Tunnels might be the most intriguing type of infrastructure out there. Urban explorers crave them, they’re hidden and shrouded in mystery, and we all have a bit of curiosity about how they’re built and work, whether that tunnel is for transportation, a sewer, or finding clean water.
Which is why the above video and the photos below are so captivating. While the video up top was filmed in July 2015, it’s new to us, and it might be new to you as well. Or else it’s worth another watch.
Scope of the entire East End Crossing project. (Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
The 1,700-foot-long tunnel is Kentucky’s second longest, behind the mile-long Cumberland Gap Tunnel. Louisville’s tunnel burrows under a historic property on its way to the East End Bridge.
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(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
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(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
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(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
For a more updated view of what the tunnel looks like, flip through the photos above, arranged in order of construction sequence. The series brings us to December 2015. As you can see, following blasting, raw limestone walls are exposed in the tunnel. Eventually, a waterproofing membrane was installed, followed by extensive rebar work, and finally the concrete outer layer. The last image in the gallery is a rendering of the final tunnel.
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(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
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(Courtesy Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing)
While we’re at it, take a look at the tunnel entrance, what engineers are calling the portal, which is over 60 feet below grade.
For more information on construction of the tunnels, check out the video below, which uses the above photos but explains a bit more detail.
Call it a win for the Smoketown neighborhood. Mayor Greg Fischer and Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) Executive Director Tony Parrott have confirmed that the sewer agency will push to redesign the embattled Logan Street CSO Basin as an at-grade facility topped with a community-serving park.
Fischer and Parrott met with leaders from the neighborhood including the Smoketown Neighborhood Association and Reverend Bruce Williams of Bates Memorial Baptist Church ahead of a community meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
“We’ve been looking hard over the past several days to find an option to build at grade,” Parrott said in a conference call Tuesday. MSD has been working with its engineers to determine if such a change of plans is feasible, and Parrott said it appears that now is the perfect time to move in a different direction, despite construction commencing a year ago. “We’re in the preliminary phases of planning the solution and negotiating with our contractor,” he said.
The basin site. (Courtesy Google)
“We’re at a perfect spot in construction in terms of achieving the objectives we want to achieve with regard to the size of the tank,” Parrot said. MSD is under a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to get Louisville’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) problem under control to stop polluting Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River with wastewater.
“If there’s going to be a change, the sooner we make that the less costly it’s going to be,” Mayor Fischer added.
While no cost figures on the change are yet available, Parrott is working on recommendations for an at-grade tank to present at an MSD board meeting on Monday. The board will have the final say on whether the changes move ahead.
Parrott said he needs the board’s authority to negotiate a change order with the contractor, since the bid was issued in 2014.
“This was a 2009 decision” to build the CSO basin, Fischer said of the project. “Smoketown was a different place than it is today… There’s been a lot of change in the neighborhood. When you visit the site and you look around, it makes you think there’s options to go with other than what the original plan was.”
The CSO basin is being built to store excess waste and rainwater from Louisville combined sewer system during storm events until it can be handled by MSD’s treatment plants. The 17-million-gallon tank was originally budgeted at $45 million. Smoketown’s basin was the only one of a dozen in the city not to be designed as an at-grade facility.
Even with an at grade facility, Parrott said an above-grade Control Building housing pumps and generators—about the size of a two-car garage—will be necessary on the site, and he hopes to work with the neighborhood to get input on how that structure might look.
The new park on top of the Logan Street CSO Basin would be designed with community input, and Parrott described its scale as “enormous,” which corresponds with the scale of the overall project. “We’re going to be working with the neighborhood to get feedback,” he said. “We want them to decide what they want in terms of the amenity itself.”
The agency had previously brought in Louisville architecture firm De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop to lead meetings on redesigning the facade of the above-ground basin, and Parrott said the firm may stay on to work on the redesigned project. “I think we will take a lot of what they have brought to the table and let the neighborhood help us decide,” Parrott said. “They are a great architecture firm and we’d like to continue working with them.”
