Graduate students from the School of Architecture and JaxLab at University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction and Planning (UF DCP), in collaboration with stakeholders from the city of Jacksonville and St. Johns Riverkeeper, are working together on an ambitious project to reshape the city’s future with a focus on resilience and sustainability. As part of the Florida Digital Twin initiative, the team spent October 14 visiting key sites, including Ribault Scenic Drive Park and the Pope Place and Gold Merit ash disposal areas, which are contaminated with incinerator ash. Their goal: to explore innovative design solutions for transforming these sites into vibrant, functional public spaces that can serve the community for years to come.
“Our collaboration with the St. Johns Riverkeeper aims to visualize the effects of a living shoreline along the Ribault River,” said Karla Saldaña Ochoa, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Architecture at UF DCP. “We’re focused on creating resilient infrastructure that protects communities while also supporting river conservation efforts. We are synthesizing the goals of students, St. Johns Riverkeeper and the City of Jacksonville.”
Saldaña Ochoa, along with UF DCP graduate student Michael Dieffenthaller, developed an augmented reality (AR) tool to visualize the impact of different living shoreline arrangements along the Ribault River. Using AR goggles, users will be able to virtually “plant” vegetation and install oyster castles, concrete blocks designed to promote oyster growth and reduce shoreline erosion. The immersive tool, developed as part of the JaxTwin project, calculates the nitrogen filtration benefits of the oysters and enables users to see the long-term impacts of their decisions.
This digital twin technology will also play a crucial role in determining the future use of the Pope Place and Gold Merit ash disposal sites, which will be visualized on a web-based tool developed for the JaxTwin project. The Jacksonville Department of Public Works is remediating these sites by removing contaminated soil and replacing it with clean earth, leaving a fresh slate for redevelopment opportunities.
Five student teams from Saldaña Ochoa’s FLUID Design Studio in collaboration with UF DCP Instructional Assistant Professor Michael Montoya, a hybrid class that includes both first-and second-year graduate students from Jacksonville and Gainesville, collaborated closely with the St. Johns Riverkeeper organization to develop plans for revitalizing the Pope Place and Gold Merit ash disposal sites into safe, accessible and sustainable public spaces.
“This field trip was a real-world scenario of what a designer would do on the job,” said DCP graduate student Reagan Johnson. “My group truly wants to provide greater access to the river for the immediate community, and to further bridge together other communities in the Jacksonville area.”
On November 13, the teams presented their initial designs at JaxLab campus in Jaxsonville to architects and representatives from the St. Johns Riverkeeper, City of Jacksonville, Community Planning Collaborative, Jacksonville City Council District 10. A final design will be presented on December 4 at UF’s main campus.
“Our class hopes to deliver promising, resilient design opportunities for the future of Jacksonville,” said Sarah Spayd, UF School of Architecture graduate student.
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By Megan Sam