Mediative Urbanisms – Entry 116
Presented by:
James Monin – jmonin4 (at) aol (dot) com
Louisville, KY
Andy Dobson – adobson5 (at) zoomtown (dot) com
Previous uses of this site tell a story of abandonment that any visitor can read in the pollution, junked equipment, trash, empty buildings, and feral vegetation. A larger story is the relationship between the property and Irish Hill that includes the businesses that once occupied the site, their workers, and the decisions that resulted in them leaving. This design proposal continues the story of this property. It reintegrates the site into Irish Hill by creating a neighborhood market and play spaces, and into the City of Louisville by creating a mass transit and bicycle commuter hub.
The property presents unique challenges and opportunities because of its configuration, topography, and location. This design makes the best of them and creates an urban amenity from an abandoned brownfield.
Like many urban streams, Beargrass Creek once drew people to this region, but as time passed it changed from a natural amenity to a problem confined within concrete channels. In spite or this, there is great potential to renovate Beargrass Creek, and this design shows how that can happen. This proposal uses Green Infrastructure in the design and construction to mitigate water runoff and serve as a test bed to illustrate how these techniques work.
The neighborhood market space uses Beargrass Creek as a focal point, turning the polluted creek into a water amenity. Porous pavement and rain gardens will provide runoff control and water absorption on the property, as will native plants in the lower areas on the west side of the site.
A new transit hub will provide TARC route transfers and a bicycling center with showers, changing areas, secure parking, and cycling support services. Vehicular access to the transit hub will be from Lexington Road, and the structure will use LEED construction techniques to minimize energy use and environmental impact.
