Metropolitan Park Concepts Revealed

[Ken_FSU]

Overview of the big-picture philosophy of the redesign, from Denver-based Cevitas:

https://youtu.be/Y6i1ovqLVPI?feature=shared

Good recap of the concepts by Jax Today, below, along with a video showcasing the three major design concepts (Tailgate Plaza, The Weave, and The Quilt).

https://jaxtoday.org/2024/06/25/heres-what-theyre-considering-for-metropolitan-park/

https://youtu.be/SmX7FqXhINQ?feature=shared

Gotta say, Riverfront Plaza and Shipyards West are getting all the attention, but I really love some of the ideas and thinking here by Cevitas. Wish JWJP was putting this much thought into the larger context. Met Park could end up being the sleeper of the three.

It’s also clear based on the designs that the $12.5 million in the CBA for Met Park will (hopefully) need to be padded by some additional dollars from the general fund.

Love the idea for the much-needed pedestrian overpass. Love the tailgate zone. Love the sports courts, particularly if they’re unique to Met Park and not duplicative to Shipyards West.

Pretty cool to see three national design firms standing up three unique riverfront parks on the Northbank, and even cooler to see them funded in partnership with the Jags alongside actually recurring maintenance funds.

One mayor talked about leaving the riverfront unrecognizable by the time they left office. The other making moves to actually make it happen.

Between the new stadium, Four Seasons, two new parks, MOSH, Doro 2.0, and expanded Baseball Grounds, the missing puzzle piece remains the Sports & Entertainment district to anchor the whole area 24/7. I hope we find a way to stand up that up quickly and build it on a parallel path with the stadium when the team is playing to partial crowds in 26 and is away in 27. Couldn’t think of anything more exciting than opening the stadium, sports and entertainment district, and Met Park in conjunction in 2028.

[Steve]

I stopped by to see the three designs. I'll say I was pretty impressed. Two of them I'd be okay with as built (no exceptions). The "Quilt" concept didn't resonate with me, save for a couple aspects.

My ideal would be taking some of the Tailgate and Weave concepts and putting it together.

The tailgate concept also had a pedestrian walkway over Gator Bowl Boulevard which I actually liked in that area.....but not until something was developed for Lot J - perhaps a way to connect Lot J and the water together more. The issue is the thing would take up a lot of room on either end and with nothing right now on the north side of Gator Bowl Blvd - except game days and concerts, it seems like a waste for now.

It was really a good mix of a few uses.

[Jankelope]

We need to keep the elevated walking canopy throughout the park and the Carousel. There are basically zero "Rides" in Jacksonville. Would be a great asset with some kinetic energy!

[tufsu1]

Love the idea for the much-needed pedestrian overpass.

I feel exactly the opposite. The pedestrian overpass just screams out that we (the City) failed in the reconstruction of Bay Street. I would prefer to see some money spent on making it an actual boulevard, with safe robust crosswalks!

I am pretty sure the end concept will be a hybrid of elements from each of the 3 that were presented.

[marcuscnelson]

^Agreed. It should be a humiliation that we spent tens of millions (including in federal dollars) on Bay Street and somehow failed to deliver a safe enough street to the point of justifying a separate crossing. The goal should be slowing or reducing car traffic to the point that pedestrians can safely cross between Metro Park and the stadium and using the money on the park itself instead of a bridge.

[jaxlongtimer]

^Agreed. It should be a humiliation that we spent tens of millions (including in federal dollars) on Bay Street and somehow failed to deliver a safe enough street to the point of justifying a separate crossing. The goal should be slowing or reducing car traffic to the point that pedestrians can safely cross between Metro Park and the stadium and using the money on the park itself instead of a bridge.

Problem solved:  Elevate Bay Street so pedestrians can walk under it.  Oops, we already had an option for much of that and tore it down.  LOL.  Reminds me of the graphic below:

[fsu813]

We need to keep the elevated walking canopy throughout the park and the Carousel. There are basically zero "Rides" in Jacksonville. Would be a great asset with some kinetic energy!

Problem solved: U2C will be providing "Rides". It could also, potentially, cross the street safely.

See, it's truly ahead of it's time - solving the draft Metro Park design conundrums years ahead of their actual, potential realization. Money well spent.

