million. The Final figures ended up at $23 million. It's only 33 feet high. That was nearly 20 years ago.

[jcjohnpaint]

I do like it, but I wish the front of the parking garage next to the Vystar building can be left room for something. The park facing side of the Wells Fargo building is quite a dead space too. Kind of a shame.

[JaGoaT]

Now we need the main street bridge to be converted into a green space thats pedestrian and bicycle only. Main Street Bridge Park!



CAHMPOUND

[jaxlongtimer]

Now we need the main street bridge to be converted into a green space thats pedestrian and bicycle only. Main Street Bridge Park!

CAHMPOUND

This was done during the Super Bowl here.  It was amazing to see thousands of pedestrians and street vendors take over the closed bridge and Bay Street, from Main to the Stadium, for several days.  Not to mention the jam packed riverwalks and the Landing.

Setups from that event were worthy of being duplicated every weekend since but, this is Jax, and no one learned or salvaged a single lesson from it despite the obvious evidence that, at little cost, these closures would go far to enliven Downtown.  No, subsidizing the Four Seasons for tens of millions will do more  .

[JeffreyS]

Now we need the main street bridge to be converted into a green space thats pedestrian and bicycle only. Main Street Bridge Park!



CAHMPOUND

Without shops and restaurants supporting it on either side now it will never look busy as it was during the Super bowl.