Behind the Belvedere redux

A potential revamp of the Belvedere, along Louisville's waterfront, has been a big priority for Mayor Craig Greenberg. And it's a topic that got a lot of people talking thanks to a bold early design (which has now been abandoned.)

We get an in-depth update on the project this week on the Access Louisville podcast via an interview with Layla George, who's managing the reimagining effort.

In an interview with LBF Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy, George talks about what she's heard from the public since that initial design from Heatherwick Studio came out early this year. People had strong opinions about it, but as she explains, the idea has been scrapped because of the structural work it would have required. Now project officials are looking at what's next for the site.

"There's so much potential to the site that's untapped right now," she said. "We are long overdue for Belvedere version 3.0."

Those behind the project have certain amenities they want to see up there, she explains — a covered stage, shade, seating, a walking path and a better, more accessible connection to the Ohio River.

A new design is currently under development and could be released by February. Officials are working through the cost estimates before releasing new designs, she said.

George said she visited around 50 parks and public spaces in cities across the country for design inspiration. Interestingly, though, many places that featured beautiful landscape design were empty. And so, she explains on the show "success really looks like a lot of people using the space, all the time."

Two strong examples from her travels she shouted out were Klyde Warren Park in Dallas and Discover Green in Houston. They were both of which were packed during times where no special events were going on — just daily life, she explained.

"Those two parks were models for me. After seeing that, I thought, we can absolutely do that at the Belvedere."

You can hear more in the interview itself. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which are linked above. You can also listen in the player above.