A New Look For Riverside Avenue

Riverside Avenue Landscape Enhancement Project Concept Art



Riverside Avenue Landscape Enhancement Project Concept Art

The Cummer

To see further along this wave of future of community development, you have to go no farther than a few hundred feet on Riverside Avenue to the Cummer Museum and Gardens. It may seem surprising that the Cummer, an organization that is best known for preserving the past, is one of the city’s forerunners in contemporary development. The Cummer unveiled two major projects this past April, the renovated Olmstead Gardens and their sustainably developed, refurbished parking lot, both of which are part of their greater unified sustainable landscape design and the Riverside Avenue Landscape Enhancement Project.

Their new Olmstead Garden was created to incorporate more native plants, and, as is done throughout all of their grounds, its horticultural care is completely organic. The recently debuted parking lot is one of the first and largest in Jacksonville to be made from a permeable surface, central to natural stormwater management. Many of these steps to become more environmentally sustainable have been in partnership with another fellow local nonprofit, the St. Johns Riverkeeper. Continuing their initiative to incorporate environmentally sustainable designs in their expansion, the museum will also soon feature an outdoor cafe and the Delores Barr Weaver and J. Wayne Weaver Public Sculpture Garden. Both will be located on the museum’s front lawns, making them more welcoming and accessible to the general public.

“The Cummer is an old institution, and in the past it has been perceived as conservative, almost exclusive,” says St. Johns Riverkeeper Executive Director James Orth. “But actually, now they are the ones that are taking the lead to become sustainable. They are taking value in their investments, and that says a lot about their culture. They are looking to the future. In the future, you have to be environmentally sustainable, and they’ve already made a real commitment.”

The Riverwalk Project

The St. John’s Riverkeeper hasn’t only had its hand in helping the Cummer. If you were at OneSpark, you may have seen their plans for a new, mobile app being made in conjunction with the Health Planning Council of Northeast Florida, Art in Public Places, the Jacksonville Historical Society and Brunet-García Advertising. Via GPS tracking, an interactive website, and kiosks and signage along the Riverwalk, the Riverwalk Project app enables users to easily access information about the river and Jacksonville in four major areas: health, environment, arts & entertainment, and history.