Town Branch Commons

Tracing the buried path of Town Branch Creek—Lexington’s original water source—Town Branch Commons reimagines how infrastructure, ecology, and urban life can coalesce into a resilient public realm.

SCAPE partnered with the City of Lexington to re-imagine this ribbon of native Bluegrass landscape into a 2.5-mile multi-modal corridor that makes the region more resilient and rewarding.

The process began with years of collaborative work—grant proposals, education initiatives, iterative designs—navigating many municipalities, landowners, and residents. The resulting corridor weaves together vibrant neighborhoods, fascinating geology, and new economic opportunities to honor the spirit of the Bluegrass country and its people.

Town Branch Creek slowly disappeared as Lexington grew, built over and largely forgotten. But this hidden channel embodied so much of Kentucky's geologic formation.

The greenway follows the buried path of Town Branch Creek, which is unveiled through a series of interactive water features, as well as interpretive signage. Inspired by the unique local limestone (karst) geology, the cycling and pedestrian paths highlight pools, water windows, and stream channels that connect the movement of water to the movement of people.

Uniquely Lexingtonian

Every element of the design is grounded in the local context of Central Kentucky’s karst geology and traditional landforms.
Much of Central Kentucky is undergirded by limestone deposits. Due to its soft, sedimentary composition, limestone is easily dissolved and eroded by water and springs altogether known as “karst” landscapes.
Inspired by these landscapes, the design for Town Branch Commons integrates “karst cascades”—stacked limestone elements conveying water into lush, planted bioswales alongside the trail—and other features that reference the unique geology of the Bluegrass region.
The signature paving for Town Branch Commons references the hatch patterns of limestone geology and horse fences found across the Bluegrass region.
Rather than being used uniformly throughout the Commons, the paving is strategically applied at points where greenway users slow down, stop, or linger. The patterns dissolve into intersections and work in concert with other hardscape elements, including walls, banding, to direct pedestrians and cyclists along the trail.

Rain gardens filled with native plants collect and treat stormwater run-off, and over 300 trees tripled the existing downtown canopy to provide shade and cool the city.

With dedicated walking and biking paths, bioswales, and memorable design rooted in the region’s unique Bluegrass landscape, Town Branch Commons reclaims the heart of the city for its people.

The corridor had a host of requirements: multiple modes of transportation, connecting existing parks and cultural centers, and linking downtown Lexington to rural communities.

Town Branch Commons incorporates a roadway diet that reduces the number of lanes to accommodate out space for cyclists, pedestrians, and bioswales—a large-scale urban transformation underpinned by nearly a decade of iterative design, planning, and engagement.

Vastly improving the city’s pedestrian and bike infrastructure, the Commons improves accessibility for trail users of all abilities, safely buffered from vehicular traffic.

The environmental, social, and economic impact of Town Branch Commons was assessed and documented through LAF’s Case Study Investigation program. Read the full case study here.

Water Walk

The project was complemented by Town Branch Water Walk, a public education campaign funded by a local stormwater grant that featured an interactive model, podcast, and series of maps to guide residents along a tour of the historic Town Branch Creek, telling the story of how the city’s water systems evolved over time.
The Water Walk gives a broad understanding of the biophysical area around the Town Branch, reveals the invisible waters that run beneath the city, and demonstrates some of the impacts each resident of Lexington can have on the river and its water quality.
Together with SCAPE and MTWTF, landscape architecture students at the University of Kentucky developed maps and podcasts about various aspects of Lexington’s complex water system, which can be viewed here.
By sharing how water systems and people are interrelated—both locally and globally—the Town Branch Water Walk makes stormwater quality relevant, linking it with the history, culture, and ecology of the city.

The greenway traces the buried path of Town Branch Creek, which is unveiled through a series of interactive water features, as well as interpretive signage. Co-developed with local historians and residents, the interpretive signage along the greenway describes diverse aspects of the region’s cultural and ecological history.

Town Branch Commons not only reconnects nature with downtown, but also people with place. Throughout the path, visitors find interpretative signage to learn more about how the region’s social history, geology, and local context was brought to life in the greenway’s design.

Learn more about how SCAPE fosters collective conversation about long term environmental and community stewardship in Learning Landscapes.

This landscape-driven project restores the city’s ecological memory while advancing equity, connectivity, and civic pride.

Client

Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG)

Collaborators

Gresham Smith (Final Design & Implementation Lead)

Strand Engineering

Aguilar Stone Masonry

Pace Contracting

Lord Aeck Sargent

Third Rock Consultants

Lochner

AECOM

Element Design

EHI Consultants

University of Kentucky

Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau (VisitLex)

Town Branch Trail, Inc.

Acheulean Consulting

Art Inc. Kentucky

Yvonne Giles

Kenneth Brooks

Awards

ASLA Professional Awards: Honor Award – Urban Design (2023)

ASLA-GA: Honor Award – General Design (2023)

ASLA-SERC: Merit Award – General Design (2023)

ASLA-KY: Honor Award – Constructed Work (2023)

ASLA-NY: Merit Award – General Design (2023)

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): Environmental Excellence Award (2022)

Press

For questions, please contact SCAPE
press@scapestudio.com

To learn more about the project, read Matt Hickman in The Architect’s Newspaper (2022).

Read more about our design process in Learning Landscapes.

Client

Collaborators

Awards

Press

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