Interview: Rick Kueber on the Schnitzelburg Container Homes

Feb 25, 2016

Husband and wife team, Rick and Bella Portaro Kueber, are behind the proposal to build six shipping container apartments on the corner of Shelby Street and Ash Street. Plans for the so-called Schnitzelburg Container Homes were unveiled last month to much excitement.

Rick is the CEO of Sun Tan City and Bella is owner of social media and marketing company Bella Vita Media. While Rick has developed commercial properties in the past, the Container Homes are a first for the team—and for the city. And they hope to make a splash with a high quality product.

With an anticipated completion in October, the team hopes to partner with this year’s IdeaFestival to showcase the innovative design and give tours. The development concept is new to the city, and the Kuebers believe that being first to market with the idea is a real opportunity to push boundaries in Louisville.

Broken Sidewalk Editor Branden Klayko spoke with Rick Kueber about the project to learn more about the city’s newest housing type: the shipping container apartment.

The Container Bar in Austin, Texas. (Courtesy The Container Bar)

Broken Sidewalk: The idea of shipping container apartments is an intriguing idea. How did you come up with the concept?

Rick Kueber: My wife and I were in Austin, Texas, and we visited a concept called The Container Bar. That spurred a conversation locally with Gant Hill about containers and he had introduced me to Jeremy [Semones] at Core Design.

The conversation really spurred from there. They were really interested in doing this project and building some container homes. I told Gant that if we could find the right land I would be interested in doing it as well. And we went from there.

The project site plan on the corner of Shelby Street and Ash Street. (Courtesy Foxworth Architecture / Montage by Broken Sidewalk) — The project site plan on the corner of Shelby Street and Ash Street. (Foxworth Architecture / Montage by Broken Sidewalk)

How did you settle on the Schnitzelburg site?

We looked at a number of different options in different areas—Downtown and Clifton and this site in Schnitzelburg.

(Foxworth Architects) — (Foxworth Architecture)

The Germantown and Schnitzelburg area is pretty much the hottest real estate market in town. We’ve seen 50 to 100 percent gains in home values in that area in the last 24 months.

You’ve got the Germantown Mill Lofts right across the street which is prepared to open. I think that’s going to provide a lot of momentum on top of what’s already there. We’re talking hundreds of new occupants and residents on the streets on a nice day. It’s really going to change that area.

It’s a very livable area. You’ve got a lot of great bars and restaurants. You’ve got several grocery options relatively close. If you look at the proximity to both the University, Downtown, the Highlands, it’s a very convenient area to live in.

Rendering of the Schnitzelburg Container Apartments. (Foxworth Architects) — Rendering of the Schnitzelburg Container Apartments. (Foxworth Architecture)

Walk us through the development proposal. Where does the project stand? What needs to happen next?

We purchased three lots that are approximately 25 by 150 feet—these are shotgun home lots. I think they’re 0.7 acres; they’re very small lots. We’d like to do two, 500-square-foot units per lot. We’re at the intersection of Ash and Shelby and they would line up with both streets.

We’re right on the border of what I would call the industrial / residential area. Just to the north of us there’s a lot of steel warehouses and these are the last three lots on Ash Street which are traditional Germantown homes.

Axonometric site plan. (Foxworth Architects) — Axonometric site plan. (Foxworth Architecture)

My architect, Mark Foxworth with Foxworth Architecture, lives in the area about two blocks from there, so he’s really familiar with the neighborhood. He’s done a really good job with the proposal.

Right now, there are still some remaining questions. The property is zoned R-6, which is multi-tenant, but there are some restrictions based on density and the size of the lot. Right now we’re reviewing that. We’ve had a few meetings with the city, and we’re probably going to have to rezone to R-7 because the lots are pretty small.

The next step for us is to rezone to R-7, and we should have that filed in the coming weeks. It would be our hope and desire to have this project wrapped up by October in time for IdeaFestival.

Are there any special considerations to designing container units?

They’re not really treated any differently than a normal steel structure. I think the unusual nature of the structure will provide some challenges for the city, but I’ve gotta say the city has been, since the announcement, very helpful. They understand the significance of the project and container homes in general. They’d love to see more container homes built in the city.

