Ten Principles for Creating A Successful Hemming Plaza
In 2005, Metro Jacksonville pointed out to the JEDC and Peyton Administration why the Main Street Pocket Park would struggle to succeed if built. We were ignored and $800,000 later, the chickens eventually came home to roost as our warnings became reality. Now that we're destined to repeat the same mistakes with Hemming Plaza, we'd like to take a step back and examine ten principles needed for a successful urban public space, according to Project for Public Spaces. If the council's committee can embrace and plan from this set of principles, Hemming Plaza will be the centerplace of activity once again.
1. Image and Identity
President Nixon gives a speech at Hemming Park in 1960.
Historically, squares were the center of communities, and they traditionally helped shape the identity of entire cities. Sometimes a fountain was used to give the square a strong image: Think of the majestic Trevi Fountain in Rome or the Swann Fountain in Philadelphia's Logan Circle. The image of many squares was closely tied to the great civic buildings located nearby, such as cathedrals, city halls, or libraries. Today, creating a square that becomes the most significant place in a city--that gives identity to whole communities--is a huge challenge, but meeting this challenge is absolutely necessary if great civic squares are to return.
Hemming Plaza has historically been the civic focal point of downtown Jacksonville. However, since the opening of the Jacksonville Landing, the public space has been replaced by the Landing's courtyard and Metropolitan Park for many special events. In the two decades of its abandonment, it is now used as a day center for city that still refuses to invest in a real facility outside of the heart of downtown.Now surrounded by City Hall, City Hall Annex, Jacksonville Public Library, the federal courthouse, and the Ed Ball Building, it still has the potential to be a civic destination. To ultimately rid the park of its identity crisis, short and long term improvements should focus on the return of increased programming and the creation of a homeless day center.
Turning around Hemming could be as simple as increasing programming or allowing temporary vendors like food trucks to generate additional foot traffic in the immediate vicinity.
2. Attractions and Destinations
Hemming Park once included destinations such as a tourist bureau and a comfort station, which attracted a diverse collection of visitors to spend time in the public space.
Any great square has a variety of smaller "places" within it to appeal to various people. These can include outdoor cafés, fountains, sculpture, or a bandshell for performances. These attractions don't need to be big to make the square a success. In fact, some of the best civic squares have numerous small attractions such as a vendor cart or playground that, when put together, draw people throughout the day. Project for Public Spaces often uses the idea of "The Power of Ten" to set goals for destinations within a square. Creating ten good places, each with ten things to do, offers a full program for a successful square.
Historically, Hemming has been the home to a gazebo, a fountain, monuments, shaded seating areas, a comfort station, and a tourist bureau. All of these attractions combined to make the park an everyday destination. As of right now, this principle appears to have been omitted in the Hemming Plaza committee's list of short term improvements. In reality, making sure the park has attractions within it that appeal to various people may be one of the most important considerations for any plan to improve the space's conditions. Before any plan is funded that results in the removal of trees or relocation of benches, it would be a good idea for the City Council to make sure that a short term plan include the addition of attractions as opposed to the continued removal.
3. Amenities
Hemming Park once included a number of amenities such as a gazebo, benches, hardscape, and green areas.
A square should feature amenities that make it comfortable for people to use. A bench or waste receptacle in just the right location can make a big difference in how people choose to use a place. Lighting can strengthen a square's identity while highlighting specific activities, entrances, or pathways. Public art can be a great magnet for children of all ages to come together. Whether temporary or permanent, a good amenity will help establish a convivial setting for social interaction.
The Hemming Plaza short term plan calls for the possible removal of a certain percentage of tree cover and existing fixed seating areas. In return, high maintenance movable seating would be purchased and the City of Jacksonville would be on the hook for providing an additional $30,000 annually for an employee to shuffle seats around the park. If the goal is to improve the attractability of the public space better utilization of fiscal resources should be considered.
Hemming's mature tree canopy, considered to be an amenity by most, could be possibly eliminated if the committee's short and long term recommendations are approved by City Council.
4. Flexible Design
A flexible design enables a space to host special events such as this speech by Lyndon Johnson in 1960.
