A building damaged in Wind Storm 2008 on Liberty Street in Phoenix Hill has now been fully rebuilt. The 1880’s era commercial vernacular building could have been just another casualty of Hurricane Ike, but the owners, Bargain Supply Company (located on the same block), decided to fix the building instead of tear it down. And they went beyond our expectations.
Maybe you saw it at the Butchertown Art Fair last weekend, but a new shop called Marie with Joy Consignments has filled an empty storefront last home to a small skateboard shop and hydroponic garden store. It’s been open a couple of weeks now as far as we can tell. Now if we can just fill that empty spot next door.
After all the controversy over Mayor Abramson’s proposed Downtown bike station, this Streetfilms video emerges showing how Chicago’s famous McDonald’s Cycling Center in Millenium Park works. Many loved the idea of a similar center in Louisville, many more thought it was a waste of money, and others thought the money could be better spent on more basic infrastructure. Whatever your opinion of the proposed project, it’s helpful to see how such an easily misunderstood facility actually functions and what Chicagoans think of it.
Here’s a portion of a letter the Mayor wrote supporting Louisville’s Bike Station:
For the past two years, there has been a national buzz about Louisville as a city redefining itself—a city of great arts and culture, a city of sports, a city of parks, a city that is an affordable and exciting place to live. This has not happened by accident.
We’ve devoted special efforts to make our city more attractive to young professionals, a key, educated demographic that keeps cities vibrant. It’s why we’ve invested in downtown—and it’s why, during the last three years, we’ve strived to make our city more bicycle friendly.
Part of that strategy has included discussions of building a downtown transit center that could bring together, all under one roof, major bus lines, a cab stand and car rentals. It could also serve as a cycling center for commuters, casual riders and tourists who want to explore downtown, bike the Louisville Loop to Southwest Louisville or cycle into neighborhoods like Old Louisville to view the spectacular Victorian architecture. The center could also include space for a coffee shop, a restaurant and small retail stores.
This truly would be a transit center, not just a bike station. And it would continue our effort to make our city “go green” and encourage alternative transportation.
The Louisville bike station is on hold while a feasibility study is going on and the city plans on conducting a public opinion survey on the transit center soon.
The Ice House Lofts on Main street between Floyd and Brook Streets officially started construction this week. More accurately, they are first undergoing interior demolition to get the building ready for construction, but it’s still activity. We had a chance to tour the former Arctic Building last November and learn about developer David Barhorst’s plans. In the end, 52 apartments will fill the seven-story, 62,000 square foot building. Read all about the project here.
Barhorst said today the demolition work will last for about four months while the final details of a construction loan are being worked out. He doesn’t expect any problems finalizing the loan. Crews were spotted yesterday in the old ice manufacturing plant off Washington Street removing debris. The building must also undergo asbestos abatement. Expect to see real construction activity including cutting windows into the solid brick facade starting sometime this fall.
The JB Swift plant between Story & Mellwood Avenues in Butchertown had begun a construction project earlier this year illegally without a permit. The construction site was shut down after the city took notice, and a hearing was eventually set after much wrangling for last night.
We couldn’t make it to the meeting but the Butchertown Blog has a good wrap-up of the events:
At tonight’s JBS Swift’s neighborhood meeting at Hall Cafeteria, both the plant engineer and general managers admitted that “mistakes were made” in the way they went about expanding their facility. They also acknowledged that the structure they are using to unload the live pigs has not been inspected by city officials, which poses potential hazards for their workers who unload between 15,000 to 16,500 pigs per day. Those numbers seemed to exceed the maximum production rate they are allowed at 10,000 per day, but further investigation is required to determine that.
The meeting took place across the street from the Swift plant and reportedly around 50 people showed up. It was arranged as part of a requirement to get Swift’s conditional use permit changed to allow the expansion. According to the C-J, Swift claims this is all a misunderstanding:
Swift plant engineer Keith Strunk and general manager John Cliff said the company mistakenly started work last fall on the animal chute without approval for the modified conditional use permit, thinking the contractor for the work had obtained the necessary approval.
The reaction from the neighborhood was apparently one of skepticism about the company’s interests. According to Fox 41:
Their billboard on Mellwood Avenue says, “Swift, a company with a fresh approach”, but their approach was less than acceptable Tuesday night.
After their meeting with concerned neighbors on Story Avenue, John Cliff, the general manager, Keith Strunk the plant engineer, and Swift attorneys refused comment to about the neighbors concerns.
“They did admit to having made a mistake, but seem to think like everything else, there should be no consequences to those mistakes. What consequences do you think there should be for not going through the permit procedure? The land development code sets forth those consequences and they include revocation of the company’s existing conditional use permit,” said Jonathan Salomon, who is representing neighbors.