What kind of person do you see living in this kind of a unit?

These are going to be really functional, minimalist units by nature of their size, but they’re going to be also a bit trendy. It’s a first to market type of unit. A lot of young professionals I think would look at living in something like this if they work Downtown or if they’re going to grad school or medical school at the University of Louisville.

Being that they’re first to market, I think there’s going to be so much interest. We’ll figure that out as we go. If you look at the general makeup of the Germantown / Schnitzelburg area, I think we’ll stay right in line there. I don’t think these will attract much different people than are already in the area. It’s a pretty vibrant area already.

We’ve had a lot of interest already in the units—people reaching out via Facebook—asking what they’re going to rent for and how to rent one.

Do you have answers to those questions about when they might be for lease or what they’ll rent for?

A lot of it’s going to depend on the final numbers and the final investment dollars required, but we think they’ll be in the market rate of somewhere between $800 and $1,200 a month.

What will it be like to live in the Schnitzelburg Container Homes?

We intend to use four, 8-foot-by-20-foot containers—which are half containers—and piece them together. It would be 640 square feet total with one-and-a-half bathrooms, a spiral staircase leading to the second floor, and another staircase leading from the balcony to the rooftop deck.

I want these to be first class living spaces. They’re certainly going to have an open floor plan, a loft-style floor plan. They’re going to be very nice units.

They are smaller spaces, but I wouldn’t call this a tiny home. I would call this more of a minimalist home. It’s not quite 300 or 400 square feet. We’re talking 640 square feet plus a rooftop, so you’re going to have 1,000 square feet of living space.

The outdoor living spaces are just as important as the inside living space on smaller units. I told the designers, that the third floor rooftop deck was the dealbreaker for me—we have to have the rooftops. I think it opens up the spaces.

With the positioning of these units in the neighborhood, if you have that third-level rooftop deck, you’re going to have great views of sunsets, a great view of Downtown Louisville in the evening because of the proximity.

How a small town in Kentucky revitalized its struggling Main Street with local food, local business

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 24, 2016

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A town of 7,300 in southeastern Kentucky has revitalized its downtown through a local-food renaissance. Corbin‘s main street, once filled with vacant buildings and few businesses, is now thriving, adding 20 new businesses since 2012 while reducing a 40 percent vacancy rate to nearly zero, writes Patty Cantrell, of the Missouri-based consulting firm Regional Food Solutions, for Good Food On Every Table.

“Corbin is among a growing number of towns discovering and capitalizing on the power of local food to provide that new economy stimulus,” Cantrell writes. Mayor Willard McBurney told her, “Bringing people back downtown to live, work, and play is key. To do that you need places to eat, places to shop.”

Corbin, Kentucky, in the southeast corner of the state. (Courtesy Google)

Communities are getting help from federal agencies, such as Local Foods, Local Places, which provides grants “to boost economic opportunities for local farmers and businesses, improve access to healthy local food, and promote childhood wellness,” says the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the sponsors of the program.

Big changes began in Corbin “when Main Street manager Andy Salmons partnered with the successful Whitley County Farmers Market,” Cantrell writes. “Two years ago, they brought vendors and live music to downtown’s Vibroc Park on Tuesday evenings through the growing season. The event does two important things. It gets people used to coming downtown. It also serves as a business incubator and networking service for vendors.”

Corbin's Main Street in the 1950s. (Courtesy Cinema Treasures) — Corbin’s Main Street in the 1950s. (Courtesy Cinema Treasures)

Kristin Smith, who returned to Corbin a few years ago to co-open a local brewery and work on her family farm, told Cantrell, “We have a massive void here in places to eat outside of chain restaurants. When someone you’ve known your whole life opens up a new restaurant, you’re rooting for them; you make a commitment to go there, to support them and their local suppliers. A large majority of our community is rooting for us, and a large majority doesn’t even drink.”

