by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Architect John Zona has opened a Bay Street office, but his mind is still on the Jacksonville Landing.
It was Zona’s mind that first hatched the design for a renovated Landing. The design cuts out the middle section of the U-shaped downtown mall, opening up its courtyard and creating a pedestrian corridor straight down Laura Street to the St. Johns River.
When Zona first laid the design out on paper more than two years ago, he expected the work might be done by the end of this year, so he opened a “temporary” office inside the mall to oversee the work.
Two years later, Zona’s design still exists only in his mind’s eye, in computer renderings and scale models. Bartering between Landing owner Toney Sleiman and Mayor John Peyton over parking and other development issues has stalled the renovation.
But now with the City and Sleiman moving toward a land-for-parking deal that could finally break the stalemate, Zona’s preparing to take his design from the drawing board to reality. Although his firm, Zona & Associates P.A., is now operating out of a permanent office at 107 E. Bay St., Zona expects to spend plenty of time at the riverfront mall.
“I’m just a couple blocks away and I know all the shortcuts,” said Zona.
Zona might know the abbreviated route to the Landing, but he knows the work ahead will be long and difficult. There’s no way to cut corners when the design calls for a building to be cut in half.
“There’s a lot of analytical work that still needs to be done as far as keeping the structure secure,” he said.
Even with two years of politicking between design work and anticipated construction, the renovated Landing will still largely conform to the scale models that Sleiman unveiled shortly after taking over ownership from Baltimore-based Rouse Co. in late 2003.
The renovation will open the mall up to its downtown surroundings and will correct what Zona sees as a design flaw with the original. The current design closes the Landing off. Essentially the building turns its back on downtown, said Zona. The new design will welcome people in and create new sight lines to the river.
Some groups have complained that the renovation will reduce public access to the river because it proposes to shut down the southernmost block of Hogan Street to build a parking garage.
Zona said the design is intended to connect downtown to the river via the Laura Street portal. He said he’s looking for ways to limit the garage’s encroachment on access to the river, but said space limitations have been a challenge.
But Zona promised the garage won’t distract too much from the surrounding view. Hiding parking garages is one of his specialties.
“You won’t even know there’s a parking garage there,” he said. “I’m a Houdini when it comes to making parking garages disappear.”