Metro Jacksonville DEV
Jacksonville by Neighborhood => Downtown => Topic started by: Metro Jacksonville on January 22, 2016, 12:20:02 AM
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Friends of Hemming Park: 150 Years of Hemming Park
(http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53fe3727e4b02adad6b81618/t/54075c7be4b0cd91b7e7c945/1409768574941/history.jpg?format=2500w)
On Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016 Hemming Park will celebrate 150 years.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-jan-friends-of-hemming-park-150-years-of-hemming-park
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Two possible options for the rebuild of the park were displayed. One is a full upgrade while the other is an incremental upgrade. I preferred the design of incremental approach, plus it will likely be more economical and practical.
There was also a rendering of the BLK container cafe that will be brought into the park soon.
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Here are the two possible options for rebuild that FHP displayed, along with the BLK container cafe, courtesy Jacksonville.com.
Both are dramatic improvements, but I remain convinced that a mini-Bryant Park style Great Lawn concept (full upgrade) is the perfect use for the space. I also think that making a kid's interactive fountain the central point of the park (incremental upgrade) ignores and does disservice to the ideal Hemming Park visitor - the downtown worker. It's great to keep weekend families in mind when designing upgrades, but Hemming should be a park primarily tailored to adults, not children. The full upgrade proposed, while surely pricey, nails it. FHP have done a great job putting lipstick on the pig that they were given with Hemming Plaza, but if we're serious about restoring Hemming to its rightful place as the crown jewel of the Northbank, it's going to take a pretty serious investment.
If the full Hemming upgrade, Laura Street Trio, and no-frills Skyway station in Brooklyn were to become a reality, I'm convinced it'd be off to the races for downtown Jacksonville.
(http://i.imgur.com/ggVM8Ds.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/8jVl3Br.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/MeVPsU3.jpg)
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^Just wanted to bump these proposed Hemming concepts.
They kind of got buried in the weekend news.
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I hope they go with the second one, but either way, I'd be happy if all of the changes were made.
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I hope they can swing the full upgrade. Somebody in this town has to throw down like we are a city of the future and not playing catch up all the time.
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The stage looks like a go:
http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=547539
Great news for Hemming.
Turning around decades upon decades of neglect shouldn't be expected overnight, and in this guy's opinion, FHP have far exceeded expectations at this stage of the private-public partnership.
Way to make things happen, FHP, in a city where that is very difficult to do.
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My favorite line is "Gulliford questioned why the nonprofit negotiated the naming rights agreement with the sponsor instead of the city."
Seriously? For the prior 10 years, the only users of the park were homeless people. FHP has completely turned that around. The city keeps demanding they raise more and more money, but when they do, the city discourages it and want to take credit for it. If the city wanted to solicit sponsorships, why didn't they do it in the preceding decade?