Firing-Up the Redevelopment of an Abandoned Incinerator
Exploring reuse opportunities for a waste transfer station site in Louisville, Kentucky
Project Summary
Community: Louisville, Kentucky
Technical Assistance: Reuse Assessment
Former Use: Incinerator Building
Future Use: Resource Recovery, Active
Recreation, Maker Space Facility
Industrialization beginning in the early 1900s left behind
several large, underutilized brownfield sites within a
working-class residential community in Louisville,
Kentucky. One of these sites is an active waste transfer
station that includes a vacant historic incinerator building
constructed after World War II.
In 2015 the City and County completed the Central Rail
Corridor brownfields area-wide plan. The plan envisioned
an "Eco-lndustrial District" located between two anchor
catalyst sites, one of them being the waste transfer
station. The community identified this site for potential
redevelopment into a resource recovery facility or a facility
that provides community-serving functions.
The Community's Challenge
Louisville needed to understand the historic significance of
the incinerator building, determine structural limitations for
reusing the structure, and identify potential opportunities
for converting the building in a manner consistent with
their Eco-lndustrial District vision.
EPA's Land Revitalization Technical Assistance
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Land
Revitalization Program provided contractor technical
assistance in 2015 to develop a Historic Resource
Evaluation Report, which identified character-defining
features and evaluated the building's eligibility for inclusion
in the National Register of Historic Places. The contracting
team also performed a Preliminary Reuse Study, which
included an assessment of the incinerator building's
architecture, schematic renderings and narratives of
several reuse alternatives, and a review of potential
building code implications for each alternative. The
considered alternatives included a comprehensive
resource recovery park, an active recreation facility, an
inter-generational community center, and a multi-use flex
space.
By assessing the historical and architectural integrity of
the incinerator building and providing a range of
revitalization options, Louisville can capitalize on the
historic fabric of the building while realizing the vision for
an Eco-lndustrial District that will spur further economic
investment in the Central Rail Corridor.
Potential programming for an active recreation facility and inter-
generational community center reuse alternative.
For more information, contact Derek Street, EPA Region 4
Brownfields Program, at street.derek@epa.qov.
vvEPA
United States	Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization
Environmental Protection
Agency	560-F-19-005-H

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