Live Urban Jacksonville Weekly: O (Urban) Pioneers!

I was very excited to watch the Urban Jacksonville Weekly podcast live tonight. The guests were Dr. Wayne Wood of RAP (Riverside Avondale Preservation) and Steve Lovett of  ELM (Ervin Lovett Miller). Most of the hour and a half show dealt with downtown Jacksonville development and ELM's architectural designs for the Laura Street Trio. Hopefully Steve Lovett wasn't too annoyed with my question about the conflict of many architect's desire to design innovative new buildings and preserve or reuse old buildings. Mostly I wanted him to address the hostility against historic classical form and the bias for new architectural forms taught in architecture schools. I want to make it clear that I am for projects like the Laura Street Trio and the adoption of New Urbanist principles in Jacksonville and smart growth zoning laws for the city as a whole. Mixed-use street-level urban design are the way of the past and hopefully the way of Jacksonville's downtown future.


Dr. Wayne Wood was the biggest surprise of the night. I was expecting anti-new stuffiness. He came across as an affable, progressive, civic-minded, funny guy (note to self -- take the Riverside historic house tour). In addition to historic preservation he's also a proponent of architecture that is old as well as new. Of the four proposals for the main library he preferred the more contemporary design by European firm (Hammer & Larsen of Denmark?) than the Robert A. M. Stern design we have now. He bemoaned the faux classicism of Stern's library design. I'm sure Mayor Peyton (who knows his constituency well) picked the design that would be most tolerable to Jacksonville sensibilities. Wood was right in complementing the library's interior program. Though any criticism he had about it's exterior aesthetics are mitigated by the bustle and energy that it creates in an otherwise empty downtown.


Guest co-host Melissa Ross of WJCT's First Coast Connect was cut to the chase with her commentary about downtown's need for adequate workforce housing. An audience member mentioned a need for a grocery store in the downtown center. Grocery stores want to make money and won't make an investment until they get census data that shows significant growth downtown to warrant  a Publix, Whole Foods or God-willing a Trader Joe's. History shows that it's these urban pioneers, willing to resettle abandoned city centers, to fix up and make downtown alive. There presence on the street at night will make downtown feel safe. Even though it's comparably safe already, negative perception is a reality to overcome. Ultimately it's not government or business that will make downtown happen but urban pioneers that make the blocks of Jacksonville their homestead.