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Carlington Pictures & Renderings!


bobliocatt

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A little information about the Carlington:

Background

Address: 31 Adams St.

Year built: 1926

No. of Floors: 13

Original use: a hotel called the Carling, and eventually the Roosevelt

Restoration Plans

Developer: Vestcor

Architect: PQH Architects

Adaptive Reuse: Loft apartment tower with street retail space

No of Residential units: 99

Amount of commercial space: 15,000 sf

Parking: new 250 space parking garage

Potential Rental Rates:

- 1 BD : $700 month

- 2 BD : $900 month

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  • 8 months later...

i am sorry folks, but that is the most god awful parking garage i have ever seen! i understand that it is a parking garage, and that some people believe that a parking garage should be dressed up like a wedding cake so that no one will know that it is a parking garage, but there are better ways! it is great that the building is being renovated aand that there are more apartments downtown, but i think that the garage would have been a great opportunity for something new. Maybe i just long for what was there before, the roof top pool circa 1965, with its "Lapidus-like" curves and glass.

maybe contemporary architecture will reach downtown one day!

out

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Cuban: I think the intent of the architect was to make the garage design somewhat consistent with the historic design of the building. I think it fails in that, but it is a far better garage than any others we have. I like your idea for a garage too, I just think it would be better attached to a modern building.

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i agree that retail is a great thing in the parking garage, and i think that the garage for the new library also incorporates retail on the ground level. but the fact the the building is nothing more than a facade, i think there could have been a more interesting design. the historic building (the Carling) faces Adams, the completely opposite street, there are no historic buildings on Monroe... not even the new library can be considered historical. so why try and pay homage to something you can't even see.??? and even brick couldn't save this design>>> overall it is poor work that should have never made it pass the Downtown review board!!! if anything you design it so that you highlight the retail and then make the rest of the garage blend away, not make it into some poor rendering of an abandoned building (of which we have enough already!)... there are many amazing parking garage designs throughout the world that don't try to recall some bygone era or tack on dudas and the like!! anyways>>> my thoughts!

out

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There really are no good parking garages around here with the exception of the parking garage on Forsyth above Southern Paradise Restaurant.  It utilizes an express down ramp spiral and exposes that on the side street.

"If you can't take the garage out of the city, take the ugly out of the garage"

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Yes, although it looks horrible and would greatly benefit from a new facade, its basically the only one in downtown that has retail facing three streets (Forsyth, Adams, Julia) and an entrance off one of the side streets (Hogan).

I have never seen an amazing design for a parking garage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They're definately out there, you just have to leave Jacksonville to find them. Here's a pic of one in downtown Fort Lauderdale. When visiting at night, you wouldn't even noticed that it is a garage, because of all the restaurants, with outdoor dining, at street level.

newparkinggarage7pi.jpg

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Just because a garage has retail on the ground floor does not make it a good garage. community wise, maybe, but architecturally and infrastructurally is a huge debate. IMO the Forsyth garage is a successful urban garage because of it's facade, it masks the crap behind it without trying to mimic a building style or architectural whimsy. The garage in FT. Laud. is Ok, however, it is just another tilt-up/precast job that anyone can do anywhere and really does nothing good for the architectural stock it acompanies.... IMO

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Just because a garage has retail on the ground floor does not make it a good garage.  community wise, maybe, but architecturally and infrastructurally is a huge debate.  IMO the Forsyth garage is a successful urban garage because of it's facade, it masks the crap behind it without trying to mimic a building style or architectural whimsy.  The garage in FT. Laud.  is Ok, however, it is just another tilt-up/precast job that anyone can do anywhere and really does nothing good for the architectural stock it acompanies.... IMO

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Amen to that!

I think a great parking garage has a design and architectural image that makes it look more like a building and not like a garage!

It does not have to have retail on the ground floor, in between, or on the top floor either; good design commensurate with the local buildings and skyscrapers in the vicinity; in other words, in fits in well with the other local buildings.

FLORIDA SKYRISE ORDER

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That's cool that each floor plan is named after a different neighborhood. Those closets are huge! :D

Where is the garage? Is it separate from the building? I just can't picture it at the moment.

Also, so many of you post often regarding garage design styles. Why is this important? Why try to disguise the garage? Wouldn't that make it more difficult for drivers to find? Thanks.

