South Fourth Street Design Guidelines

The South Fourth Street Corridor, one of Louisville’s most intact historic places, is at a critical juncture in its evolution. As Downtown revitalization continues to spread from its urban core, the importance of having a vision for that growth cannot be overstated.

In this context, Urban Collage/Lord Aeck Sargent was retained by the Louisville Downtown Development Corporation to conduct a corridor study focused on preparing design guidelines along the historic South Fourth Street corridor in Downtown Louisville.  The Design Guidelines lay out a framework for current and future retail improvements with a focus on maintaining historic continuity while allowing creative solutions for storefronts and other unique architectural features. A detailed inventory and analysis of each building, storefront and historic structure within the corridor was completed that looked at patterns in architectural style, eventually leading to a recommended design guideline palette for future improvements.  Within this analytical framework it was also imperative to gain an understanding of the public spaces- the streets, sidewalks and plazas along the corridor each one’s relationship to storefront activity (or lack-there-of).  The Urban Design Analysis points out issues and opportunities for further refinement of the public spaces that include both streetscape improvements and identify major missing links in the built fabric.

Practice Areas