Living in Louisville

From Architectural Digest: When philanthropist and art collector Steve Wilson and his wife, Laura Lee Brown, first dreamt up the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, it was conceived as a one-off. Located in the city's historic district, the hotel also serves as a means to share the couple’s love of art, as well as their impressive and ever-growing collection (which is as challenging and progressive as anything New York has to offer), with a wider, underserved audience. Read more.

Certain cities are on everyone’s wish lists: New York, Austin, Nashville. And they belong on those lists. But it’s a big country, and there are so many more places to see—including, increasingly, cities that we never would have given a second glance. Thanks to grassroots and civic revitalization projects, creative types taking advantage of cheap real estate, and the realization that small can be beautiful, a new list of must-see cities is forming. Read more.

Via Forbes.com: For many Americans, the city of Louisville is synonymous with three things: bourbon, Hot Browns (a local dish of thick toast topped with turkey, bacon, and Mornay sauce), and the Kentucky Derby. While all of these things still deserve our attention, there’s another good reason to visit this vibrant Southern city: outstanding restaurants and bars. Read more.

Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, is more than baseball bats and horseracing (although we’ll talk about those in a minute). Being the 27th largest metro area in the U.S. has its perks. For example, it’s a large enough city to draw in job opportunities (the city recently ranked #18 nationwide for job opportunities in health care and affordable housing) while maintaining a big helping of quaint Southern charm. As you consider purchasing a new Louisville home, we have a few facts for you to consider about the city.

 Derby City

Churchill Downs in South Louisville plays host every year to more than 150,000 attendees of the Kentucky Derby, held the day after the Kentucky Oaks, which itself is the third most-attended day of racing in the U.S. (For reference, the most recent Superbowl, held in Arlington, TX, was the most-attended Superbowl in history and saw only 103,219 attendees.) On top of the horse races, which continue in a tradition started back in 1875, the derby is also known for its fashion: those famed hats. The large, feathered, and otherwise extravagant headwear started becoming a staple at the event in the 1960s, and have attracted nearly as many admirers as the derby itself. While donning the stylish chapeaus, the derby observers are also downing approximately 120,000 mint juleps, the event’s traditional drink.

Strong Housing Market

Louisville’s real estate is in a great stage for buyers right now. In fact, the city was recently named the ...

From C-J.com:  To know the future, some invest in age old practices like consulting the movements of celestial bodies in astrology or observing the tea leaves left in a cup as practiced in tasseography. There’s also the handy Magic 8-Ball for making predictions. Instead, we've consulted some local experts to figure out the future in four areas: regional art and culture, Louisville cuisine and libations, fitness and wellness, and women’s cultural status in our community and state. Read more.

Kentucky Select Properties was started in Louisville in 2004 and is still 100% locally-owned and independent. Every business decision is made at the local level by owners who have a vested interest in the quality of life of their fellow Louisvillians.

The Benefits of Going Local from Kentucky Select Properties on Vimeo.

Great article from Bailey Loosemore at the Courier-Journal: Separated by the Ohio River, two of the metro area's once-thriving waterfront communities each had to almost completely die before they could enter periods of rebirth. Butchertown and New Albany - communities founded nearly 200 years ago - aren't a pair that's often compared. But with the metro as a whole experiencing a return to urban living, both have been labeled neighborhoods on the rise and have more in common than one might think. Read more.

Check out this great article from Louisville native and travel blogger, Lia Saunders: Louisville, Kentucky is the city where I was born and raised, and although I’ve traveled all over the world, I’ve never found anywhere quite as special. Louisville is more than just a world class city brimming with art, culture, food, bourbon, and the friendliest people you’ll meet anywhere. It’s a big city with a small town feel, as the locals like to say. Louisville has so much to offer and shouldn’t be overlooked for anyone planning a trip to nearby St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville, or Indianapolis! Read more.

Members of Kentucky Select enjoy lunch at the 2016 Partners in Philanthropy Awards presented by Business First of Louisville and The Community Foundation of Louisville. From Left: John Stough, Ann James, Missy Ormerod, Christy Dodds, Woode Hannah, Julie Beam, Jay Gulick and Sandy Gulick.