MSD had received a letter from the Smoketown neighborhood threatening litigation if major changes to the basin project were not made. Those issues have been covered on Broken Sidewalk here and here. Last week, 100 people walked out of a meeting with MSD in protest over the redesign of the above-grade facility.
Fischer praised the Smoketown neighborhood for standing up and voicing their concerns about the CSO basin.
[Top image by De Leon & Primmer from an earlier community design workshop. It does not depict an at-grade facility, but does show green space.]
In one recent mid summer, the weeds growing through the cracks of of former Kaelin’s Restaurant patio at Newburg Road and Speed Avenue were as tall as a person walking through the Deer Park neighborhood. But it appears that those weeds will be a thing of the past now that a new owner has purchased the structure that reportedly gave rise to the cheeseburger.
In an exclusive in Business First last week, Marty Finley reported that the structure at 1801 Newburg Road sold to Louisville-based development firm Flynn Group for $675,000.
The Kaelin’s site in red showing the larger neighborhood context. (Courtesy Google)
The previous owner was Madison, Ind.-based River Valley Financial Bank, now part of German American Bancorp. The property previously failed to sell at auction and was then placed back on the market, listed by Reed Weinberg of PRG Commercial Property Advisors.
From the portfolio listed on Flynn Group’s website, it appears that the Kaelin’s project is a bit of a departure from the company’s standard development. Most of Flynn’s completed projects include suburban patio homes and large-scale logistics warehouses and the infrastructure projects that support them.
(Courtesy Google)
Still, Finley reported that developers plan a complete overhaul of the structure, which housed Carl and Margaret Kaelin’s original restaurant from 1934 until 2004, and the same restaurant under new ownership until 2009, when it became Mulligan’s Pub. And it’s welcome news to see a developer take interest in preserving a bit of what makes Louisville weird.
The old neon Kaelin’s sign would be restored. (Diane Deaton-Street)
According to Finley, Flynn Group president Jesse Flynn is particularly interested in restoring the old neon Kaelin’s sign, which will help keep the continuity of use at the site intact.
But this place is most famous for cheeseburgers. “In 1934 Carl Kaelin threw caution to the wind—along with a piece of American cheese on a hamburger patty—in his new restaurant,” Southern Living magazine wrote in 2005. “A culinary delight was born, and Kaelin’s still claims to be the birthplace of the cheeseburger.”
Flynn told Finley that he’s familiar with Kaelin’s from his days as a Bellarmine student, but he declined to say what the structure’s future use might entail. First, he’s focusing on fixing up the 8,500-square-foot building, including new plumbing, electrical upgrades, and a new roof. Flynn told Finley that the rehab work should be complete within the next 60 days.
The Kaelin’s site including an adjacent house. (Courtesy Google)
An adjacent 1,000-square-foot, two-story home was included in the sale, and according to a later report by Insider Louisville’s Caitlin Bowling, Flynn plans to rent apartments there to Bellarmine students.
Let’s hope that the rehab work extends to the sidewalk along Newburg Road, or rather the lack of a sidewalk along Newburg Road. There’s plenty of space to add one in, even if it only solves the sidewalk problem for about a hundred feet—most of the east side of Newburg Road is missing sidewalks here.
Those hungry Bellarmine students are so close, yet the site still largely requires a car despite being in a relatively compact neighborhood.
If you walk along West Main Street, you might not have ever noticed a humble concrete block warehouse set way back off the street behind a chain-link and barbed-wire fence. Located between 16th and 17th streets, the space was used for little more than storage. But in just a couple weeks, it will be hard not to see how that warehouse is making an impact in tearing down the Ninth Street Divide.
“I moved back from Chicago to Louisville, and I realized how segregated our city still it,” Kara Nichols told Broken Sidewalk. “It was hard for me to be in that environment. It just felt so uncomfortable to me.”
Nichols is transforming the structure at 1619 West Main Street into a hybrid gallery and social activism space called 1619 Flux: Art + Activism, and a grand opening is scheduled for April 15, where an expected 500–800 people will fill the gallery and its front courtyard.
