Placemaking Grant Opportunities

Want a chance to make your mark on Jacksonville? 

PlacemakingJax has an opportunity for you to do just that! They recently opened applications to the public, offering grants for creative projects that will transform underutilized Downtown spaces. Projects can be pop-up activations or larger-scale renovations of public spaces into celebrated community places. 

I’ve personally been involved in multiple placemaking projects and I can tell you from experience that while they are a lot of hard work each project was extremely gratifying and filled my soul with a sense of purpose. I also got to meet a lot of great people in the process who shared my vision and helped me work towards a better city.

With the Riverside Arts Market, we partnered with the City of Jacksonville to transform a vacant parking lot under the Fuller Warren Bridge into a vibrant and active Saturday market that has operated now for over 10 years! It wasn’t an easy process and took a lot of negotiation, multiple partnerships, and a ton of volunteers to make it happen. But now that vacant lot is a true Jacksonville destination!

With the Riverside Community Garden, I worked with a group of volunteers to build a beautiful garden with fresh herbs, roses and seating for the public to enjoy in a public park space that was no longer serving its original purpose. We held a design contest, had the community vote on their favorite design, and then recruited volunteers every weekend for months to construct a placemaking staple for our community.

And in Riverside Park under the bridge, we helped transform an old retention pond into a fun place for dogs to play and dog owners to gather. We raised funds, partnered with the City, and worked with a local company to construct The John Gorrie Dog Park, which is free and open to the public.  

I still look back on these projects with pride because they permanently improved the place where I live, work, and play. You can make your mark on Jacksonville, too, with the help of a Placemaking Grant. The butterfly effect of placemaking projects can have a tremendous effect on our city.

PlacemakingJax is facilitated by Downtown Vision, which is hoping to increase vibrancy in downtown places where people can gather, like sidewalks, alleyways, vacant storefronts, public parks, parking lots, rooftops, streets, pool decks and the riverfront. 

You can find out more information about placemaking and obtain access to the application at the PlacemakingJax Website. Or you can gather your ideas and head to one of their informational meetings. The next one is on November 15, 5:00-7:00 at Super Food & Brew, 11 E Forsyth Street.

Build Up Downtown!

I love Jacksonville’s historic downtown. I like to call the urban core Jacksonville’s “Original Town Center” because I am a history-loving nerd. Unlike today’s Town Centers, it wasn’t developed as a shopping mall surrounded by apartment complexes and gated communities. Don’t get me wrong, I like visiting the Town Center and I am glad we have an Apple Store. However, our city’s downtown is its heart and soul. It emerged from the ashes of its previous self, rising like a phoenix that brought forth creatives from all over the country to rebuild our city. It has history in the bones of every building that has evolved into each new use over time. It is beautiful and unique and something really special that we should all treasure.

For decades, our City leaders have struggled to find a way to invigorate and activate our downtown. So many proposals. So many ideas. So many plans that sit on shelves and collect dust. NO MORE! Maybe it is because I am an eternal optimist or maybe it is because I’ve been paying attention to the most recent spur in downtown development, but I think the time is now for our downtown to get its due! One new organization working to make that happen is Build Up Downtown (BUD) where I serve as an advisory committee member and share my extensive experience in nonprofit management and community development.

Allan DeVault is the organization’s Executive Director. He served on the Riverside Avondale Preservation board for years as the Treasurer, volunteering for events, pushing through legislation to help our city, and doing whatever he could to make Jacksonville a better place to live. He is someone who cares deeply about uplifting Jacksonville’s Urban Core, the OG: Original Town Center. What is Build Up Downtown? They are a nonprofit that “facilitates and advocates for preservation, smart development and great public spaces in Downtown Jacksonville.” LOVE THAT. More of all of that, please! It sounds easy — make downtown the place to be already! There are hundreds of people who’ve tried to do that in the past fifty plus years who would explain why it isn’t as easy as it sounds. If you want to get nerdy about it, check out these video interviews from the 1960s and 1990s of two Jacksonville visionary architects Bob Broward and Taylor Hardwick who discuss their visions for Jacksonville’s future as well as their disappointments over time.

I know from experience that it can be difficult to navigate the system as an investor in downtown. Build Up Downtown can make that process easier. BUD supports and builds on the good work of the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) and Downtown Vision, Inc. (DVI). But what is really interesting and why I think they can make a big impact is that they are a privately funded nonprofit, which may give them more flexibility and agility in their work. Along with Director of Development Laura Phillips Edgecombe, DeVault collaborates with these publicly funded entities in an effort to make our downtown the “epicenter for business, history, culture, education and entertainment.” As a private nonprofit, they just have a little more leeway and ability to move things forward in creative ways. They are really good at being informed on all things related to downtown because they stay abreast of current events and are excellent at communicating with all the various stakeholders. That is an enormous job in and of itself but gives them a good vision for what everyone involved wants for our city’s future. They are also good at connecting people so that they can collaborate and create a greater impact, as well as working with current and future investors and businesses (like me).

