We’re going to build a walking path through the park, using donated mulch to spread. We’ll also paint a portion of the wall adjacent to the Mid-City Mall parking lot with chalk-board paint, so kids can draw on the wall.
Please bring rakes, and gloves if you have them. Wheelbarrows would also be helpful. We plan to have coffee and doughnuts!
When: April 14, starting at 10 a.m.
Accepting the award this month were the firm’s Jared Kaelin (middle) and Louis Johnson (right) from Joshua DeSpain, president of Kentucky ASLA.
Gresham, Smith and Partners has been honored by the Kentucky Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects with a Merit Award of Achievement for Communication for its work designing and promoting our neighborhood park.
GS&P’s team developed a conceptual plan and framework for the project and provided support for communication campaigns, helping the non-profit Friends of Beechwood Park sell the idea and raise funding through the use of virtual reality technology.
Last year, Friends of Beechwood Park obtained a $13,222 Neighborhood Development
Fund grant from Louisville Metro Council to start the first phase of construction. The total budget for the project is about $90,000.
GS&P accepted the award and other honors earlier this month at the professional organization’s annual meeting, held in Covington.
This was the fourth consecutive year the firm received awards from the KYASLA. GS&P was recognized as the Firm of the Year, honoring the firm’s commitment to landscape architecture and service to the community.
Our park achieved a huge milestone recently, when EZ Construction Co. of Louisville began the first phase of development at the southwest end of the property; it all started last month. This is the “Nature Play” space, an open children’s space with tree swings and natural playground equipment such as rocks and finished tree stumps to climb on. (See this design rendering for a fuller description.)
Here’s the backhoe operator at work (left) and the partial excavation for the play area:
Caudill (left) and Kaelin with WFPL’s Johnson.
“There’s really a lot of potential,” Kristen Millwood, vice president of the Friends of Beechwood Park told the station for its just-published story, “and we’re really excited to add another park to Louisville.”
The park’s design was by Gresham Smith and Partners, an architectural firm in Louisville, says WFPL correspondent Laney Johnson. The firm’s goal reflected the neighborhood group’s: to honor the history of what used to occupy the area and keep with the Victorian aesthetic of the neighborhood.
“Part of what we do is we like to design the way we live,” said Jared Kaelin, an urban designer with the firm. “And part of that is active community spaces and places for people to hang out. We kind of modeled a family space or a gathering space after the footprint of a Victorian home.”
WFPL’s coverage came in advance of the first annual Friends of Beechwood Park Street Festival set for Saturday, Aug. 19. There will be food vendors, a beer tent, activities for kids, as well as virtual reality goggles visitors can use to digitally experience what the park will look like when finished. The event is free, but donations are welcome to support the park.
“It will bring out more awareness to what we’re doing,” said Brian Caudill, president of the Friends of Beechwood Park. “Maybe other groups would like to see how we did it and we’ll gladly mentor them through the process.”
Caudill also said “The Highlands loves a party,” and encourages people to come see what they are doing.
It will be held on Beechwood Avenue on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 4-8 p.m. Featuring a beer tent; Monnik Beer Co.; the Traveling Kitchen food truck; ValuMarket grill, and music by Pegasus. Children’s activities are also planned, too. A portion of the concession proceeds will benefit our park project.
We raised $1,225 during the third annual Give Local event co-sponsored in September by the Community Foundation of Louisville, a 24-hour fundraising marathon with more than 600 non-profit participants. Overall, the initiative raised $4.15 million, a whopping $1 million more than in 2015.
We’ve just added a new “Donate” tool to our site, so you can make online contributions via PayPal to the Friends of Beechwood Park group, now developing a Highlands community pocket park:
You’ll also find the link in the sidebar on the right side of this page.
You can use Visa, American Express, and other major credit cards — or an existing or new PayPal account. Just click on the Donate button, and away you go.
As always, your contributions are fully tax-deductible because the Friends of Beechwood Park is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
We’re one of more than 600 nonprofits participating today in the 24-hour Give Local fundraising marathon sponsored by the Community Foundation of Louisville. You can make your tax-deductible donation at Give Local’s website by searching for Beechwood Park in the organization box.
The non-profit Friends of Beechwood Park Inc. is delighted you’re here. You’ll find a park design; a map locating us; news stories; a history of our efforts; photos, and much more.
Here’s the latest design by Gresham Smith and Partners, the well-known landscape architecture firm with an office in Louisville. This is a bird’s-eye view looking down on the site:
The design imagines the park in three major areas, left to right:
Note: Beechwood Avenue borders the top. Mid-City Mall is directly below, and Bardstown Road is to the right.