The grand opening takes place on April 15 from 6:00–10:00p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and Nichols said she hopes to see people from all walks of life. Food from multiple vendors will be available.
Among the events, a exhibit of work by renowned glass artist Stephen Rolfe Powell will be displayed alongside artists whose work has never been in a gallery. A six-person “integrated jazz band” will be on hand and Theater502 will also give a performance.
The warehouse space is set far off Main Street, but a new design helps it engage with the street. (Courtesy Google)
After attending a meeting looking for ways to bridge the Ninth Street Divide, Nichols wanted to create a long-term space for discussion around the issue beyond just a single event. “I was trying to find sustainable ways people could integrate and come together in the city,” she said.
“It’s not just a gallery,” Nichols said. “We see it as a space for social activism.” She said events could range from curated shows to spoken-word poetry to a variety of events in the courtyard and other non-traditional art. “I don’t want it to get pigeon-holed as an art gallery, because we’re not just an art gallery,” she added. “There’s a very strong activism piece to it.”
Nichols sees the space as pairing people together from different backgrounds—socio-economic, racial, or geographic. She often takes walks around the Russell neighborhood, talking with people along the way about art and activism. First and foremost, she said 1619 Flux will take a neighborhood-centric approach. “We’re trying to make it primarily for the people in the neighborhood, and see what the neighborhood needs,” she said.
Construction on 1619 Flux. (Courtesy WorK Architecture + Design)
Nichols is working with artistic director Jesse Levesque on the project. Levesque is producing the very first BKind Festival, celebrating Louisville’s status as a compassionate city. Taking place in April, the festival will feature events at Waterfront Park, the Muhammad Ali Center, and 1619 Flux, among others.
As part of the BKind Festival, Nichols said a light display by artists Tiffany Carbonneau and Susanna Crum will be projected against a wall in 1619 Flux’s courtyard.
Nichols has already made a number of connections in the community, including hosting events at nearby Joe’s Palm Room, a nightclub dating to the ’50s at 18th and Jefferson, and Sweet Peaches restaurant at 18th and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. She is also working with Lance Newman, aka MrSpreadLove, who performs spoken work poetry. Newman also works with Roots & Wings through the nonprofit IDEAS.
The 1619 Flux space sits next to a historic fire station on Main Street, seen here before renovations. (Courtesy Google)
Nichols said another partnership with the Fund for the Arts and the city’s Commission on Public Art will help mentor and fund public art just for West Louisville. Each year, a different artist will be selected and his or her piece funded and displayed.
“Everybody is focused on Portland, so I was very adamant on focusing on another part of West Louisville, like Russell,” Nichols said. After looking around for a suitable space, she eventually landed at 1619 West Main—the border between Portland and Russell—will help from Gant Hill & Associates. The property was previously owned by Bryan Holden, a metalwork sculptor who maintains a live-work studio space next door in a historic fire station.
“It’s on the border of Russell and Portland, so I think that’s a good place to start,” she said.
The warehouse before renovation. (Courtesy Google)
To launch her idea, Nichols worked with Mitchell Kersting of Portland-based WorK Architecture + Design on the renovation. Marian Group handled construction.
“We had this gigantic warehouse that was pretty bland architecturally,” Kersting said of the steel and concrete block structure. “It was just being used for storage.” Because of its utilitarian past life, new electrical, HVAC, and plumbing systems had to be added.
The warehouse space was kept open and flexible, Kersting said, with offices, conference rooms, and a kitchen around the perimeter, and a stage for performances. “We let the building do what it needed to do,” Kersting said. New openings were cut into the concrete block facade to allow more natural light into the space and the front facade has been painted black, giving it a clean appearance. Concrete floors have also been polished.
Construction on 1619 Flux. (Courtesy WorK Architecture + Design)
On the inside, Kersting offset new walls at a slight angle to contrast with the rigid structural grid of columns. That diagonal theme is carried out into the courtyard, blending interior and exterior.
