Christy’s Garden

Christy’s Garden has transformed an industrial brownfield site into a neighborhood park and vibrant performance space. The Garden serves as a model for Harmony and Health (a framework for healthy living endorsed by the University of Louisville’s Center for Healthy Air, Water, and Soil), because it provides entertainment and cultural enrichment while contributing to environmental justice. The Garden is a fun, comfortable spot that hosts a year-round calendar of free concerts and events in conjunction with Paristown Hall, the adjacent new music venue managed by the Kentucky Center for the Arts.

The plaza design extends the buildings’ striking geometric forms out into the landscape. A forest of 40 native shade trees provides wildlife habitat and reduces the heat island effect, while a custom soil mix allows the trees to thrive under the heavy foot traffic and allows stormwater to recharge the aquifer below the site. The synthetic turf lawn also allows aquifer recharge, while being durable enough to withstand over ninety scheduled events a year without requiring continuous maintenance and the replacements that a natural turf lawn would require. A removeable tent and seasonal skating rink extend the utility of the site across the seasons.

The Garden provides an engaging landscape with its own distinctive and urban sense of place – a balance of theatrical festivity with unpretentiousness that fosters community pride and wellbeing without feeling overdone. Christy’s Garden opened in late 2019 and received the Merit Award for Design / Constructed work in the 2020 ASLA Kentucky Awards. With its welcoming spaces, amenities, and events, a place of diverse inclusivity has been created at Christy’s Garden.