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Redevelopment
of Louisville’s Portland Neighborhood: Livability,
Sustainability, and Viability by Design
 Residents
of the Portland neighborhood of Louisville looked around a couple of
years ago and saw a neighborhood in decline. They looked
further
and saw that other old neighborhoods similarly located near downtown
had been revitalized and were thriving. The Portland
Neighborhood
Association worked with the City to identify a plan to bring their
neighborhood back. Their vision is an historic neighborhood
at
the Ohio River’s edge with a great stock of affordable
housing,
parks, places to eat and shop and work that is vibrant and attractive
to new residents while maintaining its working class
character.
The Neighborhood Association then turned to AIA Central Kentucky
for
help in bringing their vision to reality.
 Portland
already has much in place. A variety of housing types awaits
renovation. The neighborhood sports a mix of
uses—residential, commercial, schools, parks, old industrial
sites ripe for cleanup and reuse, and the River. Most of its attributes
are under used; many need improvements to make them more
attractive. What interventions are necessary to make the
streets
safer and livelier, the parks and riverfront more attractive to current
residents as well as to draw in new neighbors? How do you
introduce significant neighborhood improvements without triggering
gentrification and rising taxes that may force long-time residents to
leave? That is the challenge undertaken by AIA Central
Kentucky.
In their work with the City the Portland Neighborhood Association
identified some specific areas that a plan for the area must address:
- An attractive gateway to Portland
at the expressway
- Façade improvements on
Portland Avenue
- The impact of planned roadway
projects in the neighborhood
- Improvement in parking conditions
- Reclaiming vacant business property
for productive use
Throughout 2007 AIACKC
met in workshops and presentation sessions with
the neighborhood to
- Develop the
neighborhood’s ideas into implementation strategies
- Encourage big thinking and setting
long term goals
- Recommend traffic, parking, and
street improvements
- Offer development recommendations
for underused or vacant property
- Provide graphic representation of
streetscape improvements and signage
- Provide preliminary economic
development and funding strategies
- Implement a web site as the central
data base for the project, allowing residents to monitor
progress. See www.aia-ckc.org
and select AIA 150.
Five study areas received more focused attention:
- A façade study along
Portland
Avenue as viewed from I-64 to change the impression of passing
motorists from decline to vitality
- Infill on Portland Avenue where
five
adjacent parcels are for sale. Should these parcels be
combined
for a large scale commercial project?
- 22nd Street
at Portland—would mixed use be appropriate there?
- 22nd
Street
Gateway—currently the view from the expressway exit ramp is a
jumble of historic houses, fast food restaurants, vacant land and
institutional buildings. What should visitors encounter that
would encourage them to make Portland their home?
- Reuse of thrift shop
site—should a
hotel/motel or Cracker Barrel Restaurant be encouraged to buy the
site? What should such a structure look like?
AIA
Central Kentucky has promised two and a half years of support
to
the Portland neighborhood to move the project beyond pretty pictures to
reality.
View
all Blueprint Initiatives |
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