Louisville is set to welcome one of its most ambitious riverfront projects yet — a 5.5-acre park that will rise atop the raised 1970s concrete deck that has separated downtown from the Ohio River for half a century.
Heatherwick Studio, the firm behind New York's Little Island, is designing the transformation for the City of Louisville, with the waterfront project park dubbed The Belvedere. Construction is planned to start this fall.
Two named elements anchor the park. The Firefly Pavilion gives visitors a gathering point above the water, while the Firefly Path, an elevated walk, climbs through the planted terraces to open Ohio River views. The name comes from Kentucky's summer firefly.
The existing Belvedere dates to the 1970s, when the plaza put a slab of concrete between the city and its waterfront. With the redesign, Louisville joins Houston, where Buffalo Bayou East is extending a celebrated waterfront park system into the city's East End.