DuPont Commons Offers Luxury Apartments In Old Louisville

Aug 31, 2009

Luxury apartment living is getting a boost in Old Louisville. The old DuPont Manual High School on the corner of Brook and Oak Streets is currently under construction to transform it into DuPont Commons and the first units will be occupied this week.

The 28-unit project offers townhomes and flats ranging in prices from $525 to $725 per month with amenities such as hardwood floors, 13-foot-tall trey ceilings, stainless steel appliances, and spiral stairs. Energy efficiency has been designed into each apartment. There are four unique floor plans to choose from. On the outside, the former school house features intricate carvings and a grand arched main entrance.

Dustin Hensley of the Lee Hensley Company explains that, soon, new landscaping and outdoor lighting will be installed and eventually a dog park will be created in the park behind the building through a partnership with the developer and Metro Parks. Hensley, an Old Louisville resident himself, believes DuPont Commons will offer the nicest apartment living in Old Louisville.

Eight top-floor apartments will be ready to go September 1 and subsequent apartments will be placed on the market when they are ready. The entire project is expected to be complete in less than three months. Hensley hopes to attract young, creative tenants who can help with the continued revitalization of the Oak Street Corridor.

The Lee Hensley Company hopes to have an increased presence in Old Louisville in the coming years. They have already renovated and fully leased a once-dilapidated house on the corner of First Street and Kentucky Street and are working with another client to convert a stone mansion on Third Street into apartments than can be converted into condos when the market improves.

In the future, Hensley says he hopes to tackle the Oak Street retail corridor to provide a more lively center for Old Louisville. He is currently working on a proposal that will blend the historic charm of Old Louisville with more modern convenience and technology that will be announced next year.

DuPont Commons (Official Site)
Renovation Watch: Kentucky Street House Rehabbed (Broken Sidewalk)

1 of 10

Construction Watch: The Other Giant UofL Sports Project

By Branden Klayko -

Aug 31, 2009

7

Construction at Papa Johns'' Cardinal Stadium

We’ve been covering the new arena Downtown since before it was even a hole in the ground, but we haven’t checked in with construction of that other mega-sports-project at the University of Louisville. Now, with football season coming online, we thought it was about time for a look at construction of the Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium expansion.

Rendering of Stadium Expansion (courtesy University of Louisville) — Rendering of Stadium Expansion. (Courtesy UL)

We stopped by recently to check out how the site is progressing and found a mammoth concrete and steel skeleton rising over Floyd Street. Here are quite a few photos from Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Just over a decade ago, the 42,000 seat stadium was built for $63 million. Work is well underway on the latest addition of 21,600 seats and a massive southern terrace. The new addition will also cost $63 million.

Construction actually started last December, but it took a while for the thing to go airborne. Now, there’s quite a bit to look at as the project enters its final year of construction. The new Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium is expected to be complete next fall for the 2010–2011 football season.

Plans include adding 2,400 chair-back seats to the northeast and northwest corners of the lower bowl and improvements near the Howard Schnellenberger Football Complex. On the east side, a 16,000 seat upper deck above 2,000 premium loge seats and 45 new luxury suites each with 18 seats offers the most dramatic construction views. On the south side, a new 60 foot wide terrace connecting the east and west halves of the stadium will offer a social gathering space with concessions and views of the field.

A new imposing face will front Floyd Street with two large brick towers forming a sort of grand entrance to the eastern stadium. The new exterior is similar in appearance to the existing west facade. Design of the original stadium and the addition was handled by Luckett & Farley Architects of Third Street. After the click, you can take a look at a gallery of construction photos and several renderings of what the stadium will look like when its complete. If you’re a PJCS construction junkie, you may want to check out this gallery that offers very frequent updates of construction at the stadium.

Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium (UL Sports)
PJCS Expansion Project (Official Site)
Frequently updated construction photos (UL Sports)

1 of 20

Monday News Roundup

By Broken Sidewalk -

Aug 31, 2009

4

Another correctly identified sidewalk photo. Thursday’s sidewalk is on Myrtle Avenue just west of Central Park looking toward Seventh Street and Park Hill beyond. Congrats go to Jeff Noble, Barturtle, and Jon Sabo for identifying the location. Here’s a new photo just waiting for guesses in the comments.

