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Urban Facelift Project from Content Design Group:
As with many of our peers here in Jacksonville, we see things in our city that we do not agree with. Obviously, we tend to focus on things in the areas of development and design. One of the items that we found ourselves verbally discussing is our likes and dislikes about modern development in the urban neighborhoods of Jacksonville. We’ve come to realize that it is very easy to be critical of our city yet do nothing to promote any kind of change.
The idea for "The Urban Facelift Project" came from putting our proverbial money where our mouth is. However, we are not at a point where we can buy numerous buildings and give them facelifts and physically change their appearance, but we can use our talents to show the community, as well as property owners, what a little paint, landscape, and awnings can do for a building.
We set out to photograph any buildings that we see any glimpse of potential in, i.e. good “bones”. The rules and guidelines that we have set for ourselves are that we cannot change adjacent buildings to the project, unless we are doing them all under one facelift, and that we cannot alter any city property, including street lights, which we would love to change, and sidewalks.
We also limit our time, major reason being that we are not profiting from these renderings or designs. This is down and dirty speed design. We take the photo, discuss the potential we think the building has, head back to the office and sketch out some ideas, quickly model the existing structure, and then spend about two to three hours trying to make it look like something. This process usually takes about 4-5 hours. So far we have three entries with the fourth entry being a 12 foot wide infill next to a previous entry.
Our local long-term vision for the project is to get the community involved. We would love to see Jacksonville residents choose a building and do their own facelift, not just architects and designers, but anyone with a desire to be a part of the project. If the project meets our criteria, essentially the two small rules we set above and in the digital format of our facelifts, we will post it to our blog. Obviously, we’d like to see some of the owners realize the potential of their investments, and the potential gain of incorporating some of the ideas shown in the facelift for their building. After all, the revisions to the exterior that we are providing are usually cost effective ways to drastically change the structure’s, and therefore the immediate community’s aesthetics.
For the “global” long-term vision, it would be great if residents from other regions started submitting projects from their cities and communities. It would be really interesting to see Urban Facelifts from all over the world. For any suggested buildings and Urban Facelift Project submissions, we do ask that you not be owner of the property. Projects can be viewed at www.contentdg.com/blog. At this point we’d really like to be able to post at least one new UFP ever two weeks, so be sure to visit our blog and hopefully you’d like to get involved somehow in the project, if only by your comments, positive or negative.
The Urban Facelift Project #1:
This building at 53 Union Street is the one that literally started this series of studies. It’s like a little jewel box that has been left out in the weather and just deteriorated over time. With most of our designs we ask ourselves the following simple question, “Would you like to work or live there?” This cool little modern box needed some wood screening, planters, sun screen, paint, interesting signage, and a new storefront before the answer was “Absolutely.”
The Urban Facelift Project #2
It’s a disgrace that the Lerner Shop at 118 Main Street has been allowed to decay to the condition that it sits in today. We decided to revert the storefront back to it’s original placement, added an awning, cleaned up some of the details, and added the bold color palette that incorporates the graphic address signage.
New landscaping and a new wrought iron fence define the courtyard created by the void of the adjacent structures. The revisions to this building, like most in the UFP, are kept simple, but hopefully offer dramatic differences.
The Urban Facelift Project #3
We have enough material along the Main Street corridor in Springfield alone to keep The Urban Facelift Project going for the next year. Like most of the debilitated buildings along this thoroughfare, it just didn’t take much to get these buildings visually where they needed to be. Paint, obviously goes a long way.
For this exercise we’ve imagined that the two separate building are owned by the same person. We tried to keep 1632 as classic looking as possible and conceived it as a café. We added a new awning and lights, signage, and niches for the potted trees, while again, cleaning up the storefront system.
We thought that there was potential for 1636 to become an art studio, and obviously our leanings towards modern design show through a little more on this one. We’ve gone with a dark grey color scheme, offset with bold orange signage. For landscaping we’ve added a vegetation screen to the north wall and a low brick planter and wall defining the entry to the studio, and separating it from the café entrance.
The Urban Facelift Project #4
We decided to revisit the courtyard space at 118 Main Street for this installment. Thin, deep voids created by adjacent buildings have always intrigued us. Here we show a modern four story residence slid into the 12’ wide space. The second floor cantilevers over the entry providing protection as one enters. The rooftop of the adjacent Lerner Shop can also be re-appropriated as a rooftop terrace for the residence.
