Lexington, KY Photo Thread

[jjb1983]

Yes! That is awesome. You couldn't make this stuff up. Thanks for posting.

Edited December 26, 2006 by jjb1983

[Ian604]

Some night shots.

From Short St.

From the Transit Center site.

From Mill and Maxwell:

[ezcheese]

here are some pics i got while we were in lexington.

the new library at UK is awesome! i can't wait to study there when i visit my girlfriend.

if you haven't seen this in person, it's made from fabric. pretty cool.

the indoor pics are blurry because i didn't use a flash and i was just kind of shooting from the hip. i sharpened them a little, but they're still not great.

[rnc]

The library opened in 98 or so when I was an undergrad, so it isn't too new. I've heard a lot of people complain about the design, but I loved the library. The only problem is the open design lends itself to echos, which isn't great for a library.

[jjb1983]

Yeah it does tend to get a little noisy in there from time to time, but if you sit in one of those cubicles on the inside wall and pop some earbuds in, it isn't that bad. And another note... we need to do something about those utility poles and Fazolis/Pazzos signage. Just might make things look nicer that's all. But thanks for the pictures EZ.

Edited January 3, 2007 by jjb1983

[seicer]

New photographs from January 29 and 31, 2007 in Lexington, Kentucky. See the Lexington, KY set at my Flickr account. Enjoy!

500's on the Main

CenterCourt

A five-level parking structure is being constructed with Phase I of CenterCourt, a residential structure that features retail on the lower level.

Downtown

500 East features office condos. Behind it is the Kentucky Power Building.

While not as busy as Main Street to the south, Short Street features a diverse amount of businesses, churches and residences.

Main+Rose

Looking east towards the proposed Trinity Flats development. To the right is Main+Rose.

Mark III Lofts

South Hill

New townhouses and condos are being constructed in South Hill on what was derelict warehouses and small industrial buildings. These feature a small front yard, varying setbacks, a covered garage and alley, and a common park midblock.

Looking down Bolivar Street. CenterCourt is on the right, with South Hill Lofts and South Hill Station on the left. The former B&O Freight Station is straight ahead and will be demolished to make room for the Newtown Pike extension. To the right of that is a large 3-block clearing for the future Shelbourne Plaza development.

To the left is CenterCourt. The now-empty church visible at center-right will be razed for a new multi-story parking structure.

Rupp Arena

This vast parking lot is a proposed mixed-use community, park and ampitheater along Town Branch (to the right). The creek disappears soon after and travels under Vine Street.

This vast parking lot is a proposed mixed-use community, park and ampitheater along Town Branch (to the left).

[seicer]

I posted more photographs and commentary at the (crude and unfinished) UrbanUp web-site. Enjoy!

"College Town"

1. This historic church was demolished for new development near the University of Kentucky. It was neglected for many years and had lost most of its historic value.

Downtown

2. The intersection of Vine and Limestone.

3. Looking east along the Vine Street corridor. The Transit Center is to the right.

4. At the intersection of Esplanade and East Main Street are numerous local stores and eateries.

5. The former Ades Dry Goods Building was renovated in 1987 into lofts and businesses.

South Hill

6. These homes are being renovated into condos as part of the Kimball House Square project.

7. A view of the new infrastructure along South Mill.

8. South Hill 525. The new homes along South Mill and other adjoining streets are part of the South Hill Crossing project.

9. The new homes along South Mill and other adjoining streets are part of the South Hill Crossing project.

Woodward Heights

10.

11.

Manchester Avenue corridor

12. Former Pepper distillery.

University of Kentucky

13. New North Hall is a new residential dormitory complex.

14. The CRMS Building is home to the University of Kentucky Center for Manufacturing.

15. Central campus, looking towards White Hall and the Patterson Office Tower.

16. Central campus with White Hall on the right.

17. The administration building is in the foreground, while the Patterson Office Tower looms in the background.

18. The south campus dormitories are visible.

Edited July 3, 2007 by seicer

[ezcheese]

Nice pics! re: number 6, are those the condo conversions that are all being connected in the back?

[seicer]

I think the ones on S. Upper will be separate, but the ones on S. Limestone are connected to the ones being constructed in the rear.

[seicer]

Posted many new photographs of Lexington, Kentucky on my web-site article at UrbanUp. You can read more about it here and view the 100+ photographs already on the site. The site is still new and in its infancy, and much of the text was copied from articles that I wrote at other web-sites, but it's coming along!

Downtown

1. Christ Church Cathedral: Constructed in 1848, this Gothic Revival church was designed by Major Thomas Lewinski. It is currently the home of the Cathedral for the Diocese of Lexington.

