JACKSONVILLE EXAMPLE 3: ENTERPRISE CENTER / OMNI HOTEL
Ever notice how outside of the Jacksonville Landing, there appears to be little retail along Water Street? That’s an optical illusion that this complex pulls off pretty well because there are restaurants, a bar, gift shop and room for more retailers behind those reflective glass panels.
The only thing you can see from the sidewalk at Enterprise Center is a reflection of yourself.
A walk inside this building feels like you’ve been teleported to another city as you realize there are places to eat, shop and have happy hour behind those reflective glass panels.
Dining with a view: Enterprise Center Cafe offers a hot bar and views of the skyline, ten stories above the city. During this stop, a Metro Jacksonville forumer enjoying a meal there mentioned she never knew the restaurant existed until she walked past a temporary portable sign that happened to be placed outside of the tower’s main entrance.
A Simple Solution
A restaurant space that is visible from the street in an Uptown Charlotte hotel.
Exterior signage, lighting and seating would do wonders by helping to add some life to what should be one of downtown’s most vibrant street corners.
JACKSONVILLE EXAMPLE 4: BANK OF AMERICA TOWER
How many people know that you can get your clothes dry cleaned, stop for coffee and pastries, or dine inside the city’s tallest building? t, between Bay & Forsyth? It’s hard to blame those that may not due to it being virtually impossible to identify these businesses behind the tower’s granite walls and lack of signage.
The Bank of America Tower.
Urban Grind Coffee Company operates a gourmet coffee stand inside of the Bank of America Tower’s Laura Street entrance.
A view of the Urban Grind Coffee Company from Laura Street.
A Simple Solution
A ground floor restaurant with its own individual signage downtown Orlando.
Clean windows, exterior individual business signage, and outdoor seating are affordable solutions for better integrating this building and its retailers and restaurants with the outdoor environment surrounding them. Some version of placemaking on this block should be a must with the public investment made in the Laura Street streetscape and the Hotel Indigo, Laura Street Trio and garage projects going up around it.