JTA's revised Autonomous Innovation Center plan

[thelakelander]

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority plans to construct a new multi-million dollar operations and maintenance facility in LaVilla for the proposed autonomous Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) project. Originally a design was submitted that did not align with the design standards and vision for Downtown Jacksonville and the LaVilla community. As a result, the project was deferred by the Downtown Development Review Board back in August. Now the JTA had produced a new design with the intent to seek DDRB conceptual approval in October. Take a look at the design and let us know what you think.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/jtas-revised-autonomous-innovation-center-plan/

[Charles Hunter]

Why are there people hanging around? I couldn't read the text on the first few images on my phone. Is there a restaurant included? Pot dispensary?

[Jason]

^ They're there taking family photos and gawking at all of the "Innovation" permeating the site.


I do think it looks much better than before but I'm still not so sure that the site is a good fit.  Why would this not be co-located with the JRTC???

[Steve]

Yea, they put lipstick on the pig here and added better lighting.

No thanks.

[jaxlongtimer]

Much better than the prison-block look of before but still seems way out of place and a blight on downtown especially considering its neighbor will be the Daily's gas station.  Both at a major entry point to downtown... doesn't make a very good statement.

I am still trying to figure out why they need this facility in this location to begin with... maybe to justify asking for ever more money to keep their jobs? 

[heights unknown]

Why are there people hanging around? I couldn't read the text on the first few images on my phone. Is there a restaurant included? Pot dispensary?

Yeah, you'd think it was a bar, nightclub, restaurant, retail store or grocery store or something.

[Ken_FSU]

[PYMBER]

Stop wasting money. How successful will this be?  We have enormous busses with no passengers, an abandoned transportation center and a poorly maintained and dwarf skyway system. JTA is bloated and inefficient. Wake up you bubbas!!

[thelakelander]

Why are there people hanging around? I couldn't read the text on the first few images on my phone. Is there a restaurant included? Pot dispensary?

This would not be mixed use or have a retail component facing Jefferson or Broad Streets, although that has been recommended to JTA. So, there would likely be no people on the sidewalk or random people walking through a dead block of space to access the nearby apartments, Whole Foods, Bold City Brewery and everything else continuing to pop up in Brooklyn and LaVilla.

[thelakelander]

Why are there people hanging around? I couldn't read the text on the first few images on my phone. Is there a restaurant included? Pot dispensary?

Yeah, you'd think it was a bar, nightclub, restaurant, retail store or grocery store or something.

When I look at this building, I'm already imagining how it could be repurposed for something that would be more interactive and compatible with this area of LaVilla. Most of these entities love to say that area is void of activity and autocentric. But that's not what it was historically and the market is certainly not calling for more infill blank spaces that make pedestrian hostile zones permanent and long term.

[Jax_Developer]

- Downtown Parcel
- "Let's build 2-story"

[jcjohnpaint]

Make a nice restaurant when this project fails.

[heights unknown]

Would also make a nice neighbor bar or nightclub if it fails.

[heights unknown]

A better rendering should have showed the building during the day, with one or two people walking in and out of it instead of 15 or so people standing around it at night time; heck, it probably will be closed at night.

[Ken_FSU]

Why are there people hanging around? I couldn't read the text on the first few images on my phone.

At the risk of stating the obvious, and maybe even defending JTA a little bit, it's pretty straightforward who the people in the rendering are.

They're clearly the transportation leaders from all over the world who have come to Jacksonville to collectively hoist Nat Ford onto a gilded throne and congratulate him on expending the full mass transportation budget of America's largest city on a fleet of 40 remote control golf carts that plod nonsensically over a 4 mile range, only occasionally run over the homeless, and probably won't drive clear off the side of the Main Street Bridge if they encounter a quarter inch of rain.

Only reason that the Autonomous Innovation Center will be empty is if said leaders have already departed back to their archaic, lesser cities with a clown car of their own under one arm and a framed 8x10 of Nat Ford under the other.