2. 500's on the Main: View of Phase One. Phase Two includes the signature steel and glass spire.

3. A grand office tower at Short and Mill.

4. This large structure at South Upper and Short recently had its windows replaced.

5. Park

[Rural King]

This is a great photo thread, and I just want to tell everyone that I have thus far really enjoyed all the great pics everyone has posted. Keep them coming!

Lexington is a very intersting city IMO and I think its cool for those of use with very limited exposure to the city to get to see all that it has to offer and what sort of projects and developments are going on in the city.

[gt7834a]

5. Park

[bw87a]

these are some really amazing photos of the city. i like seeing all the construction going on. lexington could really use another iconic skyscraper. it would be much better for lexington, although they have a pretty nice skyline for its size anyways.

[MZT]

These are well-worn shots for locals I suppose. But my father and I were on our way back from Wisconsin to Charlotte and we stopped briefly in Lexington. Unfortunately, Charlotte has been pretty thorough in removing cohesove historic blocks like these...

I was able to take all of these in just an hour, strolling around.

[seicer]

^ A lot of what you saw is being restored. Upper Limestone from Main Street towards Transylvania's campus is undergoing a vibrant transformation, and there are new restaurants (expensive ones at that) and boutiques that is breathing new life into a once desolate area.

Much was destroyed though in the urban renewal projects of the 1960s and 1970s, which the mayor has referred to it as the worst disaster to ever hit the city. Vine Street was all but destroyed, along with an entire neighborhood next to Rupp Arena that is now one gigantic parking lot.

Great pics!

[seicer]

You can find my newest downtown photos at my web-site, UrbanUp, here.

1. Central Business District, looking west towards Lexington Financial Center.

2. A view of the northern Lexington region. The street running northeast is Limestone and has seen an uptick in building restorations and investments.

3. Looking towards the Vine Street corridor, which consists primarily of newer office structures. This was formerly the Chesapeake and Ohio rail line, which were removed in the late 1960s. Hundreds of structures that would have been adaptable to lofts today were demolished, and has been called the city's "biggest regret."

4. Central Business District.

5. Old Fayette National Bank Building. Was the city's tallest for many, many years.

6. A void created by the demolition of Woolworth's. The store closed in the mid 1990s after being restored in the early 1990s (...), and was demolished ~2003. The lot (and the bottom right corner store and attachments) are owned by The Webb Cos., the city's largest developer (they developed the Lexington Financial Center). Most of the remaining buildings are vacant and are not that historical, and will most likely be demolished in a few years for a new development project.

7. Our Courthouse complex takes up two blocks and has a nice plaza with water features.

8. Rupp Arena/Lexington Center. The massive parking lot to the south now qualifies for TIF so it stands to be redeveloped.

9. My downtown, looking east, from my apartment complex. It is one of the tallest buildings in the city

Many more photos coming later this week! Stay tuned to this thread!

[Rural King]

Terrific pics! Looking forward to more!!

[NcSc74]

The more I see Lexington the more it reminds me of Winston-Salem. They both have great brick cores and at least one new glass or modern tower that dominates the skyline. Don't believe me check out the NC triad photo of the day and look for the Winston-Salem DT pics.

[seicer]

^ Yeah they do...

Links provided go to the building or district at UrbanUp.

1. National City Bank taken from the Lexington Downtown Corporation roof.

2. Main and Rose Lofts, taken from the roof of the Lexington Downtown Corporation. I will gather more photos in the evening that will better represent the width of the structure. This was originally planned for seven stories but was constructed as four -- but it's enormous size is still a tremendous asset. Crews have completed most of the work on the building -- including the city's first "back in" parking spaces. I assume those are for those who want to load groceries from a planned urban corner market.

I personally love the industrial design of the building. They did this very well and it resembles the building stock that once existed along Vine Street.

3. And to think, Main and Rose was once a giant surface parking lot.

4. Christ Church Apartments for the elderly. This is where I voted

5. The modern front to the Lexington Center. This was recently rehabilitated from a 1970s glass-box design to one that is more harmonious to the streetscape. The big box in the back is Rupp Arena, which could be replaced by 2012. It was not renovated with the Lexington Center project and it is showing its age.

6. The old front was HIDEOUS.

7. Hyatt, which is undergoing interior renovations.

8. Victorian Square, which has fine dining, shops and art galleries under one roof. It is a series of restored Victorian-esque structures combined into one.

9. The Kincaid Towers is a 22-floor high-rise in Lexington, Kentucky. It is located along Vine Street between Broadway and Mill Street. Its exterior is polished buff concrete with blue tinted glass, with terraces on the 5th, 10th, 14th, and 21st floor.

