(LBF) -- The University of Louisville unveiled its newest teaching space in town — a revitalized warehouse in the Portland neighborhood that is the school's first location west of Ninth Street.
On Tuesday evening, U of L held a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate the completion of the project at 1606 Rowan St. in the Portland neighborhood. The event featured appearances by university President Neeli Bendapudi, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, local developer and lieutenant governor candidate Gill Holland and Metro Councilwoman Barbara Sexton Smith, according to a news advisory from the school.
The 60,000-square-foot, two-story warehouse was built in the 1880s and has been used as a steamer trunk factory and floor-covering distribution business.
About 43,200 square feet of the building now houses U of L's master of fine arts degree program in studio arts and design; anthropology labs and archaeological artifact storage; and the Urban Design Studio. You can see photos of the space in the attached gallery.
The building's owner, a local investor group called Rowan Downstream LLC, will lease the space to U of L through an agreement with the U of L Foundation that will last for 10 years.
Holland is a member of the investor group, along with Jacob Brown, Justin Brown, Owsley Brown III, Chad Middendorf, Ashley Blacketer, Gregg Rochman, Katie Smith, Matt Gilles, and Jonathan Bevan, according to a fact sheet from the school.
Demolition on the building started in the summer of 2016; renovation work started in the summer of late 2017 and wrapped up in late 2018, according to Judy Hughes, communications and marketing specialist for U of L.