About Content Design Group
Content Design Group was started in 2004 as a multi-disciplined design/build firm. Our company has a combined 37 years of knowledge in the industry. We conduct master planning with the mindset of a real estate developer, with the creative insight of a designer, and the jobsite know how of a contractor.
Our goal is to increase the flow of solutions, reduce costly inefficiencies and improve the value delivered to our clients. Content Design Group honors historical significance and works to integrate projects into their developments and communities. When we translate a design additional consideration is given to construction practices, ecological features, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, feasibility, and budget.
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jeh1980
May 08, 2009, 05:23:45 AMHey, not bad! Great article. Let's do it!
zoo
May 08, 2009, 06:55:04 AMI love this initiative! Maybe some of the vision-less property owners will get to work...
Deuce
May 08, 2009, 09:05:54 AMLoved the first one you posted and love all the new ones. Might I recommend doing the property at 4th and Market. It's in amazing condition but could use an upscale upgrade.
hanjin1
May 08, 2009, 09:14:15 AMThe Lerner shop at 118 Main St. had a sign on it when I drove by the other day. It looked like a city sign, has anyone seen this? I hope it is not a go ahead to demolish this building.
TPC
May 08, 2009, 09:54:49 AMI really like what the Content Design Group is doing with these. I would love to see 118 revitalized, I just really like that building but after inquiring about it I found this out.
The property at 118 N. Main St. has been condemned by the City’s Code Compliance Division. A sign posted says the building is “unsafe and unfit for human habitation.”
grimss
May 08, 2009, 10:06:01 AMThese are terrific! What a great concept. Looking forward to more designs . . .
Cliffs_Daughter
May 08, 2009, 10:07:42 AMIt says that the ceilings are collapsing and there are back cracks in exterior walls.
The city's CARE case number for this is 2009-77591.
hanjin1
May 08, 2009, 11:32:58 AMSo I am assuming that this building will be demolished as well.
Ocklawaha
May 08, 2009, 04:50:07 PMI met with the Realtor at the LEARNER SHOP, interested in buying the building, but I wasn't allowed to explore it completely! Couldn't go beyond 20 feet of the front door - DANGEROUS I was told! The Realtor has the listing as a LOT, they don't count the building. "It's a Given that this place must be torn down," he was pointing out the brick and explaining that none of the courtyard wall was stable.
I was thinking streetcar Museum-Shop, maybe fill the void with the old subway car and get friend Stephendare to open a killer restaurant there??
The building is unbelievable, beautiful, 1929 expo of The Arts Deco. Nothing else even close to this building this side of South Beach in Miami. A little TLC and this place could be ANYTHING good.
OCKLAWAHA
fletcher1990
May 08, 2009, 05:21:51 PMThe Chris Hionides Bathroon Tile!
Apparently Ebay has the market cornered on this one!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Chris-Hionides-Slum-Lord-of-Jacksonville-1000-6-Tile_W0QQitemZ120417843016QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c09767748&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116
brainstormer
May 08, 2009, 06:18:53 PMMy partner and I have always loved the building at 118 Main. Every time we walk by we talk about how it would be a really cool townhouse and fun to live in. We even talked about a rooftop patio. Then at art walk on Wednesday we saw it was taped off with a big orange "Condemned" sign and our hopes were crushed. Then today I see an article with a facelift of the building and townhouse infill next to it, and I had to chuckle.
So what now?
Well I don't know much about construction, but isn't it feasible to somehow preserve the facade and then rebuild the rest of the building? Rebuilding could actually make it taller and fill in the empty space to the left of it. Has this been done anywhere else in Jacksonville. Or is there a way to build an exact replica of the building?
As far as the rest of the article, just about every vacant building along Main Street could use a facelift. And there are endless opportunities for infill. I really think we should focus on the blocks between 1st and 8th because with clustering, this has the potential to become a neat little district of retail, residential and restaurants. Perhaps we should get the folks at Content Design Group to join a meeting of some of the property/business owners and residents of Springfield for a positive brainstorming session. Perhaps bring in some local contractors, who are bored right now, and get an idea of what some of these ideas might cost. This would not be a whine session, but a positive "What if?"
hanjin1
May 08, 2009, 10:32:20 PMI drove by tonight and saw that it now has a big sign that say demolish on it. Lokks like COJ is going to win again.
b real
May 12, 2009, 04:33:39 PMI will cry if they demo that building! What is wrong with our city/owners of these building? Don't buy a building if you're going to let it deteriorate beyond a reusable state. The city needs to take a stand against the people buying our historically buildings! WTF! Where is our money going?
