Town Branch Commons

Town Branch Commons is a transformative vision for a multi-modal transportation and linear park system tracing the path of the historic Town Branch Creek through Lexington—a ribbon of native Bluegrass landscape weaving through downtown.

Rather than introducing a single daylit stream channel into the city, the design uses the local limestone (karst) geology as inspiration for a series of pools, pockets, water windows, and stream channels that brings water into the public realm. The greenway also links into the Town Branch Trail and Legacy Trail—altogether, a 5.5-mile network that connects downtown Lexington to rural communities to the North and West in Fayette County.

Throughout the project’s development over nearly a decade, SCAPE led a number of related initiatives, including Town Branch Water Walk. SCAPE also designed interpretive signage that is distributed throughout the greenway from Vine Street through Midland Avenue, each sign describing a different aspect of the region’s social history, karst geology, and local context as interpreted through greenway design.

SCAPE won the design competition for Town Branch Commons in 2013. The project broke ground in 2018 and was completed in 2022.

Learn more:

• Read Matt Hickman in The Architect’s Newspaper (2022).