Designed by Los Angeles-based (fer) Studio and developed and owned by Gill Holland and his wife Augusta, The Green Building has not only spawned the redevelopment of the run-down East Market area of Louisville into a “locally grown” strolling arts district, but it has also resulted in a new name for the district—NuLu—“New Louisville.”
Holland purchased the 115-year-old former dry goods store in 2006 intending to upgrade it for mixed use. His green aspirations were stimulated
“when visiting Iceland which runs off geothermal and seeing the grass-covered Viking-type houses in the Norwegian countryside,”he remarks.
A longstanding friendship with (fer) Studio’s Douglas Pierson, AIA, led Holland to bring the firm on as architects. Pierson and his partner Christopher Mercier, AIA, had met at Frank Gehry Associates and subsequently founded their own firm.