The Jessie Ball duPont Center is a nonprofit complex in downtown

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

. The building served as the main branch of the

Jacksonville Public Library The Jacksonville Public Library is the public library system of Jacksonville, Florida. It primarily serves Jacksonville and Duval County, and is also used by the neighboring Baker, Nassau, Clay, and St. Johns Counties. It is one of the larges ...

system from 1965 until 2005, when it was replaced by the current facility. The library was named for W. Haydon Burns, who served as

Mayor of Jacksonville The Mayor of Jacksonville is the chief executive for the city of Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Jacksonville currently utilizes the strong mayor form of government, in which the mayor has significant powers compared to the Jacksonville ...

for fifteen years and also served two years as

Governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. The Haydon Burns Library replaced the Jacksonville Free Public Library (a Carnegie Library), which was built in 1905 and designed by

Henry John Klutho Henry John Klutho (1873–1964) was an American architect known for his work in the "Prairie School" style. He helped in the reconstruction of Jacksonville, Florida after the Great Fire of 1901—the largest-ever urban fire in the Southeast—by ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of ''Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places''.

History

Jessie Ball duPont Center, Jacksonville, FL, US (07)

When built in 1965 at a cost of $3.7 million, it was considered state of the art. The , three-story building was designed by local architect

Taylor Hardwick Taylor Hardwick (July 15, 1925 – September 27, 2014) was an American architect, interior designer, filmmaker, and educator who designed hundreds of buildings throughout northeast Florida, predominantly in and near the city of Jacksonville. Ha ...

, who designed dozens of other buildings in Jacksonville starting in the mid-1950s including the Skinner Dairy chain and Friendship Fountain and Park. John Hall Jacobs, a nationally known library consultant, also contributed to the design process. Hardwick worked on the library building's design over a span of five years, and his comprehensive plan specified all interior furnishings, graphics and the use of innovative, free-standing book shelves. He chose cheerful colors and limited the use of natural light. The walls surrounding the central elevator tower are covered with colorful murals made of 10,000 glazed bricks. The ground floor has floor to ceiling windows to allow pedestrians to view library activity. The exterior walls facing Ocean and Adams streets have 88 "fins" extending from the second floor to the roof, like the 88 keys on a piano. The fins catch the wind and cast shadows to help keep the building cool.

Closure

The building served Jacksonville well, but by the mid-1990s, it was simply inadequate for the number of patrons using it. Parking was very limited and the 30-year-old wiring could not support the technology requirements for a modern library. Almost 300,000 people used the Burns library each year, ten percent of the total users of the

system. In September 2000 Jacksonville voters approved the

Better Jacksonville Plan The Better Jacksonville Plan is a growth management plan implemented by the city of Jacksonville, Florida. It was the signature project of Mayor John Delaney. It was approved by Jacksonville voters on September 5, 2000. Lex Hester was a key advis ...

, including funding for a new downtown library. The Haydon Burns Library checked out its last book on September 3, 2005. It took several weeks to move the library's half-million-item collection to the new facility. On November 12, 2005 the new Main Library opened to the public.

For sale

The transfer of the building from the city to a private owner was a long and winding road. The city requested bids on the property from developers while the new Main Library was still under construction and selected The Atkins Group as the winner in July, 2005. Atkins wanted to tear down the library to build condominiums, but walked away from the deal after a financing dispute with the city. City officials then approached runner-up Peterbrooke Chocolatier, a local candy company that wanted to turn the building into a chocolate factory. That deal fell through because Peterbrooke's needs had changed and environmental clean-up would cost more than expected. The city briefly planned to keep the library for storage or repeat the bid process, but eventually negotiated a contract with the third choice bidder, Main Branch LLC, whose $3.25 million bid for a mixed-use project would retain most of the building's character. An agreement was reached and the city council approved the sale on November 15, 2006. The sale closed in April, 2007 and the building was renamed "122 Ocean". One component of Main Branch's plan was to build two additional floors for condominiums, but that was to be a later phase. The building would include a number of businesses, including ''City Market'', downtown's first urban grocery store. Negotiations were ongoing with prospective tenants, including

Folio Weekly ''Folio Weekly'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Jacksonville, Florida. It covers topics such as politics, lifestyle, and entertainment. It is the largest and most influential alternative paper in Northeast Florida and is distribut ...

, a wine bar, a jazz club, a bar, two coffee shops, a cereal bar, a residential Realtor, a pair of film companies, a design & furniture store and a four-screen movie theater, according to Tony Allegretti, a Main Branch partner and investor. Some developers suggested tearing down the 1960s landmark, but Main Branch saw historical and financial value in its redevelopment. Allegretti stated, "One of the real motivations in this real estate cycle is you couldn't build this building for $20 million". Before any redevelopment even began, the

late 2000s recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

struck, ending all plans. The private investment group held onto the structure, and conditions finally started to improve in 2012. Main Branch's Bill Cesery led the negotiations with Latitude Global, a privately held restaurant and entertainment company, to purchase the building for their corporate headquarters. After Latitude's letter of intent expired, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund began discussing their idea for the building.

New usage

Following a 90-day due diligence period which included a building inspection and a feasibility study, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund (JBDF) completed the purchase on June 19, 2013 for $2.2 million, $1 million less than Main Branch LLC paid six years earlier. Sherry Magill, president of the JBDF stated that the building will become a "philanthropic and nonprofit center that will be home to a variety of organizations, including the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. Collectively, these tenant organizations will benefit from the synergy created when they co-locate". Similar non-profit facilities have been established in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

(

Center for Nonprofit Management Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...

) and

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

(Community Service Building). The fund formed JBDF LLC to own and operate the facility, which will offer stable monthly lease amounts well below commercial rates, and savings through bulk purchasing at the center. The Fund's present offices in the Wells Fargo Center occupy 6,500 ft², a small portion of the former library's three floors with 80,000 ft² of rentable space, not including a 33,000 ft² basement which can be used in case of a disaster. To reduce operating expenses and demonstrate the energy saving benefits of

green building Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...

, the JBDF planned to include conservation features to achieve LEED certification. With a budget of $20 million, renovations were projected to require 18 months, so occupancy was not expected until late 2014 at the earliest. In May 2014, interior gutting and cleanup was nearing completion, with construction expected to last less than a year. The JBDF opened the Jessie Ball duPont Center in 2015.
. Jessie Ball duPont Center. Retrieved on August 27, 2021.

References

External links