Continue

How 8664.org Will One Day Become Obvious

By Branden Klayko -

Aug 27, 2009

4

One day it will be obvious (via hock / behance network)

One day Louisville will collectively look up on an unencumbered Great Lawn and think, “Well, that was obvious.” I’m, of course, talking about the 8664.org plan to re-route Interstate 64 out of Downtown and over a new East End Bridge, eliminating the need for that city-death-tangle we hopefully will never know as the expanded Spaghetti Junction and a second Downtown I-65 bridge. Instead, we’ll have more park space, a revitalizing West End, and a beautiful, pedestrian friendly urban boulevard. (Read the rest of the 8664.org coverage from Broken Sidewalk.)

Tom Vanderbilt of How We Drive points us to a Harvard University researcher, Lant Pritchett of the Kennedy School of Government, who has theorized the progression of once controversial ideas. Pritchett suggests that any “big idea” passes through four stages of social acceptance: silly, controversial, progressive, then obvious. While not a linear progression, many social conditions followed this pattern from slavery to a woman’s right to vote.

Where are we on this scale in Louisville regarding the 8664.org plan? It looks like the city overall is hovering somewhere between “controversial” and “progressive”, despite many supporters who are already firmly planted in the “obvious” range. The reasons I believe the 8664.org plan is obvious have already been detailed at length in previous coverage, but many in the city including some elected officials, can’t see the facts presented from a multitude of fronts. That’s why we still must press our leaders to take a stand on the most important issue facing Louisville today. Call them and email them and talk to your friends and neighbors so one day we all will see it was obvious all along.

Per Tom Vanderbilt about New York (but also about Louisville):

‘Kill the street,’ the Modernist architect Le Corbusier once declared in a manifesto for a utopian city built around the car. Generations of traffic engineers did their best to oblige. But the street is coming back in New York—the street built for many users—and someday, if not quite today, it won’t seem silly, controversial or even progressive. It will just seem obvious.

Demo Watch: SoBro Corner Store Coming Down

By Branden Klayko -

Aug 27, 2009

0

Terrible news for the SoBro neighborhood. One of the finest examples of mixed-use corner stores in SoBro is being torn down after a fire that gutted the upper two floors on July 31. The joists on the second and third floors were mostly burned through and significant water damage caused the insurance company to declare the structure a “total loss” according to owner Joe Dunn.

Continue

Smoketown To Be Transformed By $200 Million Hope VI Development

Urbanism

By Branden Klayko -

Aug 27, 2009

21

Conceptual rendering of Hope VI development (courtesy Metro Housing Authority) — Conceptual rendering of Hope VI development. (Courtesy Metro Housing Authority)

Louisville Metro Housing Authority officials recently announced plans to tear down the Sheppard Square housing complex just south of Broadway in the Smoketown-Jackson Park neighborhood. When complete, the new mixed-income development will transform four blocks of Smoketown into a revitalized community embracing the urban fabric of the city.

Continue

Thursday News Roundup

By Broken Sidewalk -

Aug 27, 2009

5

Another winner! Monday’s sidewalk photo was correctly identified by readers Bill Robinson and Justin Ton who felt an especially local affinity for the street. The photo was taken on Schiller Avenue looking north at Beargrass Creek. Here’s a new photo. Guesses in the comments.

Continue

Students Propose A Shippingport Renaissance

By Branden Klayko -

Aug 25, 2009

14

Proposed Ford car factory over the Portland Canal

Proposal for a revitalized Shippingport. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)

Students at the University of Kentucky’s College of Design have redesigned the Shippingport neighborhood incorporating a variety of new paradigms of urban form meant to serve as inspiration for what’s possible when revitalizing the city. The project was formally unveiled at the end of May at the 21C Museum Hotel where students, professors, and Museum Plaza architect Joshua Prince-Ramus held a critique for interested community members.

Continue

Fourth Street Furniture Re-Arranged

By Branden Klayko -

Aug 25, 2009

8

Missing artsy bike rack on Fourth Street

One block of Fourth Street between Main and Market Streets is looking a little different. One piece of street furniture is missing and a new piece was added a little down the street. Both are quite a mystery to me, but I’m guessing some of you Broken Sidewalkers know the inside story.

First, a curvy wooden art-bike-rack installed in April is nowhere to be seen. It’s even hard to see the holes in the sidewalk where it was attached to the ground. The photo above at Main Street shows where it used to be. Where did it go?

Next, near the corner of Market and Fourth, a new metal placard revealing the scientific secrets of Pangaea and the geologic history of the earth has been mounted on a strangely historic looking pole. The new sign looks great and I think should be a regular presence across Downtown, but where did it come from? It’s really well done, but who did it?

Any and all information on the street furniture changes in the comments if you will.

New Art-Bike-Racks Added To Downtown (Broken Sidewalk)