The architectural firm SCAPE plans new paths through Lexington, Kentucky’s downtown using the city's buried water and karst formations as its key features.
There's water flowing underground. Not just in Talking Heads songs, but all over Kentucky. Porous limestone is shaped and passed through by water. This topology is called karst, and it's going to be a key feature in a new series of bike and walking paths in Lexington, Kentucky.
In an article for The Architects Newspaper, Zach Edelson reports the multi-use path, "Will carve pedestrian and bike paths through the heart of Lexington, creating new green spaces and linking with regional trails at both ends. To create freshwater pools—SCAPE calls them “karst windows,” in reference to similar naturally occurring formations—the design will tap old culverts (essentially large pipes) that previously kept Lexington’s karst water out of sight."
While the project is yet to break ground, the designers hope to gain support for the project by tying it to a key feature of Kentucky, the karst topology is what bluegrass sits atop.
Read the full story: SCAPE turns Lexington, Kentucky’s long-buried water into an asset
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