Beargrass Valley Preserve Master Plan

Project Description

Over the years, Louisville, Kentucky’s Cherokee Park has been under threat from development including highway expansion and home construction. In 2021, Olmsted Parks Conservancy purchased 25 acres of land to expand Cherokee Park and put restrictions in place to ensure that it would forever remain a public greenspace. Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group was selected to lead that expansion by developing the Beargrass Valley Preserve Master Plan, the first expansion of Louisville’s Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Park system in 100 years.

For high-level recommendations on the master plan, Taylor Siefker Williams turned to Biohabitats. As part of the design team along with Studio Kremer Architects, Mindel Scott, and Corn Island Archaeology, Biohabitats provided ecological assessments and green infrastructure evaluations that informed conservation and restoration choices and culminated in master plan recommendations focused on ecological sustainability, resilience, and sustainable green infrastructure.

Beargrass Preserve at Cherokee Park is a rare opportunity to add permanent green space to a unique park system, and aims to create a new, ecologically connected community haven in Louisville.