Cities Alive!
Revisioning Jacksonville’s Urban Fabric
UF Landscape Architecture Urban Design Studio
Urban Design Studio Team: Students: Brittany Algero, Michael Cain, Kaley Dunlap, Kelly Elison, Emilio Fuster, Lindsey Gibbs, Kaleigh Hastings, Lulu Loquidis, Russell Marlborough, Stephen Moore, Herman Nadal, Jaime Russ, Nickolas Schild, Eamon Sullivan, Alex Thommes, Caeli Tolar, and Brandon White Professor: Kevin Thompson Graduate Assistants: Benjamin Himschoot and Dan Chen Written and Edited by Benjamin Himschoot & Kevin Thompson
Table of Contents
Project Background ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Affordable Housing: Issues and Opportunities .....................................................................................................................................................................
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Concepts & Theories ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Project Framework ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 The Landscape Urban Design Studio ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Student Projects .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Discussion & Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 177
Project Background This project is a direct result of a study done in 2011 by faculty and students at the University of Florida department of Landscape Architecture with support from the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing. This work examines the Cathedral District, a blighted area of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, and developes strategies for re-visioning and designing an active urban core. Led by Professor Kevin Thompson, this project aimed at incorporating a wide variety of urban design concepts and strategies centered around the creation of affordable housing as a catalyst for creating a vibrant and diverse community. 4
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Introduction
Empty parking lots strewn with debris and inhabited only by ants greet visitors as they enter the Cathedral district. Moving slowly eastward, dilapidated wooden Cracker-style homes are boarded up, with no sign of life within. Old Victorian homes, with peeling paint have been converted into rows of bail bondmen’s offices. Gone are the days when one could imagine neighbors sitting on the grand porches, sipping iced tea and calling out to friends passing by. On the south horizon, the twin towers of the imposing jail loom ominously; casting a shadow on the halfway house nestled under the twisted concrete spaghetti of freeway ramps overhead. Along the river, the industrial complex of Maxwell House Coffee barricades access to the river. Next door, an unfinished high-rise residential tower sits vacant and half-built, all progress halted and its insides exposed. Below, Hogan’s Creek is barely recognizable, fenced off and channelized, carrying a trickle of water and plastic bags and other garbage as it slowly makes it way to the St. John’s river.
Shadowy figures roam the streets, looking for a place to pass the time. Along the western side of the district stand several tall and beautiful cathedrals, their spires reaching skyward in a silent prayer amongst the asphalt and concrete that surrounds them. Their only solace is the weekly visitors that briefly fill their chambers, and the occasional passerby who snaps a photo of their architectural details. Just north, three grim towers jut out of the landscape, providing drab housing for the elderly, but offer no obvious connection to the surrounding neighborhood. What is this place and how has it become such a hodgepodge of leftover and abandoned spaces? This is the Cathedral District today. This was once a vibrant downtown neighborhood, close to the ports and city life. Unfortunately, time has been unkind to this urban zone, and community has been replaced with what can only be described as a vacuum; a soulless space. However, what some may view as hopeless is seen by urban designers as an opportunity. It is this derelict district that serves as the base for this exploration and subsequent design interventions. 7
Affordable Housing Issues and Opportunities
The state of Florida is facing a serious lack of affordable housing. According to the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing, 29% of households in Florida are “cost burdened� for housing, which means they pay more than 30% of their monthly income for housing. In Jacksonville, over 94,000 households (26% of total) meet this criteria, and over 38,000 (11%) are paying more than 50% for housing. This represents an enormous problem for many households struggling to make ends meet. Affordable housing affects more than just the poorest segments of society. With current high unemployment rates, many households are now out of work or with reduced wages. The high foreclosure rates throughout the state have forced many people to leave their homes in search of rental properties, adding to the demand for affordable housing. Thus Jacksonville, like many other areas throughout Florida, is struggling to meet the high demand for affordable housing. Surprisingly enough, the Cathedral District does offer a high number of affordable housing units. However, these are almost exclusively due to the residential towers for the elderly. Because these units are exclusively for the elderly, they do not provide a variety of affordable housing options for families or other segments of the population. In the discussion of affordable housing, it is important to understand 8
