As cities age, they must figure out what to do with historic buildings that have outlived their original purpose.
For many years, Jacksonville’s most common solution to this dilemma was to just demolish the buildings. It’s why there are so many surface parking lots and parking garages downtown, and why LaVilla is full of empty lots rather than the historic buildings that once sat there.
But increasingly, over the past few decades, local historic properties have begun to receive the respect they deserve. Adaptive reuse projects – that is, projects wherein an existing building is repurposed after losing its original tenant – have sprung up across the city, from downtown to San Marco to Springfield and beyond.
These are just a few of the prime examples of what can happen when a developer is willing to put in the time, money, and patience required for an adaptive reuse project.
Among the earliest examples of adaptive reuse in Jax, the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center was originally built in 1919 as the new Union Terminal.
The building, which sits on the edge of LaVilla and Brooklyn, was the largest railroad station in the South when it opened. It was designed by Kenneth Murchison, who also designed Penn Station in Maryland. Part of the old terminal station, built in the 1890s, was retained alongside the new building.
The Union Terminal station shut down in the mid-‘70s, leaving the building without a purpose until Osborn, a CSX executive, spearheaded a movement to convert it into a new convention center for the city.
The Prime Osborn Convention Center opened in 1986 and has served as the city’s official convention center ever since – though a new convention center is expected to be built within the next five to ten years.
The building will then have to find a new purpose, but its proximity to the new Regional Transportation Center and new apartment and townhome developments could make that a relatively easy task. A possible path forward for the building can be seen in Denver, CO’s own redeveloped Union Station.