[Ken_FSU]

Love the idea for the much-needed pedestrian overpass.

I feel exactly the opposite. The pedestrian overpass just screams out that we (the City) failed in the reconstruction of Bay Street. I would prefer to see some money spent on making it an actual boulevard, with safe robust crosswalks!

I am pretty sure the end concept will be a hybrid of elements from each of the 3 that were presented.

As someone who drives that stretch of Bay Street twice a day, five days a week, I can confidently say that - yes - we failed spectacularly in the reconstruction of Bay Street. That entire stretch of confusing signals, blind stops, partially demolished ramps, and unintuitive traffic patterns is a daily vehicular accident waiting to happen, many of which I have witnessed or narrowly avoided. Despite this, people still treat this stretch like a runway coming on and off the Hart Bridge.

In a perfect world an overpass wouldn’t be necessary. But there’s just no universe where pedestrians should be encouraged to cross Bay Street as constructed. It’s recipe for an absolute disaster. Toss in the fact that a fairly sizable chunk of the population leaving events at the sports complex are probably under the influence, and the need to efficiently move event-day traffic in and out of the area, and I just don’t see how you safely and efficiently move thousands of people between the Sports Complex/Entertainment District and Met Park, the Four Seasons, and Shipyards absent some form of dedicated over or under pass.  We’re talking potentially thousands of people on big event days.   Also feels like an accessibility issue for those who have difficulty sprinting across six lanes of highway.

[Steve]

While I agree the street design sucks, I also think that even if the street was designed well, the overpass could be nice for game days and concerts and events when it comes to traffic flow and such. Yes, I do agree that a downtown street shouldn't favor cars over people, but 65,000 descending on the stadium can necessitate some changes in design.

Now that said - I think it would be much better if it connected to something over there that is used every day.

[marcuscnelson]

^I disagree Steve, plenty of other NFL stadiums have many attendees including drivers and don't need an overpass because they made better use of street level. We should fix Bay Street like we said we would instead of relying on a crutch.

Look at Nashville's new stadium:



Or Los Angeles:



Or Philadelphia:

[Jax_Developer]

So we are going to fix Bay St. with what? Parks & Parking? Good luck lol.

[Skybox111]

Those don’t have the highway close by and running near the river or parks and Bay Street is essentially a highway that connects to the bridge that leads to another highway and runs through downtown to another highway. Isn’t bay street part of evacuation route for the city escaping a disaster ? so shrinking it and having a median isn’t going to work. 6 lane for evacuation that will divert traffic through and utilize that overpass to help traffic get through downtown onto the other highway. Millions evacuate through our city and downtown so a pedestrian overpass is needed and if the parking lots are going to be used for development then more parking garages are going to be built in that area and everyone leaving vystar arena baseball football are going to be packing that road. So shrinking it will make millions want the heads that planned it that way when everyone is evacuating or leaving the area. And adding more development and entertainment along the riverfront to the stadium and met park will add more congestion to that area on top of what’s happening around there like sports games.

[Steve]

I'm not sure those are good examples. All of those sports complexes are adjacent to an interstate highway.

Is the pedestrian overpass truly a necessity? Definitely not. That said, I think it could give people on gamedays and event days an easier way to explore pre- and post-game.

[marcuscnelson]

So which is it, folks? Do the other stadiums not "have the highway close by and running near the river or parks" or are they "adjacent to an interstate highway"? I don't think they can simultaneously be both.

In the event of a disaster-related evacuation, I don't imagine anyone will be using the park or stadium anyway (unless the stadium is serving as a shelter of some kind). Disasters generally preclude football games, and we have a well-funded Sheriff's Office that should be more than capable of doing the emergency road reconfigurations that any other city would also do in service of disaster evacuation.

If we thought that there was so much road demand that there could be no at-grade crossing, why did we even tear down the Hart Ramps in the first place? Or why wasn't a pedestrian bridge funded by the road project instead of by a park project? Better yet, why is there only an overpass in one of those design options instead of all of them?

In a world with constraints, it would make more sense to improve the crossing we already decided to build and focus on the park with park funding instead of trying to redo separation with an overpass.

[tufsu1]

If you want to look at an example of stadiums where the highway comes down to street level, take a look at Camden Yards (both football and baseball). No ped overpasses!