that simply building “projects,� or blocks of affordable housing does not lend itself to developing rich and diverse neighborhoods and communities. Affordable housing must also be provided for the working population who will provide both services and the need for services by moving into downtown districts and enlivening them; creating communities where today we have only parking lots. Just as important is to include a mixture of housing products that are affordable for middle and upper-end income segments. Creating urban diversity is important to creating communities, which means also providing the framework for civic and commercial elements to thrive alongside residential uses. We envision using affordable housing as taking a large role in developing a dynamic urban community in this blighted area. Because this area suffers from a lack of community feeling, we see affordable housing as the first step in bringing people back to live and work in this area. Because communities change and evolve over time, urban design must be responsive and flexible to these changes. The heavyhanded approach of urban renewal in the 1950’s wrought disastrous consequences in tearing apart communities and creating less-than ideal conditions for urban residents. Thus, in keeping more with the ideals of landscape urbanism, we envision our role as planting the seeds for urban regeneration, while allowing communities to have the freedom to define themselves. This is more conducive to creating communities of tolerance and acceptance, by creating communities that are partners in a redevelopment process that leads to a new urban genesis. This process is multi-dimensional, working across both physical space and time. To do nothing is to embrace the slow march of decay that has gripped the area; our goal is to reverse the trend and instead offer ideas that can give birth to a new community once again. 9
Concepts & Theories
Urban design is a broad-ranging concept, that embraces Landscape Urbanism is a relatively new term hat a large range of professions and practices. This includes contributions from landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, engineering, and building construction. Its scope is concerned with many issues ranging from long-term, large-scale regional planning and design all the way down to detailed street-scale interventions and implementation. This particular studio process reached out to known and available local experts who contributed to this exploration across many fields. In addition to the main focus on affordable housing, this studio also looked at a variety of concepts and theories as a means for developing a rich and diverse urban community. However, these concepts are but a small glimpse into the complexity that urban design engages.
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emphasizes the importance of the landscape and natural systems as the backbone upon which urban forms and areas are created. It acknowledges the temporal nature of both human and natural systems, and encourages flexibility. Jacksonville is uniquely sited with a variety of natural features, including the Atlantic Ocean, the St. Johns River, and adjacent to the Cathedral District, Hogan’s Creek. These unique features provided an impetus for the original creation of the city. Now, these natural features have the opportunity to become a part of the district’s regeneration, provided they can be reconnected to the surrounding community. This project acknowledges the changing dynamics of cities, and the importance of developing strategies for affecting positive changes over time.
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CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) is an Urban Forestry is of immportance to the health and well-
important concept that was explored in the design studio. CPTED seeks ways to minimize risk of crime through the physical design of spaces. In some cases, vulnerable areas are “hardened” to make it much harder for theft or vandalism to occur. In other cases, designing spaces to allow for natural surveillance, or more “eyes on the street” is also seen as important. Dr. Richard Schneider of the UF Department of Urban Planning provided expertise in this area which proved invaluable to students understanding of this topic. 12
being of any city. The urban forest includes not only protected patches of wooded areas, but also street trees, and green canopy in backyards or parks. The urban forest has been shown to contribute to vital ecosystem services, such as climate regulation, stormwater cleansing and absorption, carbon and particulate matter removal, in addition to providing shade and oxygen. Strategies for increasing the urban forest, including proper planting and maintenance of street trees, as well as balancing species diversity were explored.
