by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
A fresh set of eyes.
That’s what the project to redevelop the former Haydon Burns Public Library at Ocean and Adams streets received this week.
Justyna Jaworska is an architecture student at the Technical University in Cracow, Poland. She spent a semester this spring in an exchange program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and has been in Jacksonville for the past few weeks.
Jaworska has been working as an intern in the City’s Public Works Engineering and Construction Management Division and at two architecture firms.
One of her private-sector assignments was to develop a concept for the former Haydon Burns Public Library Downtown, which was designed in the early 1960s by local architect Taylor Hardwick.
The building was retired in 2005 and was bought from the City for $3.25 million two years later by Main Branch LLC, which plans to transform the building into a mixed-used development with retail and office space as well as residential units.
“Hardwick was before his time. He designed the building to be expanded at some point in the future and he incorporated many elements that are regarded as ‘sustainable’ today,” said Melody Bishop, architect and project manager at Akel Logan Shafer, where Jaworska interned for the design project.
Bishop is a partner in Main Branch LLC and also works with the Jacksonville Studio program that involves architecture students at the University of Florida and Florida A&M University in conceptual design projects focused on Downtown properties.
She said Hardwick’s use of large windows on the north and south sides of the building and concrete without windows on the east and west exposures are in line with contemporary design guidelines for energy efficiency.
Bishop said about all that’s missing from Hardwick’s 50-year-old design that would bring it in line with today’s trends would be to “collect rainwater from the roof and use it for a water feature or to irrigate the landscaping.”
Jaworska’s concept is for three stories of apartments built above the original structure. The addition would include the design elements of the former public library, including the exterior façade and the interior terrace.
“The design gently corresponds with the existing building,” said Jaworska.
She said she considered the developers’ original plan for a nightclub in the building, but isn’t sure that would be the best use of the space.
“I don’t know if that would fit with apartments. There might be too much noise. It would probably be better to have a grocery store,” said Jaworska.
In terms of career plans after she completes her final two years of school in Cracow, Jaworska said she’d like to design housing and secondary-use projects similar to her work on the concept for The Library.
“It gives the design a context, but also gives the opportunity to design something new,” she said.
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