“We turned what was an unnoticeable storage building set off the street into something that engages with the community,” Kersting added. He said the most noticeable change will be the removal of the chain link and barbed wire. “Psychologically, it was telling the community to stay out,” he said. New custom planters fabricated by Jeremy Semones of Core Design will line the sidewalk, demarking the property line.
The 1619 Flux space marked in red showing the larger context with Portland to the north and Russell to the south. (Courtesy Google)
The front gravel courtyard is large enough to handle all the site’s parking needs while also leaving room for event space and a large fire pit, also designed by Core Design. Grass will be added in certain areas and the space will take on a sort of patio feel. “It’s an opportunity for the community to gather,” Kersting said. “The courtyard will be the hearth of the building.”
Where do you work in Louisville? While it’s common to think the vast majority of folks work in Downtown, there are employment hubs located all around our city. Downtown is certainly the densest concentration of jobs, but as sprawl continues its march across the city’s once rural landscape, many are commuting suburb to suburb—or even reverse commuting from a home in the city to a job on the outskirts.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
A mapping tool created by Harvard PhD sociology student and mapmaker, Robert Manduca, called “Where Are The Jobs?” uses 2010 LEHD Census data to reveal the spread of jobs across the entire country. So we decided to zoom in on Louisville to see what we could learn.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
For reference, red dots indicate manufacturing and logistics jobs, blue are professional services, green show healthcare, education, and government, while yellow denote retail, hospitality, and other services. Each dot represents a single job, so, as you can imagine, there are a lot of places that begin to take on a solid color where major employment hubs are located.
What’s immediately noticeable in Louisville is that there are jobs everywhere. But a few key observations come to mind from this map. First, look at the concentrated green splotches on the map up above. Those healthcare hotspots correspond with where the city’s major hospitals are located. You can see many health workers Downtown—and even more just east of Downtown in the Medical District. But off to the northeast, another patch denotes the VA hospital at Zorn Avenue.
While these maps use 2010 data, were they to be updated with today’s data, you would see another major green area in the far eastern suburbs where a number of hospitals have been built not far from Norton Commons.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
Another fascinating observation are the trails of yellow—service and retail jobs—that tend to follow arterial streets in the city. In these maps, the darkest yellow is clearly the confluence of Interstate 64 and Shelbyville Road where Mall St. Matthews and Oxmoor Center are a retailing mecca.
Elsewhere in the city, you can see Dixie Highway is almost entirely a yellow line, as is much of Bardstown Road. In the far eastern suburbs (below), that linear pattern of retail breaks down into larger dots marking major strip malls here and there along the side of the road.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
While we’re out in the east end, take a look at the concentrated patches of blue, or professional jobs. These mark the city’s major office parks—the signature placeless mono-use culture of suburbia. You can see that the blue is dense, but not solid like it is in Downtown, noting the vast amounts of wasted land and parking lots between office buildings.
On the lower end of the above map is a hodge podge of colors, indicating a real mix of job types. That’s the Bluegrass Industrial Park out near Jeffersontown. It’s dot concentration also gives away its low density pattern, but the its sheer size shows that it is larger in land area than Downtown and some of its surrounding neighborhoods combined.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
The red sections on the maps indicate logistics jobs, and it’s easy to see that solid red patch at the airport is the hub of Louisville’s logistics sector—the UPS WorldPort. Other logistics hotspots can be seen surrounding the airport and along the Ohio River in southwest Louisville where the city’s RiverPort is located.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
Finally, up in Southern Indiana, you can see similar trends at play. Downtown New Albany and Jeffersonville show dense concentrations of mixed-use activity while farther out, the dots disperse and concentrate in a less organized pattern. Retail is clearly centered around Clarksville sprawl.
Another emerging trend is the sprawling patch of dots in eastern Southern Indiana at River Ridge Commercial Center. In 2010, that area was just getting started, but since then, it’s grown significantly. And it will only grow more with the opening of the East End Bridge. It’s Southern Indiana’s answer to the Bluegrass Industrial Park.