JoeMerchant
May 18, 2009, 04:13:53 PMProject #5 is finished, 937 Main. The building actually faces Orange however:
http://www.contentdg.com/the-urban-facelift-project-5-937-main/
Hopefully this won't get the kiss of death that 118 main received.
BridgeTroll
May 19, 2009, 10:13:19 AMAnother outstanding design... I hope the curse of 118 main does not follow...
mtraininjax
May 20, 2009, 07:43:42 PMWhy not, the building is a DUMP, in its current condition. DUMPS should be torn down. I'd rather see nothing than a building breaking down because no one has the guts or cash to make the difference with it.
Use it or lose it.
Lunican
May 20, 2009, 08:35:52 PMNot a good idea Mtrain.
Here is a good list of the buildings we've lost because of that mentality:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-jan-lost-jacksonville
We have this instead...
Lunican
May 20, 2009, 08:43:02 PMCan you believe that 118 Main was the very last building that faced Main Street downtown?
thelakelander
May 20, 2009, 09:34:27 PMJacksonville style, one "insignificant building" being torn down at a time. No harm, no foul. Nevertheless, after doing that strategy for a few decades, we've turned a historical main street into surface parking lot alley.
thelakelander
June 03, 2009, 03:34:56 PMHere is a new one from Content Design Group. This is the brick retail building across the street from 3rd & Main. From the post, the building's owner plans to actually go forward with the suggested changes.
more info: http://www.contentdg.com/the-urban-facelift-project-6-1300-main-street/
Deuce
June 03, 2009, 04:18:28 PMThat's fantastic that the owner is going to implement your suggestions. Hopefully they won't do it half-assed. The lights and signs are great, but the color scheme seems a little dull, granted it's better than the current scheme.
JoeMerchant
June 03, 2009, 04:42:28 PM^ Thanks for the comment. We did go a little muted with the color choice, for a couple of reasons. One, to counteract the yellow, red, and blue color scheme that is on the building now....we thought it would be a refreshing change to drive by a more calming building.
The other is that there is a ton of things going on in the facade such as conduit, junction boxes, piping. We felt to clean that up visually, because for now most of that is going to have to remain, we needed to keep things a little low key with the color scheme so everything kind of blends in on the facade.
Plus, we didn't want there be too much of a contrast to the 3rd and Main paint scheme, because these two will act as the gate way into Main Street corridor in Springfield, for the time being..
Of course we also do these things very quickly, but because it was commissioned we gave a few choices, this one being the one that the Owner will bring to reality,
Deuce
June 03, 2009, 04:49:07 PMOK. Your reasons for choosing the color scheme makes good sense. Which is all we really ask for out of this city.
JoeMerchant
June 03, 2009, 04:59:55 PMI'm glad you asked and commented on it. We usually have a reason that we do things a certain way, but it doesn't mean it's the only way...
thelakelander
June 25, 2009, 09:16:50 AMA few more renderings from Content Design's Urban Facelift Project
605 Beaver Street by David Welch
Others include 11 East Ocean Street, 803 Price Street (David Welch), 1901 Hill Street "Ford Plant" (Jeremiah Russell), 1648 Main (new construction infill), and 937 Main (Jeremiah Russell).
link to additional renderings and project descriptions: http://www.contentdg.com/
Deuce
June 25, 2009, 09:29:05 AMJust checked out the 803 Price street facelift. I would totally eat at Pueblo's. That restaurant should be opened immediately.
heights unknown
June 25, 2009, 09:33:21 AMhttp://www.contentdg.com/the-urban-facelift-project-5-937-main/
Hopefully this won't get the kiss of death that 118 main received.
Are those upside down crosses on the front? Or am I imagining things?
Anyone know what the previous use of this building was?
Heights Unknown
thelakelander
June 25, 2009, 09:42:56 AM^That building is a part of the old Claude Nolan Cadillac complex. It is a Prairie School style structure that was designed by Henry J. Klutho.