Urban Farming provides an opportunity to produce ag- Community Gardens are spaces within the urban
ricultural products within the urban setting. One aspect of rural life frequently forgotten in urban areas is the production of food. Recent trends have suggested a resurgence in the urban agriculture movement. An increasing number of people are beginning to grow their own fruits and vegetables in backyards, while many more are attempting to “buy local� from nearby farmers markets. This trend has inspired some of the thoughts explored in the design studio as potential local and community opportunities.
fabric that are open to the public to cultivate communal plots. In developing this project, we looked to the trend towards the development of community gardens. In this sense, we wanted to think creatively about how we could incorporate this into our designs. In the Cathedral District, there many vacant lots are sitting empty and unused. Although the urban soils may be unsuitable for food production, other opportunities still exist. By establishing a partnership with the city, many of these spaces could be transformed into productive 13
gardens. For example, ornamental horticultural plots could be established, producing plants for city parks and city residents at reduced costs. This could produce employment opportunities, or even provide a source of free flowers for beautifying the area. This could in turn give rise to random acts of beauty, such as little vases handed out through community organizations (made of a resilient material) that could attach to signs, light standards, and other places where people could randomly stick free flowers in throughout the city. Such little initiatives are simply one idea of many that were developed for breathing life and sense of community back into this area.
Intergenerational Spaces
foster and encourage the interaction of different age groups, such as between schoolchildren and the elderly. Rates of childhood obesity are increasing at an alarming rate, and opportunities for people of all generations to come together are seemingly few and far between in the digital age. In this project, we looked at developing public spaces that would provide opportunities for interaction between various groups of people to encourage further community development.
Live/Work Environments involves developing
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strategies for bringing people closer to their jobs and creating rich urban environments where people can live, shop, and recreate within an urban environment. The average American spends over 46 minutes each day
commuting back and forth to work, which sums to over 100 hours a year. As sprawling cities drive growth further and further from urban centers, traffic congestion continues to increase. Building additional roads and highways has not been effective at solving this problem, and has instead contributed to further urban sprawl. Our solution was to create areas that provide opportunities for residential living spaces alongside employment opportunities. Active live/work zones were developed where people can walk, bicycle, or use public transportation methods to quickly and efficiently commute to work and leisure destinations. This important concept is a vital part of developing more sustainable urban environments that contribute to the overall benefit of both residents and the city.
Transit Oriented Re-Development ties
in closely to the concept of creating live/work environments. It has become a popular strategy commonly employed by urban designers today. The overarching goal is to use transportation improvements as a genesis for the development of redevelopment nodes and clusters along points in the system. This is frequently used with the development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems, Light Rail, or Metro (subway) systems. The concept is to create high-density development within short walking distance of transit points, usually Ÿ mile or so, and with moderate density within a ½ mile radius. Thus, the transportation element is the driving force behind the (re)development of these urban areas. This is important for creating not only urban density, but also for connecting redevelopment to the larger framework of the urban fabric. Jacsonville’s existing urban monorail and bus systems provide the perfect opportunity for this concept.
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Street Art is often considered graffiti or undesirable vandalism. However, street art can also take the form of public expression of beauty, creativity, or a political statement. It can take the form of paintings, murals, stencils, sculptures, brandings, banners, and much more. It should make you stop and think, or give pause. It can be subversive or provocative, and gives much needed expression to otherwise bland public spaces. Ferdinand Lewis from the UF department of Urban and Regional Planning provided a fascinating look at the world of street art, and how it can be encouraged as part of the urban regeneration process. These examples shown here from South America illustrate what potential role street art could play in enlivening and animating this bleak district.
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COJ Goals and Objectives
- Improved access to our river banks, creating a greenway of substantial amenity to our citizens. - Development of clearly defined downtown districts with distinct identities and a mix of uses to identify which district would be an appropriate location for major public capital investment projects.
Project Framework This project was based in part on a recent study by the City of Jacksoville, and their master plan drafted in 2000. Their key points provide the impetus for urban regeneration and development, and set the stage for this urban design studio project.