The use of a square changes during the course of the day, week, and year. To respond to these natural fluctuations, flexibility needs to be built in. Instead of a permanent stage, for example, a retractable or temporary stage could be used. Likewise, it is important to have on-site areas where temporary vendors could be used to generate additional foot traffic. A good portion of Hemming's existing design is already flexible because it can used for multiple uses. .
An example of "flexibility" could be allowing the extra pavement along the park's perimeter to be used by mobile vendors (image below) occassionally.
5. Seasonal Strategy
The west section of Hemming allows for flexibility. Possibly converting this area into a grass lawn could be a simple short term solution that would allow for additional seasonal programming at the park. However, purchasing movable chairs that would only be available at lunch time is where the committee suggests money should be spent.
A successful square can't flourish with just one design or management strategy. Great squares such the plazas of Rockefeller Center, and Detroit's new Campus Martius change with the seasons. Skating rinks, outdoor cafés, markets, horticulture displays, art and sculpture help adapt our use of the space from one season to the next.
The worst thing the Council could do is to approve $100,000 in questionable recommendations for the sake of "just doing something" with the park. Before any improvement plan for Hemming Plaza is approved, it would be a good idea to determine what it's seasonal strategy should become. Knowing this information will be paramount in moving forward with any complementing design considerations to the space.
6. Access
Direct access by Cohen Brother's Department Store and the center of Hemming Park between 1912 and 1920.
To be successful, a square needs to be easy to get to. The best squares are always easily accessible by foot: Surrounding streets are narrow; crosswalks are well marked; lights are timed for pedestrians, not vehicles; traffic moves slowly; and transit stops are located nearby. A square surrounded by lanes of fast-moving traffic will be cut off from pedestrians and deprived of its most essential element: people.
Hemming Plaza remains highly accessible.
In Hemming Plaza's case, public access is not a problem. Any improvements done to the park should protect or enhance its accessibility.
7. The Inner Square & the Outer Square
Hemming Park's Outer Square fed the public space with foot traffic by surrounding the park's perimeter with pedestrian scale uses facing it. The conversion of these buildings into single entrance governmental complexes has created a serious of dead zones around the plaza today.
Visionary park planner Frederick Law Olmsted's idea of the "inner park" and the "outer park" is just as relevant today as it was over 100 years ago. The streets and sidewalks around a square greatly affect its accessibility and use, as do the buildings that surround it. Imagine a square fronted on each side by 15-foot blank walls -- that is the worst-case scenario for the outer square. Then imagine that same square situated next to a public library: the library doors open right onto the square; people sit outside and read on the steps; maybe the children's reading room has an outdoor space right on the square, or even a bookstore and cafe. An active, welcoming outer square is essential to the well-being of the inner square.
The "Outer Square" can be seen in the form of F.W. Woolworth's, JCPenney, and the Robert Meyer Hotel in this mid-20th century image.
The concept of an "Outer Square" is a critical element that has been completely overlooked in discussions concerning Hemming Plaza. During the space's most popular years, department store, specialty retail, hotels, window displays, and restaurants surrounded the park, generating a critical mass of foot traffic that energized its perimeter. One of the downfalls of relocating civic uses around Hemming has been the City of Jacksonville's failure to make sure these uses fit in at the pedestrian scale. Today, most of the "Outer Square" is surrounded by blank walls or "dead zones" that fail to generate foot traffic and activity. Even the public library's retail spaces are designed in a manner of where they fail to take advantage of the wide sidewalk between them and the door. If success is truly desired, improvements to Hemming Plaza's "Outer Square" should be included in the short and long term strategies.
An example of a short term strategy could be to modify policy (Ex. allow the business to operate outside of the library's restricted hours and include outdoor seating facing Hemming) to attract a restaurant to the long abandoned Shelby's Coffee space. A long term strategy would be to find ways to consolidate office use within City Hall and City Hall Annex, which will allow the corners of those buildings to become retail once again, similar to the role Quizno's plays in the Ed Ball Building. Another suggestion would be for the City to move forward with finding an everyday use for the Synder Memoral Church building. The first step could be a recommendation by the council committee to issue an RFP for this key piece of property with the intention of a use that helps activiate the park.
