Louisville, Kentucky
Located in the downtown core of Louisville, the new Kentucky International Convention Center (KICC) by HOK, redefines the role of urban convention centers.
Kentucky International Convention Center was recently awarded with a 2020 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Traditionally convention centers are inwardly focused building typologies, driven by a demanding program of large volumes removed from the cities they serve.
This approach ignores the vibrancy and activity of the street, often with consequences that damage the surrounding context and neighborhoods.
The original KICC was no exception to this notion of the building as an urban introvert.
The design of KICC creates an urban extrovert: a center that supports the demands of the program and celebrates the activity of the convention center, its interaction with the city, its contribution to the vitality of Louisville’s downtown, and its role to elevate a civic building in Louisville.
Along with the need to redefine the inwardly focused convention center paradigm, the KICC client leadership and City of Louisville public officials wanted to celebrate Louisville’s sense of place.
Louisville’s rich traditions and heritage come from its location on the Ohio River, its vast network of Olmsted parks, and its magnificent architectural traditions and vernacular that celebrate the idea of the front door with welcoming porticos.
Capturing the spirit of Louisville’s civic tradition of Olmsted-designed parks and relationship to the Ohio River, the center’s canopy and undulating public spaces of the ‘piano nobile’ reflect the verticality of the park’s tree canopies, the tradition of the welcoming front door, and the fluidity of a great river.
Within the center, dynamic vertical oak wood paneling defines the ballroom and celebrates the local distilleries, Kentucky’s famous bourbon trade, and the Louisville Slugger.
Oriented around the concept of “an urban extrovert,” a cantilever pre-function space allows for transparency, views, and natural daylight beyond the classically introverted program of convention centers.
The cantilevered spaces are situated over West Jefferson Street and West Market Street and extend beyond the site boundary.
The pre-function space within the overhang provides a new and unique connection to the community of Louisville with unobstructed views of the surrounding buildings, public spaces, and pedestrian activity.
The redesigned pre-function spaces stand outside the main venues at the core of the convention center to allow them to breathe in the open spaciousness afforded by the transparent facade and the multiple skylights above the main entrance.
The result is a sun-dappled interior by day and an illuminated lantern by night.
Transformed and revitalized from a masonry structure, the KICC had many challenges, including integrating the renovation and expansion within the existing structure and minimizing the project’s environmental impacts while reviving and extending the life cycle of existing spaces.
As the project progressed, the western half of the building paves the way for a transparent facade and new day-lit public circulation spaces to represent the building’s unique extroverted personality.
The sustainable design solution of the convention center promotes both energy and water conservation. KICC is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.
The expansion and renovation of the KICC provide Louisville with a renewed civic landmark and re-energized downtown. The building adds 344,000 sqft of newly constructed space and 310,000 sqft of renovated spaces, introducing an elegant civic sensibility to the existing opaque volumes.
The updated KICC design reimagines the role of the convention center and contributes to the positive economic transformation of downtown Louisville.
The center features a total of 200,125 sqft of exhibit space, a 40,000 sqft ballroom, 52 meeting rooms, and a 175-seat conference theater. Its new full-service kitchen can accommodate 15,000 meals per day.
Project: Kentucky International Convention Center
Architects: HOK
Associate Architects: EOP Architects
Client: Commonwealth of Kentucky
General Contractor: AECOM Hunt
Photographers: Christopher Payne/Esto