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.
TAGS
Owner: Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy
Bioregion: Ohio River
Physiographic province: Outer Bluegrass
Watershed: Beargrass Creek
Collaborators: Studio Kremer Architects, Mindel Scott, Corn Island Archaeology