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Just because a garage has retail on the ground floor does not make it a good garage.  community wise, maybe, but architecturally and infrastructurally is a huge debate.  IMO the Forsyth garage is a successful urban garage because of it's facade, it masks the crap behind it without trying to mimic a building style or architectural whimsy.  The garage in FT. Laud.  is Ok, however, it is just another tilt-up/precast job that anyone can do anywhere and really does nothing good for the architectural stock it acompanies.... IMO

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, as we all know, in Architecture, beauty is definately in the eye of the beholder. Although the garage is functionally sound, I'm not too impressed by its facade, considering what was torn down to build it.

Nevertheless, architectural styles are a secondary issue, imo. In urban areas, my main concern is how a building meets the street, regardless of its use or building material. In this category, the Forsyth garage gets an A+.

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Vestcor in spat with DDA committee over garage

By RYAN GEDDES, The Times-Union

Developers of The Carling, formerly The Carlington, residential complex downtown are balking at a city ordinance that requires them to build ground-floor retail space in the project's 250-space parking garage.

The Downtown Zoning Overlay, adopted in 2003, requires all parking structures to have retail storefronts in at least 50 percent of their street-level frontage space, but a Vestcor Cos. executive appeared before the Downtown Development Authority's Design Review Committee on Thursday to fight the requirement.

Vestcor President Mark Farrell addressed the committee after member Trip Stanly and Assistant General Counsel Jason Teal sent letters to Farrell and board members this month about the issue.

Stanly's letter Thursday to the DRC accused Vestcor of "willful misconduct" in moving ahead with the garage's construction -- minus the retail bays -- without notifying the Committee.

"If Vestcor is unable to live by the letter of the law, then the City should withhold their Certificate of Occupancy until that retail requirement is fully met," wrote Stanly.

Full article, click on the link:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/042905/bus_18608712.shtml

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I want to know how this construction just...slipped through the cracks. Did anyone fail to notice that they weren't following the ordinance? I had heard that they were at least saving room for a retail spot when the demand is higher. Part of me agrees with them that it would be a dead spot, customer-wise. But the reason it's so dead is because the other nearby buildings on that stretch of Monroe don't have retail either.

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and the new library has a wonderful streetscape as well>>> i think it is called a "brick wall"! 

Thanks Robert "All Mighty" Stern.

so monroe is where i can go to get mugged>>> fantastic...  glad to know we can pinpoint these things for the public.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you won't get mugged as long as you can run a block uphill really fast.

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^Or roll down it.

Was the Design Review Committee in place when the design for the new library was proposed? Its sad to see nothing but 50ft walls lining Monroe and Duval Streets. You would think that a famed architect like Robert Stern would know better.

At this point, I don't blame Vestcor, about not wanting to place retail in that garage. Surrounded by the massive library wall and parking garage, next door, retail at that location, definately won't rent for much, if at all.

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Last year, I actually asked the guys at Vestcor about the Carling garage. I thought it was odd that they didn't have to put in street-front retail.

Their response was very upfront and honest. They said that the garage was designed so it could be converted into retail use once the market improves (the west ramp completely bypasses the 1st floor). However, since the Carling is already adding 15,000 square feet of retail into a TERRIBLE retail market, they thought it would be unfair to have to sit on even more empty retail space.

This leads me to believe that Vestcor properly informed the DRC of their plans, and the DRC approved them anyway (probably without paying any attention to the plans). Now the DRC is pissed off that their carelessness has been exposed, and they want Vestcor to change the plans anyway.

-- Also, in regards to the library. The blank brick wall sucks, I agree with that. But, ALL FOUR of the proposed library designs had blank walls on the side streets. Even the "progressive" ones. In fact, I distinctly remember that some people favored design number four, which was nothing but a series of unadorned blank walls!

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As to the library, I think the architect had to limit the numbers of entryways for security. As to the issue of the retail on the Carlington garage, I agree with Vestcor. They have done a lot to help out downtown, so we shouldnt be killing the goose who laid the golden egg. They currently have a vacant ground floor retail spot at 11E (which they havent been able to rent for 2 years) and they will have retail inside the Carlington. Why not let them hold off on retail for the garage until the need for it arises? They also have to be able to have parking for tenants. Naysayers need to look at the big picture on this one: Vestcor is our friend and ally in changing downtown into the place we want it to be.

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