Gridded, tree-shaded neighborhood replaces Kentucky's oldest public housing

Eight acres just east of downtown Lexington, Kentucky, have undergone a dramatic renewal. Bluegrass-Aspendale, "an isolated island of 936 red brick barracks dating to the 1930s," has been replaced by approximately 450 apartments, townhouses, and detached houses, according to The Lane Report in Kentucky Business Online, available here.  Of the 102 detached units in the $100 million undertaking, 93 are "affordable" and nine are market-rate.  

The Lexington Housing Authority, starting with with a $20 million HUD Hope VI grant, redeveloped the property with help from the local school system, Kentucky Housing Authority tax credits, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, the local health department, and federal stimulus dollars.

Prior to redevelopment, which was overseen by Kevin Matthews of Sherman Carter Barnhart architects, there was one way in and out of Bluegrass-Aspendale; the project had been organized around a pair of looped streets. Now, new avenues, several with green medians, form a grid around a new neighborhood school, connecting to surrounding streets. Parking is placed to the rear of the houses, using a permeable paver system to improve drainage. The neighborhood's decades-old trees were saved, providing a green canopy that makes the streets and sidewalks more comfortable.