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Category Archives: Nabes: River Park
Zorn Avenue Pumping Station To Be Renovated
Louisville Water Company (Engraving from an old book)
Business First posted a blurb this week about the impending renovation at the Zorn Avenue Pumping Station. You may remember back in 2008 when the Water Tower underwent a $1.7 million refurbishment, but now the adjacent pumping station building will get its own $1.7 million upgrade.
The structure is currently home to the Louisville Visual Arts Association and planned work includes a new slate roof, masonry repairs, and a fresh coat of white paint.
Wikipedia has some history on the facility.
Louisville Water Company (BS File Photo)
PrintStop Lite Spirits In Waterfront Park Demolished
Demolition in Waterfront Park
Stop Lite Wine and Spirits moved out of Waterfront Park and into a new store across River Road last November, but this week, crews demolished their old building from the 1950s. The spaced being cleared will one day be incorporated into Waterfront Park as green space, but for now, it will be paved for parking. The new Stop Lite Wine & Spirits location hopes to emphasize the cafe side of the business catering to hungry park-goers. A second retail location at the new building is still vacant and for lease.
- Stop Lite Liquors & Cafe Jumps Across River Road (Broken Sidewalk)
Demolition in Waterfront Park
Stop Lite Liquors & Cafe Jumps Across River Road
Stop Lite Liquors Jumps Across River Road
It always seemed a little strange a liquor store named Stop Lite was perched in one of the nation’s top urban parks at a location without a stop light. The unassuming building sitting in Waterfront Park is now vacant and a reminder of how much the area has changed from industrial wasteland to green parkland in a matter of years.
The familiar Stop Lite Liquors located on the eastern edge of Waterfront Park opened today in their new location across the street. Owners Carl & Jesse Bollinger built the new store at 1342 River Road and updated the official name of the business to StopLite Wine & Spirits, marking a sort of mini-gentrification brought on by the park. There’s also an expanded emphasis on StopLite’s Cafe operations. The Bollingers want their business to be a place where someone might grab a hot sandwhich or hotdog and enjoy eating in the park.
Another benefit of the new building is provision for a second retail outlet. What otherwise could have been a stand-alone business now is looking to add to the vibrancy of the park. 2,250 square feet are available for lease directly facing the Waterfront Park. We’re hoping it’s filled with a business park-goers could find useful.
The land underneath the old store has already been exchanged with the Waterfront Development Corporation, and David Karem, president of the WDC, notes in his OpEd over the weekend that demolition is imminent on the old building. The site will likely be converted to a grassy playing field for the time being, and with much of Phase III set to open next year, a continuous green park will stretch from downtown to near the foot of Frankfort Avenue in no time.
- Making a Park Fit For Honest Abe (C-J OpEd)
- Wasteland No More: The Greening Of Waterfront Park (Phase III) (Broken Sidewalk)
Wasteland No More: The Greening Of Waterfront Park (Phase III)
Future Site Of Lincoln Statue
Waterfront Park has undoubtedly been a major boon to revitalizing Louisville’s urban neighborhoods, but the eastern and western phases of the park still remain divided by hundreds of feet of chain link fence as construction continues on some of the most dramatic features of the entire park system: the Big Four Bridge and the Lincoln Memorial. It’s been a long and arduous process to move from the industrial wasteland that once comprised Louisville’s waterfront to the nationally acclaimed park that exists now, but the wait has well been worth it. The final 13 acres of the 85 acre project are scheduled to be phased in over the next couple of years and will finally unite the park into one community jewel.
Masterplan for Phase III (Rendering Courtesy Waterfront Development Corporation)
We took a tour of the estimated $22 million construction site as the grass is beginning to grow and the heavy construction is starting to heat up. Peering through the fence at the park’s signature sculpted hills reveals only a portion of the inner workings of the site. The articulation of the river’s edge is far in the distance and the Lincoln Memorial is all but hidden from view. Landscape architects Hargreaves & Associates of San Francisco have shown how skillfully they can articulate space in Phase I and II of the park, and one must experience the new spaces from all angles to appreciate their full complexity. Once within the confines of the construction fence, the true intricacy of the park begins to be made apparent.
