There it isn’t. How unfortunate. More coverage here and here and here and here.
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.
Latest posts by Branden Klayko (see all)
How awful. I’m sure landscaping will help a bit. Not much, though. One thing people don’t consider when demolishing buildings is that they are exposing the ugly side of *other* buildings which were never meant to be seen from a distance.
Not all old outdated buildings are worth saving. How about just creating some open space, and how about doing something about all those ugly overhead wires.
While I agree we need to do something about that tangle of wires, it’s a fallacy to say that this neighborhood needs more open space. Sure, every building may not warrant saving (strip malls come to mind), but this building certainly did. It would be easy to expand that argument to say we can tear down everything except a couple notable landmarks. West Main Street may as well go, too, since those cast-iron facades were basically ordered out of a catalog.
I already explained (click here and scroll down a little) why SoBro doesn’t need open space and why this block was unique for its cloistered courtyards. This was a bad move by Spalding and demonstrates a lack of creativity in campus planning. This could have been an incredibly easy retrofit for some completely more appropriate use.
Phil,
Have you ever been down there? The Campus is a sea of vacant lots – the last thing it needs is more surface parking or plazas.
Oh well – what’s done is done. Let’s hope they can replace it with a decent building. I thought the Spalding campus was really turning into something when they built that Michael Koch design across from Pres, but I’m seriously having my doubts about their commitment to creating an urban university.
It’s all well and good to try and save these older buildings. But they MUST be both operationally practical, and financial viable. Maybe this building just didn’t meet the criteria.