As part of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute’s New Vision of Health Campus the Trager MicroForest Project will intensely plant Founders Square, a small city park located in the heart of downtown Louisville. This location offers a unique opportunity to reimagine urban greening and measure its impact on human health and the environment, moving us towards a model for cities that focus on fostering health and happiness.
Current research on the site includes study of the micro-climate as it relates to urban heat islands, urban greening and stress reduction, biodiversity and the microbiome of the square, soil health and more.
This project will create an engaging green space that serves residents, attracts visitors and adds to the vitality of downtown.
Phase One is under way
With the Master Planning process complete, phase one of the microforest began in April 2024 with the construction of the central raised forest area and new circular pathway. We also depaved significant areas in order to allow the existing perimeter trees more space to breath and more areas to incorporate understory greening.
With the phase one construction almost complete, we will begin planting over 100 trees and shrubs this fall. You can follow the progress through our weekly post updates found at the bottom of this page.
The Trager MicroForest Project at Founders Square is not simply a beautification project. It extends the work of the Envirome Institute’s pioneering Green Heart Project, serving as a unique urban greenspace research and intervention initiative that will provide a template for future urban greening projects.
We will investigate:
Trager MicroForest Master Plan
Through public workshops in early 2023 and followup design and ideation sessions with our design consultants at Gresham Smith, we have developed a conceptual master plan that drives current construction.
Current Conditions
We have installed two Chronolog stations in Founders Square, one at the southwest corner near Armory and Muhammad Ali Blvd, and a second at the northeast corner. These stations allow us to produce crowd-sourced timelapse videos of the progress of the Trager MicroForest Project that monitor changes over time.
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