Somehow this just seems to fit. London has Piccadilly Circus, New York has Times Square, now Louisville has Fourth & Liberty. (This isn’t actually going to happen, but what if…)
Founder and Editor at Broken Sidewalk
Branden founded Broken Sidewalk in 2008 while practicing architecture in Louisville. He continued the site for seven years while living in New York City, returning to Louisville in 2016. Branden is a graduate of the College of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, and has covered architecture, design, and urbanism for The Architect's Newspaper, Designers & Books, Inhabitat, and the American Institute of Architects.
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Well everybody wants a vibrant urban environment for Louisville and this certainly helps promote it! There’s not many places more vibrant than Times Square or Piccadilly Circus! It may look dumb now but if it really happened in might really become a catalyst for growth.
oh man! i really like this. send it to the mayor!!!
Beyond the flashiness what about a complex of businesses that suck environmental, economic, and personal health is "VIBRANT"? Why do we want to see more of it in Louisville? We're nothing like those places in New York or London. What's original here? What's interesting? What's going to support a healthy, local economy?
Seriously, I do like this. Broken Sidewalk: Please send this to Cordish and the Mayor. I think it’s a great idea.
We’re talking about signs for businesses, not businesses. The intent with such a project would be to create a flashy corner. That’s it.
If there were a God, and if He had a clue, He’d definitely do this. Let us pray. . . .
Businesses aside, I think this proposal would need to be careful not to look flimsy. Where electronic mega-billboards are used in other cities they are backdropped by mega-buildings. Check out google streetview of Times Square, then check out 4th & Liberty or take a walk down there. This building is only 2 or 3 large stories. With these billboards perched atop how would it look from west on Liberty? The shot above looks okay, but what happens on the sides?
More than extra glitz (it’s done a great job already), I think 4th St Live would benefit from investment in a stronger downtown residential community and a stronger, more diverse business/entertainment strip in the areas surrounding. I don’t see how these signs would attract that kind of growth, but maybe…
The main idea behind the proposal is to create an exciting ‘gateway’ to the Fourth Street entertainment district… not just 4th Street Live, but all that will grow locally beyond. People like flashy lights, a concept stretching back all to the street’s history as a theater mecca. Billboards at the theaters lit up the street in the same fashion for their day.
The electronic billboards and neon are also a response to the ‘low’ architecture of 4th Street Live at this corner. The two story building directly opposite the glass highrise always seems a little out of place, and these signs could give it an urban scale to match its neighbors.
It is important to ensure this idea doesn’t look flimsy, too. The glass 5/3 Tower was originally slated for the parking lot on the corner of 5th & Liberty but ended up in its current location. If a new building with some height were infilled there, it would help with the 2 dimensionality of it. Would be nice if it were possible to add a third story/roof deck on top of the Borders section as well.
We don’t know anything of the structural feasibility of this thing, either. Whether the building could support all the weight, but the scale of the thing and the flashing lights would certainly help create an attitude about the intersection and would certainly be a tourist draw and boon to the convention business.
Are You Serious, Lets hear from all the Business peoples over the years that have tried to do the same basic thig!….put up flashy signs to enhance their business and got picked on by the City, cited, and fined, and were made to take their signs down…..Now all of a sudden because the $50million dollars the city gave to 4th st & Cordish isn”t performing as they thought, Now they want to just give them the right to CHANGE the Sign regs to do whatever they want!
I remember another Entertainment Complex that put a fancy neon sign on their roof years AGO!,,,,And Mayor Jerry and his administration screwed them and made them take down the sign!….Remember it was a Piano at Hurricane O’Malleys Corner!,,,,Ha! I’ll bet those guys would like to weigh in on how the City give special treatment to what they want to help themselves but F’s everyone else!