Now that properties are occupied and downtown activity is strong, “the city of Corbin is expanding it work to attract residents to Main Street and surrounding neighborhoods,” Cantrell writes. “The resources Corbin needs to do it are also growing with its success. [Andy] Salmons started his part-time Main Street manager job four years ago with an annual budget of $15,000. Today it’s up to $280,000 from the city’s general fund.” He told Cantrell, “We formulated a strong sense of what we were going for. We wanted to restore that sense that it’s a viable thing to live, work, and play downtown.”

Jeffersonville to solicit developers to build rowhouses across from Big Four Bridge

Development

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 24, 2016

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A wedge-shaped park in Jeffersonville has quite the story behind it. Colston Park, across Mulberry Street from Big Four Station Park and the entrance to the Big Four Bridge, is the final resting place for up to 700 unmarked Civil War–era graves, many of them soldiers.

But Colston Park might soon be home to the living as well, according to Elizabeth Beilman’s report in the News & Tribune. This week, the Jeffersonville Parks Authority unanimously voted to give the park to the city’s redevelopment commission, which would in turn look for a developer to build housing on the site.

“We need residents downtown,” Beilman quoted Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore as saying at the meeting. “This is a perfect opportunity to put some nice high-end brownstones, putting people living in the community around these restaurants and businesses.”

Big Four Station park on the left and the development site on the right. (Courtesy Google)

It remains unclear what will become of those soldiers’ remains, and to what extent the site is covered with graves. A 2012 WDRB report noted that an archaeological dig turned up not just the cemetery, but also structure foundations, old pottery, and old alleys that once ran through the site. The report speculated then that “If the space is developed, hundreds of graves may need to be moved.”

Only a 400-foot-wide by 120-foot-deep portion of the park running along Mulberry is being considered for redevelopment, so that could make the redevelopment process a little easier.

The redevelopment site marked in red. (Courtesy Google)

“Moore said the redevelopment commission likely will want to develop just that portion, keeping the rest of the land behind as greenspace,” Beilman wrote. A smaller Colston Park would remain behind the development.

Once the land is officially transferred and appraised, the commission will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for developing the site. A development plan would then be chosen from interested parties.

Beilman reported that Moore hopes to move an existing Civil War monument in Colston Park to the reconfigured green space. That historic marker reads:

Civil War Cemetery: On this site, 1861–1865, are buried several hundred Union and Confederate soldiers, killed in the Western Campaign. Lack of interest from distant families allowed deterioration of the wood grave markers and heavy overgrowth. In 1927, the Jeffersonville Council determined “better the sound of children’s footsteps at play than the silent stride of the nearly forgotten great spirit army here at rest.” The only intact stone marker was moved to Walnut Ridge Cemetery. No bodies were exhumed.

A small existing building could also be used for community meetings. To the north of the park, a closed elementary school is to be demolished to make way for a Marriott Towneplace Suites. Demolition is expected to take place in coming months, Beilman reported.

Brownstone rowhouses in Park Slope, Brooklyn. (Wally Gobetz / Flickr)

While Moore used the term Brownstone to describe the housing type, we’re presuming he was using the term as shorthand for “Rowhouse.” The two are very similar, although the former describes a specific brown Triassic-Jurassic sandstone material commonly seen in Brooklyn’s housing stock.

Unfortunately for Brooklyn—and the rest of us—that brownstone material is in short supply. According to a New York Times report in 2012, the last major brownstone quarry has shut down:

Brownstone, which is really just a brown sandstone, is still quarried in a few spots around the world — including Britain, China and Utah — but stone fabricators and materials experts say that there is really nothing quite like the stone that comes from Portland [Connecticut]…

After nearly 20 years at the quarry, Mr. Meehan said his company had extracted what it could from the quarry without making significant investments to get more. The land, which he leases, has been put up for sale. At 63, he said, he is ready to move on.

While the development site is slender, it could support a little more density than rowhouses and still blend with the neighborhoods south along the Ohio River. Being situated between two parks and at the entrance to the region’s preeminent pedestrian bridge, this site is certainly a prime spot for a boost of density.

We’ll be closely watching how this one takes shape.

#DesignMatters: Seven of eight AIA Kentucky award winning projects located in Louisville

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 23, 2016

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Louisville cleaned up in the 2015 AIA Kentucky Design Excellence Awards, with seven of the eight winning projects announced by the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects located in our region.