The the long term, pedestrian scale uses in the park's Outer Square should be reincorporated into all buildings owned by the City of Jacksonville.
8. Reaching Out Like an Octopus
Hemming Park's pedestrian scale synergy once reached out like an octopus due to specialtiy storefronts and window displays adjacent to the large department stores that surrounded the park.
Just as important as the edge of a square is the way that streets, sidewalks and ground floors of adjacent buildings lead into it. Like the tentacles of an octopus extending into the surrounding neighborhood, the influence of a good square (such as Union Square in New York) starts at least a block away. Vehicles slow down, walking becomes more enjoyable, and pedestrian traffic increases. Elements within the square are visible from a distance, and the ground floor activity of buildings entices pedestrians to move toward the square.
A Purcell's retail store window display on North Laura Street, within a block of Hemming Park in 1953.
Ask yourself: How Does Hemming Plaza reach out like an Octopus? The answer is, outside of Subway and Cafe Nola's outdoor seating it really doesn't. Resolving this solution can be as simple as encouraging more enties in the blocks surrounding the park to embrace the sidewalks better at the pedestrian scale. For a restaurant, this could mean additional outdoor seating. For a retailer, it could mean window displays. For the City, it could mean allowing designated mobile vendors where publicly owned dead zones in the plaza's "Outer Square" exist.
9. The Central Role of Management
The best places are ones that people return to time and time again. The only way to achieve this is through a management plan that understands and promotes ways of keeping the square safe and lively. For example, a good manager understands existing and potential users and gears events to both types of people. Good managers become so familiar with the patterns of how people use the park that waste receptacles get emptied at just the right time and refreshment stands are open when people most want them. Good managers create a feeling of comfort and safety in a square, fixing and maintaining it so that people feel assured that someone is in charge. Any short or long term plan involving any public space in Jacksonville should come with a good management plan by the Parks & Recreation Department.
10. Diverse Funding Sources
A well-managed square is generally beyond the scope of the average city parks or public works department, which is why partnerships have been established to operate most of the best squares in the United States. These partnerships seek to supplement what the city can provide with funding from diverse sources, including--but not limited to--rent from cafés, markets or other small commercial uses on the site; taxes on adjacent properties; film shoots; and benefit fundraisers
For more information visit: www.pps.org
Article by Ennis Davis
President Nixon gives a speech at Hemming Park in 1960.
Historically, squares were the center of communities, and they traditionally helped shape the identity of entire cities. Sometimes a fountain was used to give the square a strong image: Think of the majestic Trevi Fountain in Rome or the Swann Fountain in Philadelphia's Logan Circle. The image of many squares was closely tied to the great civic buildings located nearby, such as cathedrals, city halls, or libraries. Today, creating a square that becomes the most significant place in a city--that gives identity to whole communities--is a huge challenge, but meeting this challenge is absolutely necessary if great civic squares are to return.
Hemming Plaza has historically been the civic focal point of downtown Jacksonville. However, since the opening of the Jacksonville Landing, the public space has been replaced by the Landing's courtyard and Metropolitan Park for many special events. In the two decades of its abandonment, it is now used as a day center for city that still refuses to invest in a real facility outside of the heart of downtown.Now surrounded by City Hall, City Hall Annex, Jacksonville Public Library, the federal courthouse, and the Ed Ball Building, it still has the potential to be a civic destination. To ultimately rid the park of its identity crisis, short and long term improvements should focus on the return of increased programming and the creation of a homeless day center.
Turning around Hemming could be as simple as increasing programming or allowing temporary vendors like food trucks to generate additional foot traffic in the immediate vicinity.
2. Attractions and Destinations
Hemming Park once included destinations such as a tourist bureau and a comfort station, which attracted a diverse collection of visitors to spend time in the public space.
Any great square has a variety of smaller "places" within it to appeal to various people. These can include outdoor cafés, fountains, sculpture, or a bandshell for performances. These attractions don't need to be big to make the square a success. In fact, some of the best civic squares have numerous small attractions such as a vendor cart or playground that, when put together, draw people throughout the day. Project for Public Spaces often uses the idea of "The Power of Ten" to set goals for destinations within a square. Creating ten good places, each with ten things to do, offers a full program for a successful square.