JoeMerchant
June 30, 2009, 01:49:27 PMAbsolutely, David did an nice job on that facelift. Great use of the graphics on the facade...
thelakelander
June 30, 2009, 02:07:33 PMThat would be a nice use to anchor the park planned around the retention pond next door.
brainstormer
June 30, 2009, 03:51:56 PMI love the design of infill project #7. The only think I don't like is the gray. It seems kind of boring. Perhaps adding more more color palates to the design or adding in boxes of flowers or places for planters would add some creativity. I know that doesn't necessarily come as part of the design, but something to keep in mind.
Now who's job is it to pitch these plans to developers with money. Aren't building materials and construction labor still relatively cheap? Let's work on some of these smaller infill projects.
JoeMerchant
September 01, 2009, 09:03:43 AMAnother UFP and announcement of the Urban Facelift Project fan page on Facebook.
We've got a few more Urban Facelifts finished over on the site: http://www.contentdg.com/category/the-urban-facelift-project/, below is an example of a recent one, 2034 N Main Street:
As I mentioned above we've also created the Urban Facelift Project fan page over on facebook. Hopefully some of you enjoy the project and would like to have some info that we'll only release on the fan page, such as previews to upcoming buildings, and more submitted projects from others. If you'd like to join, do so at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Urban-Facelift-Project/120739468156
Deuce
September 01, 2009, 10:17:21 AMThat's one of the best I've seen yet. I'm thinking a mexican restaurant (a little more upscale than La Nap but not as fancy as that new place at SJTC with the hour+ waits) with a cool outdoor sitting area.
Captain Zissou
September 01, 2009, 10:54:46 AMLooks more like an improved Layla's or Casbah to me.
904Scars
September 02, 2009, 12:25:49 PMIt would also make an awesome restaurant pub! I love it!
JoeMerchant
October 01, 2009, 10:24:33 AMGot word that the owner took the above Urban Facelift Project to the historic board, got it approved and will work to make the changes...
JoeMerchant
October 08, 2009, 10:54:25 AMSeeing that the owners were moving on the fish market in Springfield, we wanted to hurry and do a UFP on that one, since we thought that building had some nice potential.
So here is our fish market version, knowing that the owner's obviously wanted to go with a bold color:
http://www.contentdg.com/the-urban-facelift-project-12-1715-n-main-street/
Captain Zissou
October 08, 2009, 10:59:27 AM^ AMAZING. If that isn't the exact design, I'm hoping for something very similar. Love the sign.
fsujax
October 08, 2009, 11:07:12 AMNice. Now the question is how do we get them to do this? Maybe there is some grant money from SPAR they could use?
JoeMerchant
October 08, 2009, 11:09:12 AM^ I think SPAR has recently sent out a mailer explaining that there is money available for facade improvements. If they haven't yet, they will be doing it very soon.
Captain Zissou
October 08, 2009, 11:18:17 AMJason, you should post projects 10 and 11 also, those are awesome.
Ocklawaha
October 08, 2009, 12:00:10 PMHey Brother HEIGHTS UNKNOWN, those are not upside down crosses, in fact they are quite the traditional Christian symbol. The Cross of St. Peter (officially known as the Petrine Cross or colloquially Peter's Cross) is an inverted Latin cross, but in recent times also used widely and incorrectly as an anti-Christ symbol, a common but popular misconception. The acutual accepted symbol of the anti-Christ or anti-Christ movement is an inverted crucifix with Jesus Christ hung inverted upon the crucifix. Sadly we don't teach history anymore, either in school or in churches.
The origin of this symbol comes from the Catholic tradition that St. Peter was crucified upside down, as told by Origen of Alexandria. It is believed that Peter requested this form of crucifixion as he felt he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that Christ died (upright). As such, some Christians use this cross as a symbol of humility and unworthiness in comparison to Christ.
OCKLAWAHA
sheclown
October 09, 2009, 11:59:19 AMThe flyer is out. I think it is only available to those businesses who are not labelled "special uses" though. Ray G. got excited when he received his flyer (he owns the rooming house on Main), but that is a no go.
btw...what is the criteria for the facade grants. Does anyone know? Is it posted anywhere?
The buildings look great. The old garage shown first has always had a certain appeal to me. I love the fresh look you've given it. Wouldn't it make a great used book store?
Timkin
June 27, 2010, 03:58:36 PMHere is a good list of the buildings we've lost because of that mentality:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-jan-lost-jacksonville
We have this instead...
Don't waste your breath with M-train, Lunican. He would have every vacant building in the world torn down.
Timkin
June 27, 2010, 04:05:34 PMThese are very cool recreations ! Would love to see what you could do with Annie Lytle