Three honor awards and four merit awards were given out to six different firms (Louisville’s De Leon & Primmer and Lexington’s Omni Architects each took home two awards). The jury considered each project’s sustainability, accessibility, harmony within its environment, and how effectively each project tackled the social concerns of the profession, according to Architect magazine. Additionally, judges also used the AIA Communities by Design’s 10 Principles for Livable Communities in choosing the winning projects.

The five-person jury included Annie Chu, founding principal at CHU+GOODING Architects; Greg Verabian, principal at Johnson Fain; Sarah Lorenzen, resident director of Neutra VDL House; Takashi Yanai, partner in charge of the residential studio at Ehrlich Architects; and Wendy Gilmartin, partner at Frohn&Rojas.

Design matters in Louisville. Take a look at the winning projects below.

Honor Awards

Louisville Free Public Library, Southwest Regional Branch

Louisville, KY (pictured at top)

Architect: JRA Architects, MSR (Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle)
Owner: Louisville Free Public Library
Structural Engineer: Tetra Tech
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Kerr-Greulich Engineers
Construction Manager: Sullivan Cozart

Jury Comments:

Both the client and design team should be commended and celebrated for creating an ambitious project that established a memorable identity for a community library. There is a clear intent in planning and a point of view in the approach to materiality and forms. As a civic building, the west façade presents a strong statement that speaks of its importance to the community.

The glazing of the ground floor facade and the overhanging volumes signal welcome. The solids and voids in massing and the overlapping skins provided visual interest for both the exterior and the interior. More than the exuberance of the forms and materiality, the jury appreciates the attempt to create extension from the inside to the outside. The interior experience is generous, light-filled, with great views of the landscape and sky. The project created a sense of place for reading, sitting and simply being in that connective moment between architecture and landscape.

Yew Dell Botanical Gardens Horticulture Center

Crestwood, KY

Architect: De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Owner: Yew Dell Botanical Gardens
Landscape Architect: Environs, Inc.
Greenhouse Consultant: Rough Greenhouses
General Contractor: Kiel Thompson Co.

Jury Comments:

This project takes sustainability seriously and is not afraid to be didactic. In the best sense, the architecture is loaded with teaching moments without being rhetorical. The design embraces sustainable technologies and wraps it into simply designed and restored historic structures. The skillful integration is further enhanced by a studied and poetic hand at detailing a composition of modern and historic material palettes. The positive result of this strong and sensual approach is a cohesive “green precinct”.

University of Kentucky School of Visual Art and Visual Studies

Lexington, KY

Architect: Omni Architects
Arts Education Planner: Joseph Power
Owner: University of Kentucky
Structural Engineer: Brown + Kubican, PSC
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: CMTA Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architect: Carman
General Contractor: D.W. Wilburn. Inc.

Jury Comments:

The strength of this adaptive reuse project of an old tobacco processing facility is design restraint. Simple and straightforward interventions made the most of an already appealing industrial building. The project is admirable for the creation of light-filled gallery/studio spaces and the appropriate choices for material juxtaposition throughout. The South elevation is a particularly adept blend of old and new through the use of grey brick, asymmetrical composition and clean detailing. The level of craft of the intervention respects that of the old, and creates a harmony of the two conditions. This is a great example of how a skillful design hand can extend and amplify the life of a century old building and infuse it with new life and a contemporary character.

Merit Awards

Big Four Station Park

Jeffersonville, IN

Architect: TEG Architects (The Estopinal Group)
Owner: City of Jeffersonville, Indiana
Structural Engineer: TRC Worldwide Engineering, Inc.
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: CMTA Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architect: Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group
Aquatic Consultant: Aquatic & Recreation Design
General Contractor: Wycliffe Enterprises, Inc.

Jury Comments:

As the first public space in Jeffersonville in over a hundred years, this is clearly a project with all eyes on it. Public open space is often one of the key factors that contribute to the quality of life of any municipality. This park delivered a new type of public open space seemingly located within a primarily residential neighborhood. The park managed to create a civic presence by its scale and design for the community while tending to the needs of the individual. The jury appreciates the reference to local culture, materials, history and phenomena while its design is unabashedly modern.

