The Green Building

Louisville, Kentucky

(fer) studio LLP

Owner: Gill and Augusta Holland

Date Completed: November 2008

Photo © Ted Wathen / Quadrant

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Program: A 15,000-square-foot mixed-use facility housing a café, a gallery, event spaces, an indoor-outdoor courtyard, and offices and studios for local businesses.

Design concept and solution: To transform a narrow 110-year-old former dry goods store into a light-filled communal space while respecting the historical character of the structure and its neighborhood.

Opting to keep the store's original masonry shell and mortar joint facade, (fer) studio opened up the space to light by raising the lobby ceiling up to 40 feet high and adding a glass spine that ascends through all three floors. To combat the narrowness of the building, the design team set up a contrast between open spaces and cramped ones, leading visitors through open spaces that compress down only to open up even larger. Throughout the building they left original brick walls and wood beams exposed and repurposed leftover wood into custom furniture and floor materials. Solar panels, geothermal wells, and an energy-recovery unit that captures hot and cold air to redistribute throughout the facility have the project on track to receive LEED Platinum certification.

Gross square footage:
13,396 sq. ft.

Architect:
(fer) studio LLP
1159 East Hyde Park Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90302
O: 310.672.4749
F: 310.672.4733
www.ferstudio.com
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