(Courtesy Robert Manduca / Where Are The Jobs?)
One intriguing takeaway from these maps is a notion of where we might focus our residential building. Can we make the jobs hot spots in the suburbs into more walkable suburban town centers by infilling and making a sort of village feel? If Louisville ever decides to pursue a cluster of mini-downtowns surrounding the city core, this map is a clear guide on where to begin.
What observations do you see in these maps? Were you surprised by the geographic distribution of jobs in Louisville? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
“This visualization plots one dot for every job in the United States, according to the Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data,” Manduca wrote about his map. “The LEHD data is based on state unemployment insurance records, and tabulates the count of jobs by census block. Here, jobs are colored by type, allowing us to see how different industries and sectors exhibit different spatial patterns—some clustering in downtowns, others spreading across city and suburbs alike.”
Landscape architecture is such a profoundly interesting field (no pun intended) because one project never does just one thing. Landscapes are the original multi-taskers. A single project might create a beautiful park, but behind the scenes, it’s also helping to store and manage rainwater runoff, helping to clean polluted water from our roadways, providing important social spaces within cities, and creating a healthier urban habitat for humans and wildlife alike.
That’s why we’re so excited to see the best examples of landscape architecture honored each year by the Kentucky chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (KYASLA)—we can all learn from these amazing projects. And the KYASLA got down to the business of award-giving earlier this month at its Annual Meeting, Expo, & Awards Ceremony, which took place this year on March 4–5 at Lexington’s Grand Reserve.
(Courtesy KYASLA)
Seven awards were issued for professional landscape architects, student work, and distinguished individuals. Louisville picked up two awards for projects by Gresham, Smith & Partners and MKSK. LaGrange and Lexington each had one winner.
View all the winners below.
Honor Award Built Work
Cascading fountain and native plantings inspired by local landscape. (Courtesy GS&P)
Cityplace (also pictured at top)
Gresham, Smith & Partners LaGrange, KY
According to KYASLA:
An integral component of the overall site design is the movement of water. The concept is an interpretation of the natural hydrological cycle by creating moments and movements of water from collection, to distribution, and finally transpiration. The site diagram on the left represents the general components of this landscape system. Water collection and distribution is represented in blue and shows the path of water as it feeds landscape material. All overflow water will make its way to the bioswales, which are indicated in orange, where the remaining stormwater will be filtered. Areas in green represent infiltration opportunities, which will infiltrate surface runoff. The final component is the increase in canopy coverage, shown with green circles, which will return water into the atmosphere, and completing the hydrologic cycle.
At the request of the client, the site design leans favorably towards creating a verdant park like plaza as an oasis from the nearby downtown. The plant material selection reinforces this premise by using plants that engage the senses and guides visitors through the site. Spatial considerations were made to both reinforce the architecture and, at times, to selectively contrast it to call attention to design features such as the broad sweeps of the bioswale area.
(Courtesy MKSK)
Southwest Regional Library
MKSK Louisville, KY
According to KYASLA:
The Louisville Southwest Regional Library is the first of three new regional libraries strategically positioned to serve the suburban regions of Metro Louisville. The project was a true design collaboration between the Louisville Free Public Library and the design team. Over 120,000 books and media offerings are available in a building that aspires to be a vessel for daylight. The exterior was inspired by the act of discovery, with symbolic metal curtains that are peeled away to reveal greater knowledge within. A variety of earth tone materials were selected for their durability, texture, and depth, allowing daylight and shadow to animate the facade throughout the day. The surrounding site re-imagines the suburban parking lot as a vessel for rainwater, allowing the property to collect and infiltrate all of the water from several surrounding properties to relieve the burden on the municipal system.
The project is a model of sustainability for Louisville, having received LEED Gold certification. More importantly, the new Southwest Regional Library aspires to be a landmark in the community for generations to come, offering lifelong learning to its users, and acting as a catalyst for future neighborhood development.