The encircling bike and pedestrian ramp around the central plaza create a layered and alternative experience. At a more intimate scale, the various elements of the park: the light shard, water feature and pavilion hold interest as design objects which activate the park with their sculptural presence.

University of Louisville Student Recreation Center

Louisville, KY

Architect: Omni Architects
Associate Architect: Cannon Design
Owner: University of Louisville
Structural Engineer: Rangaswamy & Associates
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: CMTA Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architect: Carman
General Contractor: Abel Construction

Jury Comments:

Simply put, this is a well-executed building with a thoughtfully composed series of volumes. The design encourages interaction between users and appears to foster a sense of community. Common fitness areas are illuminated by an uplifting light quality. Together with the planned density of program, the space feels energized. The jury was particularly taken by the North elevation, a classic disposition for a recreation building that extends its welcome by the large expanse of transparency.

Green Residence

Louisville, KY

Architect: De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Owner: Maudie Green
General Contractor: SML DesignBuild

Jury Comments:

The design of this glass-walled addition is deceptively simple and yet highly refined on several levels. Its scale is in keeping with the neighborhood while its design injects energy by the juxtaposition between the older structure and the new addition. The addition is simple, elegant and cost effective. The constraint of material palette and form lends a confident stillness to the design. The resulting composition is well balanced between old and new. The introduction of the open feeling in the addition is further echoed by the renovation in the existing house, bringing lightness and a sense of airiness to unite the entire project.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – Mullins Complex

Louisville, KY

Architect: Michael Winstanley Architects and Planners
Owner: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Structural Engineer: Hobart Apple Associates, Inc.
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Biagi, Chance, Cummins, London, Titzer, Inc.
Lighting Designer: Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design
Civil Engineer: Land Design & Development, Inc.
Landscape Architect: Parker Rodriquez Inc.
General Contractor: Messer Construction Co.

Jury Comments:

The jury is most taken by the interior planning of the residential units and the skillful general re-use of the narrow buildings. The program calls for efficiency and the project delivers comfortable and well-lit communal areas injected with contemporary colors, keeping the facility competitive in the highly competitive residential hall market as part of the recruitment package on all campuses. The project delivered a lot of value and new social typology for the tired dormitory program.

Gavin Memorial Garden and Guest House

Louisville, KY

Architect: Architectural Artisans
Owner: Susan Swope
Structural Engineer: Skyhook Engineering
General Contractor: Tommy Humphries General Contracting

Jury Comments:

The guest house design is a modern interpretation of a vernacular farmhouse with a reference also to the church on the grounds. The simple forms, appropriate scale, material and color choices for this project create a sympathetic backdrop for the garden. The figure/ground of built/planted/open areas are skillfully composed and show deference to the original church, on which ground the guest house is deftly fitted in its “green” periphery. Materials in the garden and materials of the guest house anticipate each other and the result is that of harmony and contrast. The large overhang of the gabled roof creates a welcoming terrace, while the clever design of the aperture in the overhang brings in light and offers views out to the gardens. This is a good example of a contextual project that packs richness of design in a simple program.

Study: Reducing carbon emissions could prevent 175,000 pollution-related deaths by 2030

Health

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 23, 2016

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“Reducing U.S. climate emissions enough to avoid a 2-degree Celsius increase in global warming could prevent up to 175,000 pollution-related premature deaths nationwide by 2030 and generate health benefits of about $250 billion annually,” says a study by Duke University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies published in Nature Climate Change.

Researchers found that “cleaner energy policies could prevent as many as 175,000 premature deaths, and another 22,000 or so deaths each year following that,” Lucas reported for Duke Today. “Cleaner transportation policies could prevent around 120,000 premature deaths by 2030, and another 14,000 or so deaths each year thereafter. The nationwide health benefits associated with preventing these deaths would total around $250 billion a year in the near term. That means they would likely exceed what it costs to implement the new policies and would offset damage recovery fees or avoidance credits for businesses that are negatively affected.”