Historically, Hemming has been the home to a gazebo, a fountain, monuments, shaded seating areas, a comfort station, and a tourist bureau. All of these attractions combined to make the park an everyday destination. As of right now, this principle appears to have been omitted in the Hemming Plaza committee's list of short term improvements. In reality, making sure the park has attractions within it that appeal to various people may be one of the most important considerations for any plan to improve the space's conditions. Before any plan is funded that results in the removal of trees or relocation of benches, it would be a good idea for the City Council to make sure that a short term plan include the addition of attractions as opposed to the continued removal.
3. Amenities
Hemming Park once included a number of amenities such as a gazebo, benches, hardscape, and green areas.
A square should feature amenities that make it comfortable for people to use. A bench or waste receptacle in just the right location can make a big difference in how people choose to use a place. Lighting can strengthen a square's identity while highlighting specific activities, entrances, or pathways. Public art can be a great magnet for children of all ages to come together. Whether temporary or permanent, a good amenity will help establish a convivial setting for social interaction.
The Hemming Plaza short term plan calls for the possible removal of a certain percentage of tree cover and existing fixed seating areas. In return, high maintenance movable seating would be purchased and the City of Jacksonville would be on the hook for providing an additional $30,000 annually for an employee to shuffle seats around the park. If the goal is to improve the attractability of the public space better utilization of fiscal resources should be considered.
Hemming's mature tree canopy, considered to be an amenity by most, could be possibly eliminated if the committee's short and long term recommendations are approved by City Council.
4. Flexible Design
A flexible design enables a space to host special events such as this speech by Lyndon Johnson in 1960.
The use of a square changes during the course of the day, week, and year. To respond to these natural fluctuations, flexibility needs to be built in. Instead of a permanent stage, for example, a retractable or temporary stage could be used. Likewise, it is important to have on-site areas where temporary vendors could be used to generate additional foot traffic. A good portion of Hemming's existing design is already flexible because it can used for multiple uses. .
An example of "flexibility" could be allowing the extra pavement along the park's perimeter to be used by mobile vendors (image below) occassionally.
5. Seasonal Strategy
The west section of Hemming allows for flexibility. Possibly converting this area into a grass lawn could be a simple short term solution that would allow for additional seasonal programming at the park. However, purchasing movable chairs that would only be available at lunch time is where the committee suggests money should be spent.
A successful square can't flourish with just one design or management strategy. Great squares such the plazas of Rockefeller Center, and Detroit's new Campus Martius change with the seasons. Skating rinks, outdoor cafés, markets, horticulture displays, art and sculpture help adapt our use of the space from one season to the next.
The worst thing the Council could do is to approve $100,000 in questionable recommendations for the sake of "just doing something" with the park. Before any improvement plan for Hemming Plaza is approved, it would be a good idea to determine what it's seasonal strategy should become. Knowing this information will be paramount in moving forward with any complementing design considerations to the space.
6. Access
Direct access by Cohen Brother's Department Store and the center of Hemming Park between 1912 and 1920.
To be successful, a square needs to be easy to get to. The best squares are always easily accessible by foot: Surrounding streets are narrow; crosswalks are well marked; lights are timed for pedestrians, not vehicles; traffic moves slowly; and transit stops are located nearby. A square surrounded by lanes of fast-moving traffic will be cut off from pedestrians and deprived of its most essential element: people.
Hemming Plaza remains highly accessible.
In Hemming Plaza's case, public access is not a problem. Any improvements done to the park should protect or enhance its accessibility.
7. The Inner Square & the Outer Square
Hemming Park's Outer Square fed the public space with foot traffic by surrounding the park's perimeter with pedestrian scale uses facing it. The conversion of these buildings into single entrance governmental complexes has created a serious of dead zones around the plaza today.
