Why do you have to be a. . .
Doro Heartbreaker
Twice!
Heartbreaking news from historic downtown Jacksonville earlier this week when Rise Doro, the much touted and eagerly anticipated new apartment building located in the City’s sports and entertainment district, burned.
Mayor Donna Deegan called the fire, which left the soon-to-open 247 apartment building a total loss, “heartbreaking.”1 Jacksonville’s fire chief said the fire is “one of the worst” the city has experienced in a decade.2 Fortunately, no one was hurt as Rise Doro had not yet welcomed its first residents.
Cheap, Quick, Safe
According to First Coast News, folks have been asking why Rise Doro was framed in wood.3
Short answer: Wood is cheaper, allows for fast construction, and is safe. That is, as long as buildings framed in wood are limited to certain heights and include fire suppression systems, like sprinkler systems, building codes hold that they are safe.
Architect and university professor Duo Dickinson calls this construction “stick frame over podium,” or “5 over 2 construction,” describing it thus:
“. . . this hybrid construction uses a cast concrete or fireproofed steel base of 1 or 2 stories that then has the cheapest, quickest, building system available built over it: light and stick frame, usually limited to 5 additional stories. Engineered wood is often used and, when combined with fire suppression sprinklering and wall/floor separations, huge savings in construction and time are realized. As a result, six or seven stories can explode out of the ground in months.”
Cheap, quick, safe.
Durable goods: steel, concrete, brick
After the 1901 Great Fire ravaged downtown Jacksonville, devastating the town built of wood, local lore tells us that the folks who re-built Jacksonville were determined to build a new city made of concrete and brick with bones of steel, one that would not—could not—burn. The folks who rebuilt the heart of our fair city did so determined that it would last.
The original Doro was one of those buildings. Built in 1914, the Doro was made of steel and brick, and among the first constructed after the 1901 Great Fire. The Jaxson’s Ennis Davis described the now demolished original Doro complex as “the last surviving mixed-use commercial storefront that dates back to the long razed 19th century suburb of East Jacksonville” (“Out with the Old, In with the New,” The Jaxson, May 2020).
The original Doro, Davis argues, was ripe for protected status through an historic designation, but that designation never came. And without that designation and precisely because the original Doro was not located within the city’s downtown historic overlay district, Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB) easily approved the current developer’s demolition and redevelopment plans, with the consent of the Downtown Investment Authority. This despite preservation attempts by active citizens.4
Haste Makes Waste
Unlike Jacksonville’s post-1901 downtown structures built to last, these contemporary “stick frame over podium” medium-rise buildings are, Dickinson argues, a “thoughtless intoxication with expedience and profit.” “Cheap boxes,” he writes, “do not weather well.”
A Haunting Narrative
The burning of Rise Doro begs for some kind of larger than life interpretation, some mythical understanding. Is the ghost of the original Doro haunting a site the importance of which we failed to treasure and protect? A downtown historic property that helped rebuild Jacksonville screaming “enough is enough already,” stop this thoughtless destruction of buildings built to last, that have a good chance to weather the elements, defy the fire gods, and help tell a local tale of resilience in the face of adversity. Don’t trade us for “cheap boxes” that “do not weather well.” Those 5 over 2’s will not serve you well, nor stand the test of time.
But they are relatively inexpensive.
As Davis argued in a September 2020 “your turn” Florida Times-Union column, “Ultimately, to make adaptive reuse and preservation a more realistic, market-rate option for Downtown redevelopment, Jacksonville will need to take a hard and serious look at modifying preservation and demolition policies to establish a setting where creativity becomes a first choice option . . . instead of outright demolition.”
Such willful destruction
Why a people who inhabit a former town of wooden structures, burned to the ground in 1901, and rebuilt with steel and concrete and brick, continues to tear down these bold early 20th Century structures to build again with wood is what? Funny, Tragic, Absurd, Ironic, Arrogant, Foolish? Cheap? Quick?
Maybe the ghosts of buildings past, the historic properties built soon after the Great Fire, are rising up to tell us to stop already. Stop the willful destruction of our architectural history.
It’s all about what we value. And clearly, the city powers that be do not value buildings built to last.
Sources:
https://commonedge.org/when-buildings-are-shaped-more-by-code-than-by-architects/
https://commonedge.org/the-architectural-pandemic-of-the-stick-frame-over-podium-building/
https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-doro-out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/
Bauerlein, David. “'Heartbreaking:' Fire ravages apartment building under construction in sports complex,” Florida Times-Union, January 30,2024.
Scanlan, Dan. “Demolition Looms for Fire-ravaged Rise Doro Complex,” jaxtoday.org, January 30, 2024.
Di Gregorio, Renata. “Why was the Rise Doro building made with a wood frame?,” First Coast News (On Your Side), January 30, 2024.
Davis, Ennis. “Your Turn,” Florida-Times Union, September 1, 20202.
Can I hear an AMEN! The lyrics that continue to resound in my mind after reading this is “when will you ever learn, when will you ever learn!” By Pete Seeger. Thank you for giving voice to this critical issue!
The Architectural Pandemic is Alive and Well in North Florida.
Thank you Sherry for framing this issue and thank you Wayne for adding the link to a great (everybody should read) article.
"Stick Built" came from the Suburban Residential Industry spreading like peanut butter across "new communities". It made its leap to the Apartment Industry when developers were able to "run the numbers" to maximize returns and investors (Pension groups) jumped in the market. Once built and occupied, One Brooklyn Apartments sold for more than $400,000 per unit - incredible - that's a long hold for returns.
Look around - throughout the burbs in Nassau, Duval and St. Johns Counties - apartments are being built not much architecturally-different than how the Fast Food Industry exploded. Create an economy box with pasted-on identity - then stamp it out like any industrial output - over & over, same thing - so that no matter where one goes things look "familiar".
Apartment Blocks use the same method - doo-dads that are hung on the facades to provide "individuality". Useless balconies to create texture, 1' wide offsets to create shadow play, faux material appliques and color panels are the go-to cheap-trick solutions.
The other aspect of the mixed-use format that doesn't work - requiring sidewalk retail where there is never enough pedestrian activity and access or close by parking. Almost every project has mandated ground-level retail/support uses. I think the vacancy rates for new ground-level storefronts are around 80% - and what's worse - not just in the first year after completion - but for 5, 10 and more years. Look inside a lot of those "ready-for-lease spaces" - many have dirt floors, i.e., the main developers are able to provide the space for next to nothing while satisfying their permit requirements by deferring the build-out costs to the tenant. Some of the mandated ground-floor spaces are never used.