Drew T. Shindell, professor of climate sciences at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, told Lucas, “Burning fossil fuels in power plants, industry and motor vehicles is the main source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollution linked mostly to these same sources is also the leading environmental cause of premature death worldwide. By curbing their emissions, you score on two fronts.” (Read more)

[This article has been cross-posted from the Rural Blog. Top image by frankieleon / Flickr circa 2009.]

Louisville, Southern Indiana awarded $10.3 million from HUD for capital improvements to public housing

Development

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 22, 2016

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This month, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) issued more than $1.8 billion in federal funds to 3,100 housing authorities across the country in an effort to modernize the nation’s public housing supply.

Kentucky received $31,793,131 with $8,304,784 going to the Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA), by far the largest allotment in the state. Across the river, New Albany and Jeffersonville have been awarded $1,494,277 and $486,293 respectively of Indiana’s total $22,515,723.

A 2011 study commissioned by HUD, “Capital Needs in the Public Housing Program“, showed that the nation’s 1.1 million public housing units are in need of $25.6 billion in large-scale repairs.

Left to right: Dosker Manor; Parkway Village; Beecher Terrace. (Courtesy Google)

Funds come from HUD’s Capital Fund Program. “Unlike routine maintenance, capital needs are extensive improvements required to make the housing decent and economically sustainable,” a HUD press release stated, “such as replacing roofs or updating plumbing and electrical systems to increase energy efficiency.”

Lourdes Hall, left, and Avenue Plaza, right, are both slated for expensive parking lot repaving projects. (Courtesy Google)

The Courier-Journal‘s Sheldon Shafer reported that most of the money would be spent on upgrades at Dosker Manor ($389,000), Parkway Place ($1.4 million), Avenue Plaza ($150,000), Beecher Terrace ($1.2 million), and Lourdes Hall ($160,000), with another $600,000 reserved for “unspecified contingencies.”

“Most of the money will go for routine maintenance,” LMHA Executive Director Tim Barry told Shafer. “Nothing real sexy, but we have things that have to be done.”

LMHA is spending $150,000 to repave a parking lot at Avenue Plaza, the high rise pictured, located in a part of Downtown replete with parking lots. (Courtesy Google)

That leaves another $4.4 million remaining. Shafer reported that additional funds would “go for vendor contracts to do various work, to purchase new appliances for housing units, and for environmental assessments.”

Among the repairs listed, some $250,000 is set aside for repaving parking lots at Avenue Plaza and Lourdes Hall. Avenue Plaza, a slender, 18-story slab tower built in 1974 at 400 South 8th Street, takes up an entire block, most of which is covered by its surface level parking lot. In 2015, part of LMHA’s $7.8 million allotment from HUD went to repave the parking lot at Dosker Manor.

[Top image showing Beecher Terrace in the foreground looking toward Downtown courtesy Google.]

Metro Parks & Recreation needs your feedback to improve parks around Louisville

By Broken Sidewalk -

Feb 22, 2016

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A trail in Jefferson Memorial Forest. (Courtesy Metro Parks)

Metro Louisville Parks & Recreation wants to hear from you to help improve parks around the city. The agency has launched its 2016 Needs Assessment Survey, and you can weigh in now.

The survey asks about your park-going habits, such as the activities you participate in while in a local park, and your level of satisfaction. It goes on with special questions about community centers, historic homes, and golf courses. The survey is less than 20 questions, so it won’t take much time at all.

Take the survey here.

“Your feedback is very important to us and will be used to help determine priorities for developing services for the community,” Metro Parks wrote on its survey.

For more information, visit Metro Parks’s website, suggestively named bestparksever.com, or send them an email.

Smoketown residents voice concerns over MSD’s Logan Street CSO Basin

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 22, 2016

2

The people of Smoketown have been ignored. As one of twelve neighborhoods scheduled to receive a combined sewer overflow (CSO) basin, the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) has designated Smoketown as the only site to receive an above-ground, concrete structure equipped with water pumps—all of which could very easily be placed underground and covered with green space.

However, the underlying issue is not just the basin itself, but how the construction process was handled.

“When the blasting first started, I didn’t know what it was,” said Miranda Cummins, a lifelong resident of Smoketown. “My mom and dad own a home here—they’ve lived there for 34 years—I’m waiting for it to just drop completely because it’s already leaning and it’s only gotten worse since they started digging.”

