Share The Road. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
The roads in Louisville may not be the most friendly for bicyclists today. It’s easy to see the struggles that bikes face daily, even when bike lanes have been provided on streets; but frustrations over auto-culture shouldn’t escalate into a pedal-powered version of road rage. A tipster points out that at a recent Critical Mass bike ride in Louisville, cyclists stepped over the bounds of promoting bike awareness and took vigilante justice into hand, vandalizing an SUV encountered along the road.
The old Louisville Chemical Building on the corner of Jefferson Street and Hancock Street hasn’t worked up any chemistry with developers since it went on the market some time ago. The property is listed at $950,000 and includes land adjacent to the three-story structure. The building is apparently in great condition and despite its foray with the Louisville Chemical Company—makers of janitorial supplies now located in an Rubbertown industrial complex—the site is not environmentally contaminated.
Louisville Chemical Building. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
The brick structure dates to the 1890s and covers just under 16,000 square feet. The three-story portion of the building is L-shaped and the back portion of the first floor features large skylights. Upon entering the market, the property generated a flurry of interest but not enough to produce a sale, leaving a group of investors who own the building wondering if they should renovate the property themselves.
If the building does not sell, tentative plans for the property include upper floor office suites with ground floor retail. Considering the residential growth in the surrounding neighborhood, especially Liberty Green, the proposal sounds like a good one. The adjacent grassy lot would likely be converted to parking under this scenario. We feel the renovation of this property would add another strongly anchored corner in the East Village neighborhood and should work well with the mixed-use nature of the area.
Louisville Chemical Building. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
The University of Louisville is in the process of adding 1,500 new beds to its student housing offering, and it’s enticing private developers to build them. After Governor Fletcher vetoed funding for renovating older dorms several years ago, a stream of private development proposals came streaming in to the university. These dorms aren’t on campus (some are actually pretty far away) and won’t be run by U of L, but are still considered “university-affiliated residences.” One of the larger student-communities under construction now is named “The Province” located on 43 acres off of Shipp Avenue just west of the Belknap Campus on ground previously occupied by American Standard.
The Province Site. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
The project will offer 522 one- to four-bedroom apartments, a clubhouse, swimming pool, volleyball court, and sundeck. The project is being developed by the Edwards Companies of Columbus, Ohio and is set to be finished with its first phase in the Fall of 2009.
Demolition of small buildings on the site, including one building with quasi-art-deco features, is complete and site utilities and roads are finished. The apartment units should begin rising soon. The transformation of this abandoned industrial site into a dense neighborhood should help to transform the area around Shipp Avenue and Seventh Street, now a slightly run-down commercial strip with boarded up historic structures and adult businesses. Hopefully a real “University City” will emerge out of this expanded housing.
The design of the complex is pretty suburban in style and is a gated community. This is understandable as the neighborhood has been known for safety issues, but these large-scale developments should try to change that for the better instead of running and hiding behind a fence. A vast expanse of surface parking is also part of this project with a projected one parking spot to one bed ratio. While the parking will be distributed throughout the site, that’s a lot of parking that will ultimately diminish the urban nature of the development. Urban density will ultimately transform the area better than suburban apartment complexes.
The Province is also proving groundbreaking for its marketing tactics. For example, its web site (not fully launched, yet) is setting new standards for residential projects in Louisville. It takes an out-of-towner to realize that sex sells, a concept that’s been well over-used in larger markets like New York. The development is also playing up its luxury side to appeal to students, showing the strength of these privately held projects: competition will ideally drive the quality and amenities higher. University housing acts as a kind of monopoly, but when opened up, can potentially bring a better result.
Overall, we’re glad to see these units being built and hope to see a fully realized community growing in the next ten or so years that might see the development of more urban properties with mixed-uses that will draw a more diverse constituency than just college students. Â A well rounded community with neighborhood essentials like laundromats, groceries, restaurants, and bars makes the college experience living near campus far richer.
Blind Spot Art Car. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
We’re starting up a new regular feature to profile those quirky cars that are popping up more and more around Louisville. This week, we spotted this car in front of the 21c Museum Hotel. This is an actual art car titled “Blind Spot” and sponsored by the International Contemporary Art Foundation, a branch of the 21c organization.
Big Four Bridge Proposal (Rendering by Studio Arne Quinze)
Today at the IdeaFestival, Studio Arne Quinze revealed its proposal for transforming the Big Four Bridge into a dynamic art installation weaving itself through the bridge’s iron trusses between 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.
Arne Quinze Speaks at IdeaFestival. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
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 would 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 spiraling ramp is being built to connect the bridge to ground level in the park. A smaller ramp is being built in Jeffersonville. 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.
Big Four Bridge Proposal. (Studio Arne Quinze)
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 historical events important to the city’s growth. Earlier this month, De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop revealed its Happy Birthday Pavilion that could one day 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; a proposal for the Galactic Transporter for the Beijing Olympics; and a proposed Rebirth Pavillion for the Champs Elysees in Paris.
The long-awaited announcement of the redevelopment project planned for the corner of Second Street and Main Street is finally here, and Broken Sidewalk has the scoop. City Properties Group will begin construction this Spring on the development being called “Whiskey Row” occupying the Bearno’s Building and the Burwinkle-Hendershot Building next door.
Whiskey Row Lofts development on West Main Street. (Courtesy City Properties Group)
The development is located literally next door to the new arena and on the same block as the ever-in-limbo Iron Quarter proposal. The new O’Shea’s development also sits next door to the project. Whiskey Row will offer 23 rental apartments going for around $600 to $1400 per month based on size, four penthouse condos, and office space. Retail and entertainment venues are planned along both Main Street and Washington Street to create a vibrant 24-hour mixed-use neighborhood.
The project is expected to cost $18 million and will occupy 100,000 square feet. Completion is expected in the Summer of 2010, well before the opening of the arena. Whiskey Row is officially being developed by Bill Weyland of City Properties Group and property owners Valle and Stephen Jones. Plans call for incorporating many of the buildings’ unique original features including hardwood floors and large windows offering views of downtown, the arena, and the Ohio River.
“We are excited to [be] part of the rebirth of this block,” Valle Jones said in a statement. “Our vision has always been an historic renovation that would create a pedestrian friendly, mixed-use environment with river views in the heart of downtown.”
Both buildings making up Whiskey Row date to around 1875 and once housed bourbon for fine Louisville distilleries and the headquarters of the L&N Railroad. The western-most building was designed by Henry Whitestone and sits on the original site of the Galt House. The eastern building was designed by John Andrewartha, the architect of Louisville’s City Hall. The building was home to such distilleries as Bonnie Bros., Old Times Distillery, and Glenmore Distillery.
First Street mystery rehab. (Branden Klayko / Broken Sidewalk)
We’ve been wondering what the deal is concerning a three-story brick building sort-of under renovation on First Street between Main Street and Market Street. The project is being designed by Joseph & Joseph architects, but little else is known about this mystery property. According to plans filed with the city, the 8,100 square foot structure is slated for 5 apartments and 2,500 square feet of retail space, which would fit in really well with the area. Nothing much has been happening on site, though.
