Councilman Coan Announces Next Phase Of Old Cardinal Stadium Seating Bus Stop Project

Photo: Louisville Metro Council

Councilman Brandon Coan (D-8) in collaboration with the Urban Design Studio at the University of Louisville has unveiled the prototype installation of the first phase of the Old Cardinal Stadium Seating Bus Stop Project.

The prototype installation is the first phase of 15 bus stop locations along a 2-mile stretch of Bardstown Road with two additional stops on Barrett Avenue.

“I am pleased to announce this project has taken a bit of history from the sports world of our city and repurposed it to become a practical if not colorful way to enhance public transportation,” said Coan. “Those who have fond memories of the Old Cardinal Stadium will now be reminded of those memories when they see people using these seats for a new purpose.”

A group of civic-minded friends salvaged 120 seats from the Old Cardinal Stadium demolition on March 20th. The seats were donated by Complete Demolition Services. Metro Council District 8; Urban Design Studio at UofL; Metro Public Works; and Transit Authority of River City worked with local artist and craftsman shop RockerBuilt to develop the 3-seat prototype.

The intention of the Old Cardinal Stadium Seating Bus Stop Project is to demonstrate the creative reuse of part of our City’s history, that was destined for the landfill, to improve public spaces and public transportation. Councilman Coan and Patrick Piuma, of the Urban Design Studio, reached out to People for Urban Progress (PUP) http://peopleup.org, a non-profit organization out of Indianapolis to learn more. The group had developed a similar project reutilizing stadium seating. Ultimately, this project moved forward when the best practices were learned and the partners figured out a process to repurpose the old stadium seats.

The Phase One goal is to provide additional bus stop seating as well as make it a beautification project.

“We wanted to not only increase capacity of bus stop seating along the corridor, but hopefully elevate the image of public transit and draw attention to a heavily used transit corridor with part of our City’s history,” said Patrick Piuma of the Urban Design Studio.

Once the prototype pilot site has been evaluated, the rest of the phase one seats will be fabricated and sponsorship opportunities will be offered to the public for the 16 other predetermined locations to cover costs.

Here is the location for the next 15 installations located along Bardstown Road:https://louisvilleky.gov/sites/default/files/metro_council/members/8/pdf…

After that, 25 other units will go out across the city. Three-seat segments are $850 each and two-seat segments are $637.50 each.  The remaining seat-units will then be offered to other Metro Council district members.

To learn more about how to sponsor an Old Cardinal Stadium Seating Bus Stop, contact Councilman Coan at: 574-1108.