The Logan Street CSO Basin under construction in Smoketown. (Elijah McKenzie / Broken Sidewalk)

Cummins is referring to the 40-foot-deep hole on the corner of Logan Street and Breckinridge Street, and to the months-long process of dynamite blasting that it took to make it.

The Logan Street CSO Basin is intended to prevent sewage overflows from pouring into Beargrass Creek and ultimately the Ohio River. The basin site is surrounded by shotgun houses that have impressively retained their original details and iconic fish-scale shingles.

In a weeks-long process of talking with residents living adjacent to the blasting zone, there seems to be a real sense of dread regarding the project. Every resident I had spoken with has reported damage to their homes as a result of the construction, which they worry will reduce property values and ultimately destroy the already-fragile housing stock in the area.

One resident in particular, who wished to remain anonymous, said that their parcel was valued at $7,000 not long before MSD started the project, but is now worth only $1,500.

“There was a crack in the wall joint in the kitchen that wasn’t there before,” the resident said. “With these older houses, in the state some of them are in, it’s difficult to say who caused it, and that’s what [MSD] kept telling me. The house is just old and that it’s not their fault.”

MSD spokesperson Steve Tedder confirmed the agency has received calls from residents reporting blasting damage, but that it was being handled according to their claim procedure. This meant the property damages would need to be evaluated by their contractor, Walsh Construction Company, before any compensation could be provided.

Residents who called MSD with damage-related complaints said they were told they had to provide photographic evidence directly linking the property damage to the blasts. In other words, they needed a before/after photo in order to receive any compensation.

At the time of this publication, MSD has not provided any reimbursement for the alleged damages. Representatives at Walsh Construction Company declined repeated requests to comment.

Concerns about the long-term effect of the CSO basin have been growing. Local media coverage regarding the project have centered on the fact that Smoketown—a neighborhood plagued by disinvestment and political neglect—is not getting the same treatment as other neighborhoods with identical basin developments.

In an attempt to mitigate the frustration of Smoketown residents, MSD has contracted with De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop to develop revisions to the building facade that can be incorporated into the current design that will, according to Tedder, “better fit the vision of the neighborhood.”

At a recent Smoketown neighborhood meeting, a representative from MSD asked what kinds of adjustments should be made to the CSO design. Overwhelmingly, the people demanded that the entire basin be buried below ground and covered with a park or some other kind of green space.

A cursory glance down Logan Street will show that nearly all the houses along the corridor—directly across from the construction area—have been boarded up. Most are for sale. Today, many residents harbor suspicion over the project and what MSD has planned for the neighborhood.

In talking with members of the community, the prevailing notion seemed to be that the cultural heritage of Smoketown has not been respected and the voices of the people have been ignored. In order for MSD or other government agencies to gain support for large-scale projects of this type, more deference needs to be given to neighborhoods and the people that have lived there for generations.

St. Peter’s Church has found a way to save its historic structure while reviving the Russell neighborhood

By Branden Klayko -

Feb 22, 2016

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Clarke & Loomis’s exuberant Gothic-Revival St. Peter’s United Church of Christ still stands tall over West Jefferson Street after 121 years in the Russell neighborhood. It’s one of a handful of pre–World War II structures that were spared the wrecking ball in Louisville’s notorious Urban Renewal era that leveled most of the city west of Fifth Street.

The church, tracing its roots back to 1847 when it was known as St. Peter’s German Evangelical Church, has again fended off the wrecking ball as its congregation has struggled in recent years to adapt the historic church to modern times.

The church circa 1956–1966, left, and again in 1980, right. (Courtesy UL Photo Archives - Reference; Courtesy National Register) — The church circa 1956–1966, left, and again in 1980, right. (Courtesy UL Photo Archives – Reference; Courtesy National Register)

With mounting maintenance costs and accessibility issues for some in the congregation, plans were floated in 2014 to demolish the structure and build a new facility when the congregation of 100 moved to a rented space in the Russell Plaza strip mall at 15th and Jefferson streets.

