Sullivan University has acquired a Holiday Inn near Newburg Road and the Watterson Expressway and will convert the property into student housing. The 200-room hotel will close at the end of September and will immediately undergo a $1 million renovation to convert the building into a residence hall for 400 students.
Situated on five acres on Gardiner Pointe Drive, the announcement marks the institution’s first foray into University owned housing. Currently, Sullivan University leases blocks of apartments in Louisville’s East End. With a growing student body from 38 different states, the acquisition will allow for close-to-campus housing.
Planned renovations to the 138,000 square foot building include adding a security system, an on-site convenience store, a new dining area and kitchen, and expanded workout and computer study facilities. Work is expected to wrap up in late February of 2010 and will be occupied shortly thereafter. The structure underwent a $4.5 million upgrade in the past four years.
No guesses for yesterday’s sidewalk photo, which was taken on Taylorsville Road near Watterson Trail. Admittedly, I was stumped, too. Here’s the next photo, let’s try again with guesses in the comments.
Broken Sidewalk is stationed in Louisville this week, and there should be quite a few updates with photos of current projects under construction around town. We’ll start with a few this afternoon.
Proposed changes to East Market Street (courtesy Bingham Fellows)
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Near the end of East Market Street, between Shelby Street and Campbell Street, the roadway becomes noticeably wider; parallel parking is replaced by diagonal spots; and the urban edge of the historic buildings is pushed back from adjacent blocks. What seems like an anomaly today was actually a park over 100 years ago designed by the Father of Landscape Architecture and architects of Cherokee, Iroquois, and Shawnee Parks, Frederick Law Olmsted.
A community action group for Leadership Louisville called the Bingham Fellows proposed rebuilding the park originally named Kenton Place as part of a study to increase the retention of young professionals in one of Louisville’s fastest growing urban neighborhoods.
Kenton Place opened in 1892 and features landscaping with shade trees, ample seating areas, and a goldfish pond. The park was short-lived, though, as it was repurposed for a trolley line only eight years later. The new design calls for drastically improving the streetscape including adding colored pavers to the driving surface. Trees, landscaping and a walking path would be added to the median park. Curb “bumpouts” on the block’s corners would add safety to the pedestrian environment, too. (A good example of a “bumpout” can be seen on West Main Street’s street corners.)
Proposed changes to East Market Street. (Courtesy Bingham Fellows)Original Olmsted Plan of Keaton Place. (Courtesy Bingham Fellows)
Currently, the 800 block of East Market Street contains two parking lanes, a bike lane, and four driving lanes. Under the Kenton Place proposal, the layout would remain much the same but diagonal parking spots replaced with parallel spots. The extra space would be used to create the park in the median. Market Street already accommodates two-way traffic, but one eastbound lane would become west-bound.
The Bingham Fellows are seeking historic photos of the original Kenton Place and encourage interested citizens to visit their booth at the upcoming Nulu East Market Festival on September 26. The Kenton Place proposal was designed by Carman landscape architects of Clay Street. Members of the Bingham Fellows include Gill Holland, Mary Lea Quick, Adel Elmaghraby, Brad Davies, Chris Padgett, Donna Perry, Harriet Lair, Julie Pogue, and Terena Bell.
Current conditions on East Market Street. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)Detail of the original Olmsted design. (Courtesy Bingham Fellows)
Illustrator Robert Crumb is famous for his critical and satirical take on mainstream America. In 1979, he created a series of drawings depicting the evolution of America’s urban landscape from its beginnings in wilderness. All the panels are combined in the video, ending in the auto-dominated landscape of the late 1970s. (via Boing Boing)
The last sidewalk photo from Thursday last week was correctly identified by Paul Kuhl as Wallace Avenue in St. Matthews. He went above and beyond to point out that the photo was taken on the 600 block. Well done. Here’s a new sidewalk photo. Post your guesses in the comments.
A decrepit one-story building on East Main Street is no more. A Broken Sidewalk tipster wrote in a little while back to tell us about an intent to demolish poster spotted on the structure, and reported that last week, the building finally came down.
816 East Main Street Demolished. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
Architecturally unimportant, the concrete block building was set back from the sidewalk and covered in graffiti. The roof had partially caved in and the boards covering the window openings had fallen off, too. It’s nice when a demolition in urban Louisville actually takes down a building worth razing.
Our tipster reports this morning that the property owner was spotted spreading hay on the now vacant lot to prevent mud from washing off the site. The PVA lists the owner as Zax Properties, managed by Robert Zax, a Louisville dermatologist. Apparently, there are no plans for the land in the short-term, but eventually the owner envisions a mixed-use commercial and residential infill structure similar to what is commonly built in Boston today.
As you have probably noticed, posting was a little slow last week. As you are now also likely noticing, the site looks a little different. We spent the better part of last week updating Broken Sidewalk’s design, all the way down to the core architecture. Hopefully the site should run faster, look cleaner, and offer more. If you’re reading this from an RSS reader, we invite you to stop on over and take a look around.
Yesterday’s sidewalk photo was taken on Evergreen Road between Station Road and Hazelwood Road in Anchorage. Just off to the left of the photo is the site of Evergreen Real Estate’s new development in the neighborhood’s downtown and a little farther along is the Bellegrove office development by Village Solutions that features an innovative rain garden. Here’s a new sidewalk photo. Guesses in the comments.
Another successful sidewalk identification. Commenter Talkfan pointed out that Friday’s sidewalk photo was taken on Illinois Avenue at Audubon Plaza Drive. Well done. Anyway, here’s another sidewalk for you; identify its location in the comments. Also, noticing that more and more news is coming from Twitter. We’ll forward interesting local and national articles as we find them on the tweetscape.