Waterfront Park Construction
Walking along the riverfront from the west, a granite amphitheater appears from behind a sculpted earthen berm. Next spring, a larger than life Abraham Lincoln will be perched atop a massive boulder intently gazing down the river. (His general glance will be fixed on the third pier of the Kennedy Bridge, we’re told.) The Lincoln Memorial has been designed to be an experiential journey past four bas reliefs depicting scenes of Lincoln’s life in Kentucky, wrapping around the gentle curve of the amphitheater until the visitor is confronted by the former president himself sculpted by renowned local artist Ed Hamilton. The surrounding berm shields the memorial from the rest of the park, essentially wrapping around the site and embracing the micro-landscape. According to the Waterfront Development Corporation, the Lincoln Memorial “teaches about his connections to Kentucky and about how, as a young man, he developed his abhorrence of slavery while standing on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville.” The space has the potential to be a deeply moving one.
- Waterfront Development Corporation (Official Site)
- Hargreaves & Associates Landscape Architecture (Official Site)
- Big Four Bridge Proposal By Studio Arne Quinze (Broken Sidewalk)
- Happy Birthday From Under The Bridge (Broken Sidewalk)
You’ll want to click through, there are dozens of park photos just ahead (and more to read!)
Where, Oh Where Has The Water Tower Gone?
Water Tower Scaffolding (Pagoda photo from National Geographic)
The Courier-Journal beat us on this one today. The water tower on River Road at the base of Zorn Avenue has been fully adorned in scaffolding for its full refurbishment underway until early next year. The temporary wood & metal garb has effectively transformed the iconic doric column into a makeshift pagoda. The 1850s era water tower will look nearly new when work on the $1.7 million project winds up (up from the $825,000 we reported earlier), and with a fresh gleaming white coat of paint, we think everyone will soon forget the decrepit condition the tower was in not so long ago.
We took these photos a couple days ago (before today’s newspaper article!) and found the scaffolding fascinating. Head on over to the C-J to read the whole story.
[ Pagoda photo by Nir Elias (Reuters) via National Geographic ]
- Historic Water Tower Renovation Progressing (Broken Sidewalk)
- Water tower in midst of $1.7 million facelift (C-J)
Big Four Bridge Proposal By Studio Arne Quinze
Big Four Bridge Proposal (Rendering by Studio Arne Quinze)
Today at the IdeaFestival, Studio Arne Quinze revealed their proposal for transforming the Big Four Bridge into a dynamic art installation weaving itself through the bridge’s iron trusses connecting Jeffersonville and Louisville. Quinze’s installation work is known for its unique construction of linear wooden sticks joined in an apparently chaotic but well informed manner to create large organic and fluid sculptures. The proposal includes solar panels incorporated into the design allowing for nighttime light-plays and music to emanate from the wooden cloud. During the day, the installation will filter sunlight to create the quality of light passing through leaves in a forest. ”It’s a huge project, but I believe in it and it will work,” Quinze said. ”Now the idea is in your camp… I make the idea and now you” must find a way to build it.”
The Big Four Bridge is an abandoned railroad crossing and part of the final phase of Louisville’s Waterfront Park, designed by Hargreaves & Associates. The bridge, built in 1895, will be turned into a pedestrian walkway connecting Kentucky and Indiana. A dramatic sprialing ramp is being built to connect the bridge to ground level in the park. A smaller ramp is being built in Jeffersonville, Indiana. In May of this year, the bridge deck caught fire after an inspection due to faulty wiring of a light fixture. The wooden bridge deck was damaged but the structure was unharmed.
The announcement comes the day after Mark Beasley of public art firm Creative Time lectured to IdeaFestival crowds. Creative Time has just been hired by the City of Louisville’s Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Public Art (MACOPA) to draft a master plan to guide public art throughout the city.
In addition to the cloud sculpture, the proposal lays out a program for the pedestrian walkway of the Big Four Bridge. Quinze envisions a timeline running across the 2,525 foot long bridge detailing possible historical events important to the city’s growth. Earlier this month, DeLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop revealed their Happy Birthday Pavillion that will sit beneath the bridge and its spiraling ramp.