Honor Award Planning & Analysis
RSquared
Gresham, Smith & Partners Louisville, KY
Map displaying vacant properties (red) located in study area. (Courtesy GS&P)
According to KYASLA:
Rsquared, (Reuse & Revitalize) is a new program being developed by the Vacant and Public Property Administration (VPPA) in Louisville, KY., to combat issues of vacancy and abandonment. This program is a comprehensive umbrella initiative which focuses on sustainable methods to reduce blight and vacancy among Louisville neighborhoods.
The project goals of Rsquared are summarized as: educating the public and city on current conditions related to vacancy and abandonment within the given study area; development and implementation of a multifaceted public engagement process; reduction of vacant property through identifying of and empowering partner organization(s) and; helping them wotk through a design process and working towards implementation.
In the summer of 2015 VPPA and other Metro Louisville staff engaged Gresham, Smith and Partners and their team of landscape architects and urban designers, to produce the program’s first edition of RSquared— Rsquared 40212. This initial effort developed an integrated community input process based on research and analysis that allowed citizens to express their vision for vacant lot reuse strategies by utilizing the following four key stages of the planning process: Education, Engagement, Empowerment, and Implementation.
Merit Award Planning & Analysis
(Courtesy MKSK)
Euclid Avenue & South Limestone Street
MKSK Lexington, KY
According to KYASLA:
The South Limestone Street and Euclid Avenue/Avenue of Champions corridors provide critical links between the University of Kentucky, Downtown Lexington, the Chevy Chase shopping district, and surrounding urban neighborhoods. Across the country, universities and cities have reinvested in the areas adjacent to college campuses to better integrate
them with the surrounding urban fabric, improve the university experience, revitalize neighborhoods and attract reinvestment. This is already underway in Lexington, with the City’s investment in the South Limestone streetscape, UK’s investment in new student housing and student center that will engage the Limestone and Euclid corridors, and the private market investment in a new Kroger grocery on Euclid. This study builds on this momentum by identifying market opportunities, strategies and critical next steps that need to be taken in order to continue the successful transformation of these two corridors and the neighborhoods and university uses that surround them.
Despite being a “commercial” corridor study, this analysis takes a comprehensive approach, paying equal attention to the residential market, as the success of commercial areas is tied closely to the depth and quality of nearby housing and consumer markets. The report assesses current conditions in the study area, including a detailed analysis of residential and retail markets, and identifies opportunities for further investment that will continue to advance the upward trajectory of the two corridors and surrounding neighborhoods. This study considers site context, marketability opportunities and constraints, socioeconomic trends and characteristics, competitive supply, demand and market segmentation. These analyses result in conclusions about potential future resident characteristics, the housing and retail products they will demand, and the likely market performance of those development products.
Honor Award Student Work
(Courtesy UKLA)
inMotion
Jeffrey Embree, Wesley Griffith, Hannah McClure, Jonathan Wehmer
According to KYASLA:
While the state of Kentucky as a whole ranks low on mobility in regards to biking and walking compared to other states, the city of Lexington offers residents some neighborhoods with more amenities that actually promote and encourage walking and biking. These areas have been slowly growing as bike and shared use roadway infrastructure expand. However, Lexington is still a car dependent city. Walking and biking is more economic and provides a faster and more efficient mode of transportation for short trips to access goods, foods, and activities. The University of Kentucky’s campus proximity to Lexington downtown and the projected town branch commons redevelopment, could provide students with more opportunities for running daily errands by foot or bike. The project “in Motion” was developed to tackle walking and biking mobility and connectivity issues that resulted from a rapid changing on and around campus and to find solutions that promote walking and biking not only for students but also for residents of the downtown area by connecting the campus to the city through multiple urban streetscape designs. One of the main goals of ‘inMotion’ that set it apart from other projects was the collaboration of team members from different design disciplines. The participants had previously not worked together and were unfamiliar with the design process of the other. The project encouraged participants to take the lead and put to them the challenge of organizing teams with different design approaches to interact and collaborate with each other.