From Courier-Journal.com: Tommy Johns knew before he toured a single home starting late last fall that he and his girlfriend would feel most at home in Germantown, the neighborhood on the north side of Eastern Parkway that's become a big draw for young professionals. Read more.

Thirty things to do in Louisville this Fourth of July weekend. Thanks to the Courier-Journal for these tips!  Lots of festivals, concerts, neighborhood gatherings and more. See what's happening.

From Courier-Journal.com: In strike-up-the-band news for bowlers, the new owners of the retro-era Vernon Lanes bowling alley and event space in a historic Butchertown building plan to continue offering bowling, after closing temporarily for renovations. Atlas Properties management group, a subsidiary of LEVO investment firm in the Whitestone Building on West Main Street, announced Tuesday that it had purchased the property, also known as the Vernon Club, 1575 Story Ave. Read more.

Via Broken Sidewalk and Contributing Editor/Filmaker Elijah McKenzie. In 2014 Louisville based "City Collaborative" created Resurfaced a project to build temporary "pop up plazas" on vacant lots across the city. This video explains some of the thinking behind Resurfaced and the future of Louisville's urban core through the voices of Marianne Zickuhr (Founding executive director, Preservation Louisville), Patrick Henry (Landscape Architect, Patrick Henry Landscape Architects), Jennifer Chappell (Creator, Three Points Beautification Project), and Jaison Gardner (Co-host, WFPL’s “Strange Fruit”). Watch The Video.

From Departures.com: The distiller behind Copper & Kings—makers of exceptional American brandy and absinthe—tells us why the Derby town is home to so much more than just the two most exciting minutes in sports. Louisville denizen Joe Heron helped re-popularize hard cider in America when he founded Crispin in 2004. Read more.

LOUISVILLE bolts into the public eye for 120 seconds each May, but there is more to this courtly city on the Ohio River than the Kentucky Derby. The last decade has seen a cultural and civic blooming, with new galleries, restaurants and performance spaces taking their place alongside the city’s already robust roster of seductions. Entire neighborhoods — Butchertown, for instance, and East Market — have been reimagined as engines of cultural and culinary expression. Read more.

From HighlandsHomePlace.com: Kentucky is serious about bourbon. If you order an Old Fashioned in Kentucky, there’s not much question about what you will get. There are a few rules when it comes to bourbon production, as well as some unwritten rules that come with how you drink it. We’ve all heard the self-proclaimed bourbon connoisseur at the restaurant who orders a “Woodford and Coke”. Read more.

From Courier-Journal.com: Louisville has moved near the head of the line among the dozens of communities coveting a fiber-optics network developed by Google Fiber that could provide ultrafast Internet service. The fiber network, if installed, would greatly increase the speed for downloading material from the Internet, streaming movies, gaming and more.  Read more.

Best known as the home of the annual Kentucky Derby, Louisville remains under the radar for most people. But, as the locals will tell you, Louisville isn’t the small, southern town many envision. In the last decade, it has blossomed into a city that rivals other southern cities like Nashville and Charleston. Even as Louisville transforms, its history is not lost — everything comes with a side of the southern hospitality. It’s not uncommon to find a new condo development on one block in Louisville and towering historic homes on the next. With an endless number of bourbon bars, nearly a dozen museums and an intense basketball rivalry, Louisville manages to offer both the best of both worlds for those seeking the feel of a small town and the conveniences of a larger city. Check out what these proud residents love most about their changing city. Read more.

Take the eclectic charm of the Highlands, add Northern influences, then give it some breathing room on seven wooded acres adjacent to a nature preserve, and you’ve got 2205 Shady Spring Court.

Located on a secluded cul de sac in Paramount Estates in Oldham County’s Prospect, it’s evident this house was built to be a lived in and not simply a showpiece, though there’s no denying the sublime craftsmanship and décor.

Owners Elizabeth Sullivan, a learning specialist and therapist, and John Sullivan, M.D., a child psychiatrist, had restored an old home on Hill Road in the Highlands in the 1990s. At that time, they were sending their four children to St. Francis of the Fields in Prospect. The commute got to be too much, so they decided in 2001 to build a home closer to the school. The couple worked closely with builder Doug Amlung and architect Mary Herd-Jackson to bring as much of the Highlands with them as possible. 

Read the rest at Insider Louisville