The Sustainable City event took of most of the evening tonight, but we leave you with… flags. You might remember these from last Memorial Day in Jefferson Square, but the scene is always a little surreal. The flags ended up on the Great Lawn and are now being dispersed across the country. More on the Great Lawn display here and here.
The Sustainable City Series‘ ninth forum will be all about transportation. The event if free, but you must sign up by 1:00pm tomorrow (Tuesday). Featured speakers include Barry Barker, Executive Director of TARC, and Dirk Gowin, Transportation Planning Administrator of Bike Louisville. It’s going on at the Glassworks on Ninth and Market Streets on Tuesday at 6:00 pm, so if you want to go, you’d better act fast. We’ve already signed up and at the time of posting there were only 51 seats left out of 340, so this event looks to be well attended.
A new addition to the University Tower Apartments on the corner of Third Street and Brandeis Avenue will give the area directly west of the University of Louisville‘s Belknap Campus a needed urban boost. The project will add a variety of dining options for students and help to anchor the area directly south of Old Louisville as a sort of University City. With the recently announced plans to convert the nearby Masterson’s block into a mixed-use development, an area dominated by parking lots will soon be a walkable urban community.
Last year, the roof of the Metro Development Center on Fifth Street was a construction zone as 160 tons of gravel, planting medium, plants, and trees here hoisted up seven floors. Now the plants have had time to settle and will soon cover the building in a lush green carpet. Over 10,000 plants and four trees make up the new green roof and the the project is already experiencing success. One of the benefits of such a system is increased natural habitat and we saw several birds (like the one above) already making the roof home.
While the plantings may look a little thin now, Cecil Goins, who oversaw the installation, says by fall and especially next spring, the it will be difficult to spot the planting medium. Many of the drought resistant plants feature an array of red and green hues, so the roof will be a colorful sight to see. Irrigation hoses have been installed for dry weather, but the plants will get most of their water naturally. It’s estimated that 70 to 75 percent of rainwater that falls on the roof will be held and absorbed by the plants, reducing the strains on the sewer system during storms. (Read more about the benefits of a green roof from our last visit.)
We stopped by the construction site last year to learn about Louisville’s efforts to go green, and today Goins explained the city would like to see similar projects on other government buildings. In April, the Louisville Zoo announced that it, too, would be installing a substantial green roof with federal money. Goins says an extensive structural analysis of a building is the first step toward installing a green roof. Even though the Metro Development Center is a sturdy structure and former parking garage, engineering the roof to fit the building is key (and 160 tons is heavy). For example, trees were installed over concrete columns to better distribute the weight.
While there are no plans currently to add another green roof to a government building, Goins said there will eventually be more. He mentioned that the concrete Hall of Justice may be a good candidate and Chris Poynter of the Mayor’s office says the proposed bike-transit-center could have a green roof as well. It’s all about funding and each project is budget driven. The Metro Development Center was originally to have 12 trees shading its roof, but cost reduced the number to four.
The installation of the green roof went smoothly with no unexpected problems. Poynter notes the only disappointing aspect of the roof is that it can’t be opened to the public. The roof does not have an elevator or handicapped access. The city may allow individual tours for developers or builders who are interested in incorporating such a system into their own buildings, but no protocol has been established. The design was handled by Luckett & Farley of Third Street and the Hitchcock Group of Chicago.
This week’s art car wasn’t found in Louisville. But what if it could be? We’re sure Louisville could come up with something just as creative or weird as these trucks from Philadelphia.
Construction work has begun on a project that will transform two vacant building on Barret and Christy avenues into a restaurant, an apartment, and another retail spot. Paul Kuhl and Ivor Chodkowski plan to open Harvest, a restaurant serving locally grown foods, in the one-story portion of the building and lease space in the adjacent structure. Today, the sounds of hammers filled the sidewalk as crews worked on the nearly gutted interior.
The first phase of construction includes a 1,400-square-foot retail outlet and 900 square foot one-bedroom apartment. Kuhl explained that work on the two-story building will take about four to six weeks to complete and work on the restaurant will start soon thereafter. The entrepreneurs searches for two years to find the Original Highlands property and are excited about its location anchoring the northern end of Barret Avenue. The area is dense and contains quite a few jobs within walking distance. It’s just a couple blocks from Baxter Avenue to the east. A sandwich shop is still under construction one block to the north, so this stretch of Barret Avenue could see quite a rebirth. The project is still working through a few parking issues. Current rules require 36 parking spots for the new use of the one-story building, but there is a proposal before Metro Council to lower that requirement to a more manageable 16 spaces for urban areas. The building permit posted on the front window estimates the first phase cost at $100,000 and the second floor apartment is expected to rent for about $695 per month. A metal canopy covering the sidewalk has already been removed and new windows are planned. The wooden siding will also be replaced with new fiber cement hardie-board siding. When all is said and done, this corner will be quite a bit more lively than it’s been in years.
While the addition of an ATM to West Main Street might sound like small news, a sign accompanying the new installation declares a “grand” opening on Monday. We’re curious as to how grand an opening could be for an ATM, or why one is required at all.
But don’t forget how Louisville can play up the most minor of events as witnessed in the champagne soaked ribbon cutting of a 15-space parking garage. We guess in this recession-plagued time, anything new is cause for celebration, and this will be the only place to get some cash for several blocks. And those new blue awnings look sharp.
