In December of 2021, the Olmsted Parks Conservancy received its largest financial gift in history to the sum of $8 million from Louisvillians Norman and Belita Noltemeyer — who have lived in the Cherokee Gardens neighborhood for 20+ years.
The nonprofit parks organization, working to revitalize Louisville’s seventeen Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parks and six parkways, used the money to buy ~25 acres of land from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary — that’s about the size of six Walmart Supercenters.
Olmsted Parks dubbed the newly acquired land and expansion project the Beargrass Preserve at Cherokee Park. And after a little over a year of searching for a design group to take on the project, which is the first of its kind in over 130 years, it has selected Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group for the job.
In addition to working with the parks system to keep the master plan community-informed (an Olmsted Parks policy), Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group will also collaborate with several other firms to help integrate history, culture, and ecological processes that protect and restore the biodiversity of the area into the design.
Here’s who else is on the planning team:
So what happens next? Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group will get their ducks in row by surveying the existing conditions of the land to determine what is possible and what might be a setback. Then, they will work to create layouts for public and stakeholder meetings, as well as gather feedback for a preferred alternative design.
If you want a glimpse into what the Beargrass Preserve might look like, here are a few other Taylor Siefker Williams’ designs:
- Big Four Station in Jeffersonville, IN
- The 100-mile Louisville Loop
- J-town’s forthcoming Veterans Memorial Park
Get in on the action by donating to the historic expansion.