Although ‘inMotion’ models a streetscape project, it goes beyond the basic design to encompass other aspects of landscape architecture. Participants looked at multiple modes of transportation including transit, vehicular, biking, and walking in order to plan along transportation corridors and propose a smaller design that catered to a broader urban planning design. The site was specific as to the general northern end of the University of Kentucky, and then further specific to each group design. Designing each site included reclaiming unused or underutilized gathering and street spaces which were, in some cases, proposed to be repurposed as small parks or open public lands. With this work we are hoping to advocate on the importance of walking and biking as well as shed light on the multiple opportunities for creating street spaces that could bring students and downtown residents and visitors together.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Lyle Aten
Lyle Aten’s lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession of landscape architecture throughout his career have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of the public and the environment. Lyle Aten was born in Macomb, Illinois. Joining the Navy at age 17, he later attended Western Illinois College with the intention of becoming a coach. A college advisor, based on the results of an aptitude test, suggested that Lyle consider the study of Landscape Architecture as it matched his aptitude for graphics, music, art, and nature. Taking that advise, Lyle switched schools, using his G.I. Bill for tuition to attend the University of Illinois, where he was fortunate enough to study under then Professor Hideo Sasaki, and the rest is history.
Most of Lyle’s professional work, leadership and service has been in the area of Land Planning. He began work on a temporary basis in Peoria Illinois, working with Scruggs and Hammond. His work took him to Lexington, Kentucky where he ultimately relocated as one of the first landscape architects to practice in the state. The Lexington office of Scruggs and Hammond began modestly with a staff consisting of one person and his assistant but grew to become one of Kentucky’s premier design offices. Lyle eventually became President of Scruggs and Hammond where he officially retired about 1993. This formally ended his landscape architecture design career in 2000, following completion of the Lexington Legends baseball facility. Lyle continued to serve the Lexington community, serving as a member of the Lexington/Fayette County Planning Commission for eight years. Reflecting on his career, Lyle was quoted as saying, “I have been very lucky. I was just very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time”.
Grady Clay Community Vision Award
Lisa Adkins
President and CEO of Blue Grass Community Foundation
According to the KYASLA:
The Grady Clay Community Vision Award is named in honor of Grady Clay, Jr., the internationally acclaimed writer and urbanist. The award is an annual, statewide honor for those who are improving the quality of life for Kentuckians by offering design vision and creative solutions that sustain and strengthen Kentucky’s vibrant communities.
Lisa Adkins is President and CEO of Kentucky’s oldest community foundation, Blue Grass Community Foundation. An attorney, Lisa is a recognized leader in growing philanthropy and community engagement.
Since joining the Community Foundation in 2009, Lisa is leading the successful transformation of the Foundation’s approach to growing community giving and engagement. During her tenure the Foundation’s assets have increased 127%, gifts 494% and grants 537%. Additionally, the Foundation launched GoodGiving.net, the GoodGiving Challenge and charitable Giving Cards, strategies and services to make charitable giving simple, effective and accessible community-wide.
Under Lisa’s leadership, the Community Foundation is working to make Lexington an even greater city, with a focus on downtown and neighborhood revitalization, healthy food access and improvements to the built environment, including the Legacy Trail, the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden and Town Branch Commons.
This year’s jury was from the New York chapter of the ASLA and included Terri-Lee Burger, Partner, Abel Bainnson Butz; Simon David, BIG Architects; Leonard J. Hopper, Weintraub Diaz; Charles McKinney, NYC Parks; and William Vincent, Senior Associate, Sawyer|Berson.
According to a report by Business First‘s Marty Finley, the 6,500-square-foot property was purchased and renovated by Head First Media in 2013. Since then, over $100,000 has been invested in the church’s restoration, including new plumbing and electrical systems. The media production company, co-owned by Jeff Epperson and Jeffrey Hutchins, still keeps its headquarters in the structure.
Michaelis Events, owned by Denise Jerome, was brought on board to manage the property’s 2,500-square-foot events space located in the former sanctuary and gym.