As you watch the historic interviews above, you realize that Downtown has come a long way since the 1990s. We have some amazing historic commercial, mixed use, and institutional buildings designed by prominent architects that are being renovated, thanks to historic incentives from DIA. At the heart of our city is the lovely JWJ Park which hosts lots of wonderful events and is fronted by our City Hall, located in Henry Klutho’s 1912 “Prairie School Masterpiece,” the St. James Building. Diagonal across the park is MOCA Jax, a fantastic contemporary art museum located in the historic Western Union Telegraph Building. My husband’s grandfather delivered telegrams by bicycle out of this downtown building as a young boy.

Next door is a top notch Public Library in a contemporary building designed by the international architect Robert A.M. Stern. One of my favorite places at the library is the Florida Room on the 4th floor — it is a Jacksonville History Research Heaven! On the other side of City Hall there is one of the most whimsical candy shops I’ve ever been in, Sweet Petes, where you can get lost in the vibrant colors of sweet treats while you watch them making candy from above. Just steps down Laura is arguably the best bookstore in the country, Chamblin’s Uptown, with a great little cafe and a wide selection of new, used and collectible books (although the Roosevelt location is where you go to get lost in book heaven). This is all just right around JWJ Park. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what downtown has to offer or even mentioned the variety of great restaurants, bars, breweries and independent stores, all situated within blocks of the wide expanse of the beautiful St. Johns River.

As you can see, when I walk downtown I see lots of vibrancy already. However, I also know there is a lot of placemaking, smart development, and driving awareness to do. What is your vision for our Downtown? What elements do you think are the most important as we all plan for our city’s future?

Community Impact Statement – Build Up Downtown  

Thriving downtowns are the heartbeat of every major city and Jacksonville should be no different. For decades, the momentum to change that has had many starts and stops. Right now, Jacksonville is on the doorstep of seeing that change and Build Up Downtown was created to assist in get over that step. There is momentum that we have not seen before that’s been set up over the past 10 years by stakeholders, public and private, that will revitalize our Downtown and keep that momentum moving forward. Jacksonville’s downtown will soon be a unique epicenter for business, history, culture, education and entertainment.

Springfield Tour of Homes 2022

Home Tours are my jam for so many reasons.

I love the character of historic homes built in a time when creativity was key and building products and techniques were focused on craftsmanship. I love the little special details like a milk door, a carved surround on a fireplace, or stained glass house numbers on a window above a door. I love the evident care put into these homes by their owners who safeguard historic elements while also modernizing the home with their own personal style. Plus, at heart, I am a Looky-Lou. Some of you relate to that, I know you do! I was a Looky-Lou before I heard the term for the first time on Portlandia. Curiosity abounds and drives me towards the unknown of a historic home tour. I can not resist!

The 43rd Annual Springfield Tour of Homes is this weekend, May 14-15 from 12-5pm. This year will feature six beautiful historic homes and two lovely gardens. I have searched everywhere to find out where the houses and gardens are located but I guess they are keeping it a secret until the day of the tour. That is fun too, I suppose.

We do know one historic location! On Saturday, you can tour Bethel Baptist Institutional Church (215 Bethel Baptist Street) as they will be hosting an Open House that one day of the tour. Bethel Baptist is the oldest Baptist congregation in the state of Florida, founded in 1838. The building on tour was constructed after the Great Fire of 1901 destroyed the former structure and most of Downtown Jacksonville. It really is a special treat to be able to visit this historic African American church, not only because of the beauty of its architecture and construction, but mostly because it is filled with so much of our city’s rich history and culture.

Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, Jacksonville, Florida, historic photo

Reserve early bird tickets for $15 online before the tour at Springfieldtour.com. Or pay $20 on the day of the event. Either way, you have to pick up your tickets and the tour map at the SPAR Headquarters (1321 North Main St).

SPAR members get an extra discount. Not a member? Learn more about SPAR Council. Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) is “the non-profit neighborhood membership organization that aims to enhance and preserve the historic Springfield neighborhood.” Supporting local historic preservation groups is an important part of living in or playing in a historic district. These organizations protect and promote their neighborhoods, which increases home and business value, boosts tourism, and helps make them the best places to live and play in Northeast Florida.

Bicycles parked under a tree Jacksonville, Florida

My favorite way to experience any home tour is by bike! It really is the best way to see the full beauty of a neighborhood. Ideally you could walk the tour but most tour stops are too far away to leisurely walk the whole tour in a day. Just imagine bicycling down historic streets, shaded by old live oak trees, the wind blowing through your hair, catching the scent of jasmine vines. You can even strap on a small cooler with lunch and drinks and have a short picnic in one of the local parks. If you want to join a bike group, SPAR is offering a special bike tour on May 14 from 1-4pm. Hosted by the wonderful Leigh Burdett of e2ride bike tours, visitors will be guided along a special route that includes not only the homes on the Tour but also highlights other interesting historical locations in the neighborhood. Leigh is a great storyteller - you won’t regret going on a tour with her.

Can’t wait to see you and my other Looks-Lou friends soon!