Studio Arne Quinze has worked on a number of public art installations including Cityscape in Brussels Belgium, the Burning Man Pavillion in the deserts of Death Valley, and proposals for the Galactic Transporter for the Beijing Olympics and Rebirth Pavillion for the Champs Elysees in Paris.
Arne Quinze Speaks at IdeaFestival
- Studio Arne Quinze (Official Site)
- Arne Quinze (Official Site)
- IdeaFestival (Official Site)
- Big Four Bridge (Wikipedia)
- Happy Birthday From Under The Bridge (Broken Sidewalk)
Historic Water Tower Renovation Progressing
Water Tower Rehabilitation
The renovation work at the historic water tower located near the intersection of Zorn Avenue and River Road has entered its second phase and should be done early next year. The tower, built in the Classical-Revival style between 1858 and 1860, is reported to be the oldest ornamental water tower in the world, yet has been deteriorating for years at its site along the Ohio River. The Louisville Water last year embarked on a complete rehabilitation of the white tower and already the results are incredible. Before, detailed woodwork was rotting and falling off (see before photo below), and now the woodwork has been restored and repainted and looks almost new. The brickwork at the base of the tower which was also literally falling off has been repaired. The tower now has an interesting look with a red brick base surrounded by white columns and a white tower. The brick will be repainted white in the end, however, to create the illusion of a single white tower. The tower also features ten white statues that have been removed for rehabilitation.
In 1890, a tornado snapped the tower in two and destroyed all but two of the ornamental statues. The tower was subsequently rebuilt and new statues fashioned representing Greek and Roman deities along with an Indian hunter and his dog. Shortly after it was rebuilt, a new pumping facility in Crescent Hill was complete, making the old tower obsolete. During World War II, the tower nearly met its demise as plans were dran together to scrap the tower for the war effort. Luckily, the plan fell through and only a metal spiral staircase was sent to the war effort.
Currently, an elaborate system of scaffolding is going up around the tower and work will progress repairing its top. The old pumping station just behind the tower is home to the Louisville Visual Arts Association and is also in need of a few repairs but will have to wait a few years after the tower is complete before work is scheduled to begin on its own rehabilitation. The repairs at the water tower are expected to cost around $825,000. The Louisville Water Company has also spent $4.2 million to rehabilitate its Crescent Hill pumping facility including the replacement of its slate roof.
- Louisville Water Tower (Wikipedia)
- Louisville Water Company (Official Site)
- Louisville Visual Arts Association (Official Site)
Water Tower Rehabilitation
Water Tower Before Rehabilitation
Happy Birthday From Under the Bridge
Happy Birthday To You (Rendering by DeLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop)
A small parking lot on Main Street tucked under the 9th Street Interchange with Interstate 64 in downtown Louisville is the only memorial for two Louisvillians whose impact on American culture is felt around the globe. Sisters Mildred Jane Hill and Patty Smith Hill are credited with writing “Happy Birthday To You” yet are largely forgotten in their home city. Their song has been named the most recognizable song in the English language by the Guiness Book, just ahead of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”. A small plaque at the entrance to their namesake parking lot explains their historic impact:
“In 1893, Clayton F. Summy Company published a song book by Mildred Jane Hill, an authority on negro spirituals, and Patty Smith Hill, Proffessor Emeritus of Education, Columbia University, titled, “Song Stories For The Kindergarten.”
Local history recounts that during a birthday party for Lisette Hast, in the Little Loom House on Kenwood Hill, Patty suggested that the words of the first song in “Song Stories”, “Good Morning To All” be changed to “Happy Birthday To You.” The song has since become one of the three most popular songs in the English language.
Among other achievements, Patty Hill is remembered as a pioneer in early-childhood education, launching one of America’s first kindergartens in Louisville.”
Happy Birthday To You
The Hill sisters are headed from an interstate underpass to a grand pavillion under the Big Four Bridge. The pavillion is expected to cost around $500,000 and is situated in the center of a spiraling ramp leading to the Big Four Pedestrian Bridge. The pavillion is being designed by DeLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop of Shelby Street in the East Village. The architects have also designed the bathrooms at Waterfront Park known for their dramatic rooflines.
- DeLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop (Official Site)
- Happy Birthday To You (Wikipedia)
- Pavilion may honor “Happy Birthday” writers (C-J)
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