(Courtesy Google)
“The St. Catherine is perfect for intimate gatherings such as Wedding Ceremonies, Wedding Receptions, Social Gatherings, Fundraisers/Galas, and Corporate Events,” the company’s website reads. “The intimate yet spacious 2,500 square foot sanctuary proudly displays the original art gallery quality, hand painted – stained, leaded glass windows that are as beautiful as they are vibrant… The sanctuary most comfortably seats 100 – 125 people, with additional seating in the “gym” for up to 180.”
(Courtesy Google)
Finley cited a press release stating the building began construction in 1876 and originally housed St. Stephens Church. A gymnasium was added in the early 20th century.
The church structure itself is a bit of a puzzle. The sanctuary does not extend fully to St. Catherine Street as one might expect of a historic church building. Instead, its main entrance faces Shelby and a more plain wall faces south.
It was common for churches in the 19th century to build the back portion of their facility first and then save up for a grand main facade. (As was the case at Concordia Lutheran and Calvary Episcopal, among others.) Could this have been the case with St. Stephens as well? If you know any of the church’s history, please share in the comments below.
In a later report by Insider Louisville, Caitlin Bowling added that Head First Media chose the church site for their new studios after Underhill Associates announced plans for the Germantown Mill Lofts along Goss Avenue, where they had previously been located for 16 years. The company paid $34,000 for the church property before renovations.
(Courtesy The St. Catherine)
The St. Catherine is now booking events and plans to host its first wedding on April 2.
Around the corner on Goss, the Germantown Mill Lofts are wrapping up with the completion of its restaurant, Finn’s Southern Kitchen, and a handful of other businesses are slated to open including a new gym and bar.
The restoration also shows the ripple effect that one development project can have on an area. With the conversion of the Germantown Mill Lofts, not only did we see that new project revive an underutilized building and spur growth in its immediate facility, other projects like this one spin off in the surrounding neighborhoods.
It sure looks like the architects behind Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center are pushing a very similar design for a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. But we’ll let you be the judge in our poll at the end of this article.
Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center. (Populous)
Sports architecture firm Populous designed Louisville’s arena with a nod toward the Falls of the Ohio and a signature curving facade facing the river. Now, in new renderings released last week by the same firm for Milwaukee, we’ve spotted another curvaceous facade, this time clad in some kind of wood.
Rendering of the Milwaukee Bucks stadium. (Populous)
Urban Milwaukee’s Jeramey Jannene posted the renderings Friday in an article suggesting ways to make the Buck’s arena more urban. And Louisville’s arena could have taken some of Jannene’s advice on creating an active streetscape.
“The new Bucks arena has almost no activation on three sides,” Jannene wrote. “If a great, urban neighborhood is expected to emerge around the new arena, let’s not build a black hole in the middle of it.”
Used tires are a huge environmental hazard, contributing to varied problems of fires, urban blight, and increased mosquito populations, among others. But the Commonwealth of Kentucky hopes you might have an idea for how to use shredded rubber from used tires in a landscaping or research project. And they’ve got some money to throw your way.
The Kentucky Energy & Environment Cabinet is now accepting proposals “that promote the use of recycled waste tires for landscaping,” and there some grant money involved to purchase crumb rubber mulch.
Grant money comes from the Waste Tire Trust Fund, an endowment implemented by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1998, which itself is funded by a fee on new tires sold. Applicants are required to match the grant funding with at least 25 percent of the total project cost.
Besides landscaping projects, the program will also consider research projects “for experimental practices or technologies that further the statutory purposes of the waste tire program—to protect human health, safety and the environment—or that will help develop a market for Kentucky waste tires,” according to a press release.
Applications and supporting documentation for the grant must be received by the Division of Waste Management’s central Frankfort office by March 28 by 4:30p.m. Applications can be emailed to Lisa Evans here or mailed to Lisa Evans, Division of Waste Management, 200 Fair Oaks Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601.
For more information, contact Lisa Evans at 502-564-6716 or via email or Eric Dennison of KIPDA’s Public Administration Division at 502-266-6084 or via email. Additional information can be found on the program’s website. on the program, click here.
