LOCAL

A new look for Friendship Fountain: Splash park, garden, light show are new attractions

Matt Soergel
Florida Times-Union

The Southbank's Friendship Fountain, designed by visionary architect Taylor Hardwick, opened in 1965 and soon became a photogenic spot for visitors and an iconic landmark for Jacksonville.

It's changed greatly, though, and the park around it has been whittled down over the years until it's less than half its original size. It was even put on the Jacksonville Historical Society's annual list of the most endangered buildings and places in the city, until the fountain was renovated in 2011.

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It's now undergoing another big renovation — something that boosters hope will make it a key part of a network of downtown riverfront attractions designed to make the St. Johns River more than something you just drive over.

“It's about creating reasons for people, families, to come down to downtown, to come down to the river,” said Lori Boyer, CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority, which has been working with the city parks department on the project.

Friendship Fountain is being renovated to be able to show a nightly video production on the mist created by the fountain. There will also be a splash park for children and an arboretum on the property. This photo is from a test of the fountain in September.

The city's St. Johns River Park, which includes the fountain, will feature a splash park for children, including a boat to climb around in.

Each night there will be a 15-minute light show, set to music. projected on the mist created by the newly restored fountain.

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At the same time, across the river, a light show will be projected onto the walls of the Performing Arts Center, where a park themed on Jacksonville's music history will be built. Both light shows will be visible from either side of the river.

The city also plans a native-plant botanical garden close to where River City Brewing Co. once stood and a big riverfront apartment project will go up.

A nightly themed light show, set to music, is being designed for Friendship Fountain, with images to be projected on the screen of mist made by the water. This photo was taken during a test of the system in September.

There will also be concessions and restrooms.

The park's theme is Exploring the St. Johns River and will focus on the area's original inhabitants, the Timucuan Indians, the arrival of the French in 1562 and the travels down the river of naturalists John and William Bartram.

Coming next year, more things to do

Plans call for the renovated park to be up and running by Memorial Day.

“It’s a really nice activation strategy. You know something will happen every night, and you’ll be able to see it across the river as well," said Scenic Jacksonville Executive Director Nancy Powell, who is also chairwoman of Riverfront Parks Now, a coalition of working on riverfront redevelopment. 

The additions to St. Johns River Park are part of an almost $250 million project that calls for interconnecting trails, parks and public spaces on both sides of the river downtown.

A rendering shows the proposed American Lions apartment tower that would be built on Riverfront Plaza near the Main Street bridge on the downtown Jacksonville riverfront.

In this year's city's budget, Mayor Lenny Curry announced the comprehensive riverfront proposal during his budget address in July, with funds coming from the capital improvement plan and distributed over the next five fiscal years.

Its centerpiece is Riverfront Plaza, where the old Jacksonville Landing stood, which would be a mix of greenspace and business and residential. Recently a futuristic 44-story apartment tower has been proposed for part of the property.

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Curry also proposed the first funds since 2005 to expand the Northbank Riverwalk.

“Our river and the surrounding waterways are a national treasure, and preserving our watershed and maintaining a healthy ecosystem is one of my top investments,” he said as he made the proposal. “What good is a waterway if we can’t enjoy it?”

By October 2021, renovations of Friendship Fountain on Jacksonville's Southbank were beginning to take shape in the footprint of the old fountain.

The groups led by Boyer and Powell collaborated with the Jessie Ball duPont Fund last year after the organization and its partners looked to other cities that built thriving riverfront scenes to see what they'd done right. They also polled the public on what it wanted from the riverfront.

The main finding: more things to do there, more often.

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Friendship Fountain, which was designed by architect Taylor Hardwick, is shown here shortly after the park was completed in 1965.

The activities at Friendship Fountain and the surrounding park — and across the river at the Performing Arts Center — are designed to do just that.

"The point is, you can’t just expect people to come," Powell said. "There have to be things to do.”