Visionary park planner Frederick Law Olmsted's idea of the "inner park" and the "outer park" is just as relevant today as it was over 100 years ago. The streets and sidewalks around a square greatly affect its accessibility and use, as do the buildings that surround it. Imagine a square fronted on each side by 15-foot blank walls -- that is the worst-case scenario for the outer square. Then imagine that same square situated next to a public library: the library doors open right onto the square; people sit outside and read on the steps; maybe the children's reading room has an outdoor space right on the square, or even a bookstore and cafe. An active, welcoming outer square is essential to the well-being of the inner square.
The "Outer Square" can be seen in the form of F.W. Woolworth's, JCPenney, and the Robert Meyer Hotel in this mid-20th century image.
The concept of an "Outer Square" is a critical element that has been completely overlooked in discussions concerning Hemming Plaza. During the space's most popular years, department store, specialty retail, hotels, window displays, and restaurants surrounded the park, generating a critical mass of foot traffic that energized its perimeter. One of the downfalls of relocating civic uses around Hemming has been the City of Jacksonville's failure to make sure these uses fit in at the pedestrian scale. Today, most of the "Outer Square" is surrounded by blank walls or "dead zones" that fail to generate foot traffic and activity. Even the public library's retail spaces are designed in a manner of where they fail to take advantage of the wide sidewalk between them and the door. If success is truly desired, improvements to Hemming Plaza's "Outer Square" should be included in the short and long term strategies.
An example of a short term strategy could be to modify policy (Ex. allow the business to operate outside of the library's restricted hours and include outdoor seating facing Hemming) to attract a restaurant to the long abandoned Shelby's Coffee space. A long term strategy would be to find ways to consolidate office use within City Hall and City Hall Annex, which will allow the corners of those buildings to become retail once again, similar to the role Quizno's plays in the Ed Ball Building. Another suggestion would be for the City to move forward with finding an everyday use for the Synder Memoral Church building. The first step could be a recommendation by the council committee to issue an RFP for this key piece of property with the intention of a use that helps activiate the park.
The the long term, pedestrian scale uses in the park's Outer Square should be reincorporated into all buildings owned by the City of Jacksonville.
8. Reaching Out Like an Octopus
Hemming Park's pedestrian scale synergy once reached out like an octopus due to specialtiy storefronts and window displays adjacent to the large department stores that surrounded the park.
Just as important as the edge of a square is the way that streets, sidewalks and ground floors of adjacent buildings lead into it. Like the tentacles of an octopus extending into the surrounding neighborhood, the influence of a good square (such as Union Square in New York) starts at least a block away. Vehicles slow down, walking becomes more enjoyable, and pedestrian traffic increases. Elements within the square are visible from a distance, and the ground floor activity of buildings entices pedestrians to move toward the square.
A Purcell's retail store window display on North Laura Street, within a block of Hemming Park in 1953.
Ask yourself: How Does Hemming Plaza reach out like an Octopus? The answer is, outside of Subway and Cafe Nola's outdoor seating it really doesn't. Resolving this solution can be as simple as encouraging more enties in the blocks surrounding the park to embrace the sidewalks better at the pedestrian scale. For a restaurant, this could mean additional outdoor seating. For a retailer, it could mean window displays. For the City, it could mean allowing designated mobile vendors where publicly owned dead zones in the plaza's "Outer Square" exist.
9. The Central Role of Management
The best places are ones that people return to time and time again. The only way to achieve this is through a management plan that understands and promotes ways of keeping the square safe and lively. For example, a good manager understands existing and potential users and gears events to both types of people. Good managers become so familiar with the patterns of how people use the park that waste receptacles get emptied at just the right time and refreshment stands are open when people most want them. Good managers create a feeling of comfort and safety in a square, fixing and maintaining it so that people feel assured that someone is in charge. Any short or long term plan involving any public space in Jacksonville should come with a good management plan by the Parks & Recreation Department.
10. Diverse Funding Sources
A well-managed square is generally beyond the scope of the average city parks or public works department, which is why partnerships have been established to operate most of the best squares in the United States. These partnerships seek to supplement what the city can provide with funding from diverse sources, including--but not limited to--rent from cafés, markets or other small commercial uses on the site; taxes on adjacent properties; film shoots; and benefit fundraisers
For more information visit: www.pps.org
Article by Ennis Davis