OPINION | Right under our noses | Jacksonville Today

Don’t panic. JEA is not for sale, just its former headquarters complex at 21 W. Church St., occupying the block between North Main and North Laura streets in Jacksonville’s historic Downtown.

Because JEA plans to sell these city-owned properties, revisiting their importance and making yet another appeal to Jacksonville’s decision-makers to see the obvious about our urban center are in order. We need a master plan to restore, repurpose and bring back into productive use Jacksonville’s Downtown historic district.

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A plan. Not a bunch of one-offs, what David Engdahl humorously called Jacksonville’s “cow pasture design — plop, plop, plop!” in a JaxLookOut comment.

It’s so very obvious. Our developing and implementing a coherent, comprehensive restoration plan is the linchpin to achieving the vibrant, fun, active Downtown we all say we want. Everyone’s doing it —Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Greenville, Tampa, Pensacola — and doing it successfully.

Right under our noses.

Tireless teacher

When JackLookOut Redux launched in July 2023, it did so with “Wayne’s World,” a piece that focused on Wayne Wood’s tireless efforts to salvage what’s left of Jacksonville’s most distinctive historic architecture, buildings that give Jacksonville a sense of history and place, and his understanding of JEA’s vacant Church Street campus.

A founder of Riverside Avondale Preservation, Wood is not simply a visionary. He delivers. He has spent a lifetime studying civic space, helped create the Riverside Arts Market, and was deeply involved in transforming Hemming Plaza into James Weldon Johnson Park. He’s the greatest spokesperson for restoring the Laura Street Trio.

And he knows of what he speaks.

Wood has been involved in saving Jacksonville’s under-appreciated architectural gems since the 1970s. His “Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage: Landmarks for the Future” documents 860 such sites.

JEA’s former headquarters is one

When JEA vacated its now-for-sale former headquarters, Wood expressed concern that the City of Jacksonville would yet again demolish a historic Downtown architectural gem. And with good reason. Jacksonville has a penchant for tearing down historic Downtown. Albeit with good intention, in the spirit of building something shiny and new. Seems we’re not happy with distinctive architecture.

The Landing, the courthouse, and city hall; the Greyhound bus station; a city block across from the Omni Hotel; the entire LaVilla neighborhood; and the Ford Motor Assembly Plant are among a long list of historic Downtown properties we have demolished during my brief 33+ years in Jacksonville. Most of the land on which these structures stood either became parking lots and garages or stood vacant for years. Some remain so.

It’s as if we embrace a bizarre ethic: “if we demolish it, they will come.”

21 W. Church St.

Wood describes JEA’s Church Street complex as “nationally significant.”

It’s big, at 360,000 square feet.

Completed in 1963 during a decade of explosive building expansion in Jacksonville’s urban core, JEA’s former headquarters tower is part of an architecturally significant “Downton Center” retail complex, according to The Jaxson’s Ennis Davis. It includes three buildings—the 19 story office tower, a 25,000-square-foot ground-level store, a six-story former department store—and a six-story parking garage.

Originally known as the Universal Marion, the tower has what Wood calls a “quirky yet iconic facade,” and according to Davis, “may be the largest mid-century modern building in Jacksonville.”

After JEA announced plans to vacate the complex, Ennis and The Jaxson called for “City Council, Downtown Investment Authority, and JEA work together to proactively craft a plan and strategy for the adaptive reuse of the entire Downtown Center complex.”

There’s no evidence they have done so.

Special Committee on the Future of Downtown

We won’t do better than sitting at Wayne Wood’s feet as he tries once again to teach us. Wood will present an architectural history lesson during City Council’s Special Committee on the Future of Downtown next meeting, scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9, beginning at 10 a.m. in Council Chambers.

Come listen and learn, and tell the Special Committee we want a master vision with an implementable plan.

The Jacksonville Historical Society lists this 1963 mid-century modern 19-story skyscraper among its list of locally endangered historic structures.

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This column is published in partnership with the JaxLookOut.