10. Phase one of the 500's on the Main project, adjacent to Victorian Square and the Lexington Center.

11. The spire and additional buildings will be constructed soon in phase two.

12. Ah... where I live. Downtown Lexington. Looking west along Main Street in downtown Lexington.

13. I fudgeing hated getting up to the top of the World Trade Center. Ladders suspended many, many feet above a never-ending staircase. And I'm afraid of heights. One building was a ladder... the other was a staircase. Go figure.

From left to right: Lexington Center, 500's on the Main, and Victorian Square.

14. Looking along South Broadway. The massive parking lot on the right is part of Rupp Arena and it replaced hundreds of homes from the historic South Hill district. It is slated for redevelopment eventually.

15. Looking along Vine Street at the haphazard building styles. Vine Street was once a railroad corridor for the city, and when the tracks were removed, major urban renewal began that removed most of the historic and warehouse-styled buildings that are so very much desired today.

That white stub of a building houses U.S. Attorneys offices. It is a POS and was just a basic steel frame (suburban buildings are built better than this) with a faux "stone" facade that was prefabricated and placed by a crane.

16. Triangle Center is in the foreground and was a planned shopping center.

17.

More coming next week!

[Rural King]

More great pics!

Is Triangle Center no longer going to be a shopping center? If not what is its current status?

[seicer]

It was originally Festival Market. Here is my article on it --

The Triangle Center is primarily an office complex with several restaurants and a coffee shop in downtown Lexington. Originally envisioned as a shopping and dining complex bound by Broadway, East Main and South Mill Streets, it was constructed by the Webb Cos. It was to compliment adjacent Victorian Square which had opened only one year prior.[1]

It was first announced on October 1, 1984 by the Webb Cos. as a 'festival marketplace' with boutiques, shops, and food kiosks.[2] The Festival Marketplace, was it was first named, was a combined effort by the developer with the Lexington Financial Center to replace the failed Galleria project. It was to be modeled after Harbor Place in Baltimore, Maryland, Waterside in Norfolk, Virginia, Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts and Toledo, Ohio's Portside. The open-air yet enclosed 114,000 sq. ft. structure could contain numerous small shops, a food court with a common dining area and a restaurant or a nightclub;[2] a farmers market was also once considered as a possible tenant. In addition to the marketplace, $7.5 million in state aid was announced by then-Governor Martha Layne Collins towards the construction of a six-level parking structure that would serve Festival Marketplace and the Lexington Financial Center.[2]

It opened in 1986.

[anthony.lippert]

Amazing pics, seicer!...

google earth users..

I've been working on a 3d lexington skyline and so far i've made about 20 of the buildings. I think it gets you a "feel" for the city to explore it in 3d that you can't get any other way. You need to download the 3d warehouse network link to see it, then zoom in and view the buildings.

There was also another project for "model your campus" where some students at UK modeled their school

I still have a lot more to model, but it's a work in progress so keep watching

[bw87a]

awesome pics. i wish i knew more about lexington and the area. how exactly would the idea of a new rupp arena fit into the city? what does everyone think this could do for the city? any thoughts?

[MrFSS]

I was flying into LEX on Monday afternoon after a trip to Los Angeles. Grabbed a few shots as we approached from the North East into the airport.

See any places you recognize?

I enjoy taking photos from the plane. If you are interested, all the pictures going out to LA are here:

Flying to Los Angeles

And, all of them coming home are here:

Flying Home

[seicer]

Some recent images... some taken tonight.

Centrepointe

Centrepointe is a $250 million, 823,000 sq. ft. 35-story high-rise tower under construction in downtown.

November 15, 2008

Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building

The Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building, or BPCB, is a five-story building at the University of Kentucky along South Limestone adjacent to the Biomedical Biological Science Research Building. The $79.9 million building will allow the College of Pharmacy to relocate, and when completed in December 2009, it will be the largest academic building in Kentucky and one of the largest in the nation.

November 15, 2008

Student Health Facility

The Student Health Facility at the University of Kentucky opened in May 2008.

November 15, 2008

Albert B. Chandler Hospital

Opened in 1962, the Albert B. Chandler Hospital along Rose Street at the University of Kentucky is a component of the University of Kentucky Hospital (UK HealthCare), encompassed within the Chandler Medical Center. Ground was broken in 2007 for twin 12-story patient towers, which will be as large as an 18-story structure.

November 15, 2008

Charles T. Wethington, Jr. Building

The Charles T. Wethington, Jr. Building (Allied Health/Aging), opened in February 2003, is at the corner of Rose and South Limestone Streets. It houses the College of Health Sciences and other offices and laboratories.

November 15, 2008

Bonus... Cincinnati, taken on November 14, 2008.

Enjoy!