After outcry from the Louisville Historical League, among others, those plans were quickly reconsidered. Rev. Jamesetta Ferguson, senior pastor at St. Peter’s, began to look creatively at how to keep the monumental limestone structure flanked by large towers.

And that’s certainly welcome news after so much of the neighborhood has been relegated to the landfill, including the church’s century-old parish house that once stood just west of the church.

“St. Peter’s is a highly decorative and three dimensional handling of the Gothic Revival style,” the structure’s 1980 National Register of Historic Places listing, by Marty Poynter Hedgepeth, reads, describing the structure as an excellent example of its style. “The building is one of the most beautifully detailed works of the prominent Louisville architectural firm of Clarke & Loomis.”

But this story is better than just saving the church—it’s about building back the neighborhood fabric to create a support structure for the congregation.

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Philadelphia-based urbanism publication Next City recently investigated the larger plan to tear down and rebuild the Beecher Terrace Houses across the street from St. Peter’s. Author Oscar Perry Abello spoke with Ferguson, using St. Peter’s as a symbol of the area’s regeneration.

According to Abello, to save the church, Ferguson teamed up with the United Church of Christ’s Church Building & Loan Fund (CB&LF) to help create a growth strategy. “Rather than a loan for facility repairs,” Abello wrote, “the fund connected church reps to resources that could help them craft a plan to leverage a key asset: the property.”

That partnership brought St. Peter’s together with Bronx, New York–based AIM Development Group on a new construction project on the church’s parking lot.

The church is flanked by parking lots. (Courtesy Google)

Today, St. Peter’s is flanked by two large surface level parking lots on either side, reflecting the lack of neighborhood fabric characteristic of the larger neighborhood.

St. Peter’s plans to break ground this year on a $7 million retail and office building on the corner of Jefferson and 12th streets. According to Abello, 70 percent of the total budget comes from CB&LF.

(Courtesy St. Peter's / Molo Village) — (Courtesy St. Peter’s / Molo Village)

“The eventual rental income from that development would fund the rehabilitation and maintenance of St. Peter’s original church building,” Abello wrote, “with what’s left going to support church programming.”

In a letter to the city describing the project, Ferguson said that restoration would would involve interior and exterior rehabilitation, repairing water damage, and removing lead paint, among other issues. A 1950s addition in the back of the church has deteriorated more than the historic structure and would be razed.

Maps showing the church site before and after construction in the 19th century. (Courtesy Kentucky Virtual Library)

Last month, Ferguson submitted the church’s pre-application to rezone its parking lots from R-7 to C-R to allow for the new building. In it, the pastor described St. Peter’s block-long presence across the street from the to-be-redeveloped Beecher Terrace Houses as part of its significance to the evolution of the neighborhood.

“Our priority is improving the quality of life and opportunities available to the residents of Beecher Terrace and the surrounding community,” Ferguson wrote in her letter to the city. She serves on the Russell Choice Neighborhood Task Force, Abello wrote, which helps guide the Louisville Metro Housing Authority in the process of replacing Beecher Terrace.

The first phase of the project will construct a two-story, 30,000-square-foot building, designed by Jeffersonville’s Kovert Hawkins Architects, on the eastern parking lot, currently housing 66 parking spaces. The L-shaped structure wraps around the corner of Jefferson and 12th streets, masking a new parking lot behind the structure.

The building would house, among other things, offices for the church’s Molo Village Community Development Corporation, youth and senior programs, meeting space for health and counseling services, space for an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter, and storage space for Dare to Care’s food pantry.

According to Abello’s report, CB&LF partnered St. Peter’s with St. Louis–based wealth-building nonprofit Justine Petersen to help locals build their own credit through “financial literacy workshops” to be located in the building.

This development appears to mark the reversal of a decades-long trend of urban churches attempting to use parking lots as draws to bolster dwindling congregations. Many churches with the best of intentions have permanently scarred their neighborhoods, so it’s especially heartening to see this new effort that dually benefits the neighborhood and the church.

“Our pitch will be that we are within one mile proximity of downtown, that downtown is extending west, and we are right there in an area that will complement that growth,” Ferguson told Abello.

Read Oscar Perry Abello’s full story on Russell at Next City.