Proposed Location for “Creative Pathway and Portal”
The Fayette Alliance supports the University of Kentucky Department of Landscape Architecture’s $4 million “Open Spaces Sacred Places” grant proposal for the “Creative Pathway and Portal” project. The TKF Foundation’s “Open Spaces Sacred Places” National Award Program will “fund development of significant new sacred public green spaces in urban settings that demonstrate a combination of high quality design-build and rigorous research about user impacts.”
The “Creative Pathway and Portal” project will connect campus with the city of Lexington by adaptively reusing an abandoned railroad spur and renewing its brown and barren soil to support native plants and public art. The specific site for this proposal is the 800 foot University owned portion of the former Norfolk Southern railroad spur connecting Scott to Boliver Streets. This site includes the former Reynolds Tobacco Warehouse complex and the present home of the UK Art Department. Although this area has often been overlooked as the “backdoor” to campus, the construction of the Newtown Pike Extension will radically change this area into front entranceway of University of Kentucky’s main campus.
By creating a meaningful “town-gown” connection, the “Creative Pathway and Portal” can leverage the very best of what the University of Kentucky and the city of Lexington have to offer – and establish a needed stage for social, artistic, and environmental expression in an otherwise neglected area of our urban core. Click Here to see The Fayette Alliance’s full position statement on this project.
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For more information,
University of Kentucky Design Workshop focusing on the “Open Spaces Sacred Places” Award