The City of Jacksonville Master Plan
provided the the following initiatives as a framework for the study. These specific goals and initiatives put forth in the plan directly acknowledge the need for the development of a sustainable and vibrant downtown, but also the need to incorporate comprehensive systems of open space, residential, and commercial uses, while developing a sense of community. Therefore, the project was framed in terms of developing specific goals and objectives that would enable the Cathedral District to implement some of these specific goals and objectives. 18
- Development of interconnected, attractive, and safe pedestrian links among neighborhoods, activities, and open space. - Encouragement of adequate, well-designed and strategically placed parking throughout downtown. - Recognition of open space as a valuable development asset. - Provision of a sustainable system of open spaces that encourage variety, both in terms of size and function. Water and natural features will be important elements. - Establishment of downtown as a 24-hour city and as a new location for residential development, a regional destination for tourists, conventioneers, and local residents. - Enhancement of the perception of downtown as a safe place. - Pursuance of short-term actions that help to achieve our long-term vision.
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A site visit was conducted in February of 2011 to observe the
existing conditions in and around this area. Initial findings confirmed that the area was indeed suffering from urban blight and lacked a sense of place. Large areas of surface parking were observed, along with evidence of neglect and decay. Other observations included vacant lots and houses, isolated elderly towers, rows and rows of bail bondsmen, vandalism, litter, homelessness, and a sense of disconnection. Large freeway ramps at the east side of the district tower over the landscape below, creating a neglected and forgotten area filled with garbage. Just south of the district, the Maxwell House coffee production factory and the Duval County Jail are both imposing structures blocking access to the St. Johns River. Finally, Hogan’s creek is largely forgotten, littered with debris.
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The Landscape Urban Design Studio
Despite the bleary landscape, there was underneath some bones of what was once a vibrant community. The architecture of the cathedrals and some lovely victorian homes hint at a possible future for this area. In response to the findings of the site visit, students sprang into action and conducted an in-depth analysis of the district. Using the theories and concepts covered, ideas were drafted for re-visioning this area. Beginning with research into urban design concepts and examples, such as complete streets, students were charged with selecting a specific region or sub-area within the loosely defined bounds of the Cathedral District. Within these areas, students were asked to develop a general block plan for the area, and a detailed design intervention at the street scale. Their goal was to create a new vision for this area, incorporating many of the urban design ideas and elements explored in the initial phase of the course. Their results are presented here. We loosened the parameters of the district to include nearby areas of blocks of interest that had unique features that would have direct bearing on the development and design of the Cathedral District. Because the district does not exist in a vacuum and is immediately adjacent to the central business district of Jacksonville, students were given some leeway to incorporate other blocks or areas that had potential for positive impact. These included Hemming Park, the jail, the Maxwell House facility, the St. John’s River waterfront, Hogan’s Creek, and the residential neighborhood of Springfield. Transportation was also considered as part of the important links, such as bus lines and existing monorail stations. These elements became important to the structure of the interventions that were developed. 21
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Cathedral District
Downtown Jacksonville, FL
Lulu Loquidis
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Eamon Sullivan
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Alex Thommes
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Discussion & Conclusions
This project has centered around creating a new and vibrant community in the Cathedral District of Jacksonville, Florida. This struggling zone is ripe with opportunity to develop strategic initiatives to regrow and develop this blighted area. By using a variety of concepts and techniques, we believe that our work has shown myriad possibilities for creating affordable housing within the context of community development. Not only is it important to create a variety of land uses and amenities, but other elements, such as systems of open space, pedestrian and bicycle connections, public civic spaces, as well as improved transportation options are also important to this process. While there are no easy solutions to this challenge, our research and projects have illustrated the potential this area has for rebirth and regeneration. Potential impacts of this project include the possibility to incorporate some of the specific initiatives set forth in the City of Jacksonville master plan. We believe that many of the elements from these new visions are not only entirely feasible, but necessary to the area’s redevelopment. We strongly encourage additional research and implementation of many of the concepts and ideas set forth in this project. Future research and action in this area must include involvement with the city planning department and the local community redevelopment agency to take action in developing comprehensive plans for implementing this vision and making it into a reality. It is our hope that someday our dreams and visions for this district will be realized and that a thriving community will come to replace the abandoned spaces. 177