A graduate program in architecture is coming to one of Downtown Jacksonville's most historic churches, inside the Gothic St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral's administration and Sunday School building.
The University of Florida's "JaxLab CityLab" graduate program will move into the renovated third floor of the Cathedral House in three to five months, filling an empty space in the block-long cathedral complex and adding one more tenant to a growing list of development in what's known as the Cathedral District.
The program, part of UF’s School of Architecture, will offer graduate degrees in architecture and sustainability after the renovation of space overlooking East Church Street, Shields Place and the secluded Dean's Garden. As she stood near a cornerstone marking the Cathedral House's 1964 construction, the Rev. Katherine Moorehead, the cathedral's dean, said it is great news and a novel way to use church spaces in new ways that help their communities.
"In the Middle Ages, universities were born out of cathedrals, so we are very excited to invite a university back onto our campus again" Moorehead said. "Many of these old historic churches sit empty during the week. We fill them up on Sundays and maybe Wednesdays, but that's a lot of air conditioning during the week and a lot of wasted space, so we are grateful to be putting it to good use."
For Cathedral District CEO and President Ginny Myrick, whose nonprofit agency partnered with UF to bring the architectural program to the church, UF's program adds vitality to the 36-block downtown area where they are working to bring more apartments and businesses.
"It adds population, which is one of the key factors of the redevelopment of the Cathedral District," Myrick said. "I am looking for people on the streets. That lends itself to a healthy neighborhood when you have people living there. The Cathedral District is woefully underpopulated, so this adds anywhere from 10 to 20 students who will be in the building."
The cathedral was first erected in 1834 then rebuilt twice after that, including the city's massive 1901 conflagration. The Episcopal complex also includes the 1964 school building and church hall.
The Cathedral District is so named because its borders encompass five historic houses of worship, including the Cathedral, First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, the Catholic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Historic Mount Zion AME. The nonprofit group is working toward renewing the community with more homes, apartments and business, seeking to build 2,500 new apartments and homes, with about 650 under construction or being financed, Myrick said.
The University of Florida's 98-year-old College of Design, Construction and Planning operates its core programs at its Gainesville campus. Its first satellite professional degree program is the 13-year-old CityLab-Orlando, started to improve the quality of aspiring architects in Central Florida. Now comes JaxLab CityLab-Jacksonville.
Myrick said negotiations began in 2020 when the former head of the UF School of Architecture decided that Jacksonville was the right place for another satellite program, "because of our historic nature, our close proximity to the river and our closeness to St. Augustine for historic buildings." Myrick said she offered suggestions in the district, including Cathedral House.
"He needed about 3,000 square feet, and we ended up on the third floor," Myrick said. "We wanted it real bad in the Cathedral District and were working pretty heavily to do it."
Attorney Chip Bachara represented the cathedral pro bono throughout the negotiations, and it took three years to negotiate the lease, Myrick said.
Renovating the third floor space into the JaxLab will cost $350,000, with two separate study/design studios for a total 20 students, plus two conference rooms and an administration office. Donors helping with that renovation include Preston and Joan Haskell, the Haskell Co. and the Plummer Foundation.
JaxLab will offer three master's degree tracks in architecture, sustainability and urban design, with an aim toward securing a UF master’s degree in sustainability or a master's of architecture, the professional degree that leads to licensure as an architect. The degree programs will be a mix of online and face-to-face study. The new facility will be available for student use day and night during the semester, with plotting and printing equipment. Students also will have digital conferencing with their peers in Orlando and Gainesville.
In a statement, Mayor Donna Deegan said JaxLab is another exciting addition that will bring more people to live, learn, earn and play in a thriving downtown.
"The program's focus on architecture, sustainability and urban design are subjects that will benefit from the unique location along the St. Johns River, and these are areas where our local workforce must grow," Deegan said.
Myrick said the new program will see about 20 students living and working in the city as they go to school to secure their licence.
"This program is specific to people who are already in the architectural field, and they were licensed architects after that," Myrick said.
With UF offering new classes on architectural resiliency, with Jacksonville's Downtown, Riverside and San Marco areas facing increasing flooding during tropical storms, "naturally, we are a target" for that program, Myrick said.
"We are talking about how to strengthen our resolve in Jacksonville, not to have that happen to us again and be flooded at that level. So it was a match. They will design for resiliency; they are interested in historic preservation, so we were a natural."
UF's placement of a second satellite architectural program in Jacksonville is not related to plans for a Downtown graduate campus that would focus on medicine, business and engineering, health care and financial services, Myrick said. No site has been chosen for that program, which would provide graduate programs in biomedical technology, health applications of artificial intelligence, patient quality and safety, health care administration and financial technology, known as fintech.
Jacksonville's City Council voted 16-1 in mid-March to allocate $20 million toward the new UF fintech graduate campus, with $30 million more to be spent for the program over the next three years. The state Legislature also budgeted $75 million.