The neighborhood questioned whether any sort of aesthetic shielding had been considered to allow the plant to better fit into the neighborhood and Swift said it in fact had not. In the end, though, a decorative facade on the Swift plant would be like putting lipstick on a pig.
The Congress for the New Urbanism recently announced the winner of its CNU 17 video contest. We posted a link in the roundup a little while ago, but this thing has gone viral over the past week, and a tipster suggested we share the video anew. Built To Last suggests that beyond overpopulation, pestilence, and aliens, the greatest threat to our planet is the unassuming cul-de-sac. It’s a great watch and pretty entertaining.
The long awaited Chop Shop Salads on Market Street between Fourth & Fifth Streets opened its doors Monday and has seen crowds lining up out onto the sidewalk every day so far. We stopped by at closing time today to avoid the rush and had a chance to talk with owner Brad Vetter about the establishment. He said business has been extraordinary so far, and he’s seeing a substantial repeat clientele.
This January, a stop work order halted the project marking the beginning of a tenuous relationship between the new restaurant and the city. It seems the city wouldn’t give them any breaks. A new facade garnered the stop work sign as it wasn’t approved. The city claimed the old facade, once home to a shoe repair store, was an art-deco landmark that had been destroyed. In fact, the old facade had no historic or aesthetic merits and even covered up the 19th century building’s original cast-iron columns. While the new facade is no feat of architecture, it shouldn’t have been drawn out into a historic preservation battle. In the end, a compromise was reached to put stickers on the front glass, but it set the project back two weeks.
The city then had a problem with the sign hanging over the sidewalk. They claimed that because a new insert with the Chop Shop logo was put in the old sign, it had to abide by new zoning regulations. The restaurant won on this one citing a rule that says existing signs are exempt. Later, though, restrooms would again cause more downtime. After the city had approved plans for the project with one bathroom and construction proceeded, the city forced Chop Shop to demo the new bathroom and install two. This time it set the schedule back a month, no way to foster innovative concepts being brought Downtown locally.
The new lunch spot is finally open, though, and it packs a big-city vibe. The interior is small and features a few modern tables for two, but the strength is in its salad variety (see a menu after the click). We won’t go into a food review here, there’s sure to be plenty in the upcoming weeks, but the custom salad bar looked sleek and efficient. Clad with glass tiles in various hues of green, the options seem endless.
Chop Shop Salads adds a unique new option to the Downtown lunch scene and will be a great place for Downtown workers to grab lunch and spend an hour in any of the parks and plazas that surround the restaurant. Thanks to a couple of Broken Sidewalk tipsters who pointed us to the grand opening.
The Louisville Eccentric Observer has a great piece today on urban infill projects that are rapidly changing the face of Louisville. These small-scale projects such as Shine Properties’ Limerick rehab project featured in the article have carried on despite the economic downturn that has grounded most major projects.
Here’s a sample from the article:
Before Shine acquired it last year, this property at 1100 S. Seventh Street was a veritable shithole. Extensive water damage had virtually destroyed the building’s interior walls and, subsequently, its foundation, most of which had to be replaced. Mounds of baking-related junk and other kipple were left to rot indefinitely inside. If there were any diamonds to be found in this rough, it would certainly take keener eyes than most.
This probably has something to do with Limerick’s curious geography; located just south of Broadway, nestled between the western tip of Old Louisville and that great psycho-economic barrier known as Roy Wilkins Boulevard, it exists beyond the city’s traditional zones of major capital investment. Originally named after the Irish immigrants who built the nabe’s characteristic handsome brick walk-ups, it is—like many of Louisville’s centrally located environs—currently home to folks who are poorer, less educated and blacker than most Louisvillians-at-large. It also boasts a plethora of old, cheap buildings, most of which can be had for under $150,000. Despite this seemingly low overhead, from a cynical dollars-and-cents perspective there’s little to infer as to why Gilles & Co. would even pick a building like this, in a neighborhood like Limerick, amid an economic crisis such as ours, for what is undoubtedly a labor of love. After all, this isn’t Fourth Street, and Shine Properties, is a far cry from the Cordish Cos.
The term for this is infill, the use of vacant land and/or property within a built-up area for further construction or development, especially as part of a neighborhood preservation or limited growth program. Infill is integral to stitching blighted communities back to more prosperous ones.
The article is quite in depth covering what makes these developers tick, why infill is so important, and a few observations from yours truly. Check out the entire article here, it’s well worth a read, especially if you care about neighborhood rehab. While the eye-catching mega-projects are attempting to transform downtown, these smaller infill and rehab projects are improving our urban neighborhoods.
