Fall 2019

lyn,” he said, “it should be clearly obvious
how you get to the river and enjoy it.
“Part of the development that we think
is critically important is not just our site
but circulation into our site and off our site.
Circulation from other parts of the Brooklyn
area so that folks can enjoy the amenities of
our site as well as other areas. In other words,
you need to be able to get from point A to
Just across from the former Florida Times-Union
property on the north side of Riverside Avenue,
the tree-lined McCoys Creek wanders along
through the Brooklyn neighborhood.
point B to point C in a path that’s easy, it’s
safe and it promotes circulation.
“If you only go to one place in Brooklyn
and you leave that place, we’ve lost our way
and we’ve lost an opportunity there.
“So the circulation within Brooklyn and
the connectivity to Downtown is a critically
important aspect of our development plans.
Circulation will drive really the enjoyment of
the entire neighborhood.”
Kuhar jumped in. “We need to really get
an in-depth understanding of the site and
how it works with the river, how it works with
the creek, how it works with Riverside Avenue,
Magnolia Street and circulation in and
out of the site … What is important for us to
figure out is the circulation, which is kind of
the unsexy part of this, the part about access
to the site — pedestrian, vehicular, bicycle,
how you get around, walkability.”
A field trip
For full appreciation of the
potential Grinalds and Kuhar
see, you need a field trip to
Brooklyn.
Park on Stonewall just off
Park, behind The Brooklyn
Riverside apartments, and walk
up onto the Park Street viaduct.
Stop where you see “I love you”
graffitied in blue onto the west
bridge barrier and “I love you
too!” graffitied in pink onto the
east barrier.
Look over the barrier — and
overlook the dumped trash and
probable homeless camp — and
you’ll see the hidden creek,
rushing fully after recent rains,
in a meandering path, amid lush
foliage. You can’t see where it
comes from or where it goes.
You’ll wonder: How could
we have let this wonderful
natural asset be so trashed and
forgotten?
Know that this is one end of
the fabled Emerald Necklace,
soon to undergo restoration, as
the Emerald Trail, by Groundwork
Jacksonville working
with the city. It loops all
around Downtown and ends
at the mouth of Hogans Creek
downriver.
Get back in your car, drive
south and east around the sprawling
Brooklyn Riverside complex, then turn
north on Magnolia, and you’ll find that it
dead-ends at the creek, again amid random
trash but with beautiful potential.
The magic that Kuhar and Grinalds
envision for the T-U site requires the liberation
of McCoys and Magnolia.
The big connection
Grinalds said the Morris vision hinges
on the “daylighting” of McCoys Creek, that
is, razing the T-U buildings and foundations
and letting the creek flow openly
into the St. Johns. “We recognize that as a
complex issue we need to work through in
cooperation with the city. It’s the biggest
complexity and the biggest opportunity.
“From an engineering perspective
and from a sustainability perspective, you
have to do it right. You can take down the
building, you can uncover the creek, but
if you don’t understand the hydrology of
the flood plains, if you don’t understand
the volumetrics of what’s coming down
the creek, you miss an opportunity to have
a positive impact on neighborhoods upstream.
So why wouldn’t you go through
the due diligence of really understanding
the engineering and the hydraulics of
uncovering it to everyone’s benefit?”
Kuhar said the city wants to open up
McCoys Creek to connect the river to the
Emerald Trail, and Grinalds added, “There
are a lot of details to be worked out, but
we’re in lockstep with the city in recognizing
the activation of McCoys Creek is a
great opportunity.”
To work through the needs and priorities,
the Morris team brought in the
Haskell Company, the design-build firm
that is also its neighbor to the south. Chris
Flagg of Haskell added Yves Rathle, a local
architect who has contributed design ideas
for riverfront projects from the Landing to
the Shipyards, the District and Lot J and
the Amazon proposal.
Rathle said the group has gone through
a long process of “thinking and creative
exploration. It could have been the most
creative exploration of solutions Jacksonville
has ever seen. Brainstorming and
design excellence like that happens on very
few projects.”
He said he submitted as many as 25
design options, one suggesting islands in
the river, some incorporating historical
images of the railroad bridge and newspaper
presses.
The design has changed about 30 times
and is still not final, Rathle said. “Truly, I
think anything still goes. Allen (Grinalds) is
really interested in exploring the art of the
possible.”
Exactly how
to connect
But before Morris can settle on a development
partner and a final design for the
property, it has to work through those details
Grinalds mentioned. That is not uncomplicated.
The Morris plan conflicts in several ways
with Groundwork Jacksonville’s vision for
the Emerald Trail.
For one thing, after daylighting the creek
by razing the buildings and parking lots, the
current development plan would put that
BOB SELF
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J MAGAZINE | FALL 2019