by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The LandMar Group has yet to assume the rights to continue work on development at The Shipyards but, if their visions for the large riverfront property come to fruition, the public will get riverfront access and a signature design as well.
As part of the pending, multi-million dollar development which stretches from downtown almost to the stadium, LandMar has agreed to renovate an existing 680-foot pier and highlight it with a structure that reaches 100 feet high.
It’s on the western end of the property, not far from Berkman Plaza and almost directly across from the Police Memorial Building.
The pier not only will be a standout feature for the massive housing, commercial and retail project, “it will be a downtown icon,” said architect Jack Diamond of Rink Designs Partnership.
“We’re very proud,” LandMar President and CEO Ed Burr said Wednesday. “We worked in a very collaborative manner with our architects on this and we believe the design with which we plan to move forward greatly reflects Jacksonville’s rich heritage.”
Six months and 25 drafts in the making, Burr and Diamond say the two-level design, which resembles an oversized, skeletal ocean liner, will display Jacksonville’s longstanding military and ship building industry ties.
During World War II, the Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock Company built Liberty Ships for the Navy on the site.
“When we were searching for ideas and images, we kept coming back to the idea of ships and the water,” Burr said. “If you look closely, you’ll notice that the pier looks very much like a ship being built.”
The City’s new branding slogan, “Jacksonville, Where Florida Begins,” also provided some inspiration, Diamond said.
“What we tried to do was focus heavily on Florida symbolism, the idea of it being a gateway into something beautiful,” Diamond said. “When you’re working on something like this that highlights both the St. Johns River and the Riverwalk, public access is absolutely key.”
It’s that access that Burr said should make the pier an easy sell to the City’s Design Review Committee and, more importantly, the public.
“I’d be surprised, even disappointed, if people we unhappy with our design,” Burr said. “We think it’s really beautiful and can add so much to an already up and coming area.”
That approval and obtaining the necessary building permits would make a ground breaking at least six months away.