The march of student housing developments continues in Lexington, this time striking a blow in a new part of the Aylesford Neighborhood, near Woodland Park: the Woodland Triangle, once home to Ramsey’s, and a long-cherished collection of commercial buildings. There is a public meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 28, 6:30 pm at Woodland Christian Church to discuss the zone change request, which will result in the demolition of at least six historic buildings between East High and East Maxwell Streets, and bring yet another seven-story student apartment building to town.*
This two-story frame building, once home to Ramsey’s, is among those slated for demolition. Image from Google Streetview.
While I will be the first to admit that this collection of buildings are careworn (“dated” commercial buildings is the description used in the developer’s marketing piece), and have been allowed to deteriorate for around 40 years, I don’t know that this proposed development is the answer to Lexington’s housing problem.
The rendering of the proposed new building. Get ready Lexington! Aquatic life forms coming soon to you!**
Oh wait – this isn’t intended for residents of Lexington. Silly, silly me.
The justified need for increased density and additional affordable housing units in Lexington is answered by the construction of privately-owned dormitories for students! Students with parents with deep pockets!
Streetscape view of the buildings in question. Thanks Google Streetview.
And I really take umbrage at the glossy piece of marketing with multiple Wendell Berry quotes, allusions to Botticelli, and the name-dropping of historic local buildings and Clay Lancaster.
I can’t even…***
I’m an architectural historian. I love purple prose. I’m well-versed in academic language that spills many words on the page without saying anything – something one of my friends and colleagues likes to call “keeping the feather in the air,” a description particularly apt after sitting through several hours of paper presentations at a conference. In other words, it’s a bunch of bs to justify new construction that finds inspiration in other new construction, not within the existing built environment.
Because if this is how Lexington allows UK to expand without UK being involved – and just look at what is happening to Maxwell west of Rose Street (yes, yes, another collection of buildings left undermaintained by landlords) – then what is to stop the rest of the quirky Woodland Triangle from undergoing the same transformation, the emergence of “something new coming into being from the waters of the unknown”?****
I better go put some boots on. It’s getting pretty deep around here.
*While these buildings are listed in a National Register of Historic Places district (the Southeast Lexington Residential and Commercial District), they are NOT in the local Aylesford H-1 overlay. Neither is the other side of the street. I imagine the property owners at the time of that overlay kicked up such a fuss that the area was left out in order to get the larger neighborhood designated.
**Titan Investments, page 44
***Titan Investments, page 40
****Titan Investments, page 44
Ugh. Just ugh! And, no, just no! Yes, they are time worn, but they are what makes us interesting. More glossy buildings makes us look like any other (ugly) big city. The traffic will be horrendous. I am sad to see the old buildings on Maxwell Street go, as it is.
Another awful redevelopment of a great little commercial area. I hope this gets beaten back because I can’t imagine the neighborhood favors this kind of redevelopment.
Thank you for this, Janie Rice. I too am tired of seeing UK taking over all these neighborhoods. I just wish somebody would take over the woodland triangle and upgraded for us Townies.
Can you provide a link to rendering from Titan Investments/ Ayers Saint Gross? Curious about the number and size of store fronts on the ground floor and whether local businesses will be able to afford them or if they will go to national chains.
Here you go: https://www.gardenstogables.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Woodland-Triangle-Context-Plan-.pdf
Do you think a business like Ramsey’s would have ever gotten a start except in an old building with relatively low rent in a downtown neighborhood? These kinds of buildings are “business incubators,” in a way that no new building with higher rents can be. Just as older buildings are almost always more affordable than anything that replaces them in the name of affordable housing. If people don’t care about intangibles like “sense of place” and quirky charm, maybe they should think about affordability and and supporting new small businesses.
One word, Parking
Where in the world will all of these developments find parking for these units? There is a shortage currently and you can’t just find 400 spaces or more for these students.
Parking is under the developments on Jersey @ Upper and South Limestone @ Virginia Ave
I moved into my apartment in one of the houses on Hagerman a handful of months before demolition started for the site they’re building on now. Had no idea it was even happening beforehand. It’s almost entirely on-street parking and it was already pretty rough before this started. The construction has amplified the driving and parking difficulty on all of the adjacent streets and ESPECIALLY Hagerman of course. For I believe almost a year now I have been living in a warzone. They found lead pipes while doing the pipe work for the new building so they tore up my entire street. They still haven’t fixed the cold weather patches. I had my water shut off several times without warning while they did all this. My car was constantly covered with dirt and debris. I hear construction sounds all day because there’s a crane swinging past my window. They have these massive lights on at night a lot that are like the surface of the sun. This entire thing has made living here hell for every resident on my street I’m sure, and the city wants to clog up the streets and do the same bs like two lights down? Are we actually serious? I absolutely loved living downtown here until all of this. It has genuinely degraded my quality of life. I was beginning to really love Lexington and now I resent it. They literally do not care about the citizens. They care only about university money.
Thank you so much for writing about this. We are being sold out by the city & landlords in our neighborhood! I live on the 400 block of E. High St and feel they are closing in. Our city is losing its history & character more each day.
We must not let this happen!!
Soulless, lifeless, and maybe worst of all, spectacularly uninteresting. Reminds me of the Hyatt and Hilton downtown. Rectangular boxes with some sort of neutral color cladding on the outside.
I thought Lexington had gotten away from that.
Although I guess there is that abomination at Newtown and 4th that would prove me wrong.
Maybe it would be simpler to just change the name of our city to UKington. They. UK,just take what they want, when they want it. They tore down a huge student dorm complex, Blanton towers for what? More athletic fields. Why not have built back the dorms and student housing. These are dormitories, a place you sleep and study for basically 4 years. They don’t have to be luxurious, just a bit of comfort and functional . Save our city from ” The Blob” that keeps spreading and destroying our culture.
We tried to support a business on Limestone that had parking under the building. We will not go back again. The parking area was difficult, not well lit and did not make us feel safe to be there. The restaurant is best suited for street traffic. I fear that this is what the triangle would be like if that building is built. Can you imagine having the Woodland Arts Fair with that kind of construction going on?
If you’re going to push this ugly a** crap on Lexington could you at least make the exterior interesting and not the cheap gray sad clad
This is so exhausting. So much happening all at once, they’re already doing student housing one block down on Maxwell St. STUDENTS CANNOT AFFORD these high rises. They keep building and building bc student housing at the dorms is “too expensive” but what is the point of building more housing if it will also be too expensive. It seems more like ploy to control rates. Half of the building aren’t even occupied. They use them to control prices via supply and demand. They keep rooms empty purposely to increase demand, price gouge and then people will pay whatever so long as it means housing. It is so unnecessary. SO EXHAUSTING.
What parking will these residents use? I have a kid who currently attends Maxwell Elementary. Drop-off and regular pickup wreak havoc on regular traffic. Throw in UK and rush-hour traffic during late pickup from the after-school program, and combine it all with a short block with impossible traffic light timing at those two intersections, and oh, what fun it is to drive. What do the planners say to that?
The corner store that you see at Woodland and High was my first location for the Woodland Grocery. My memory will always be positive about my experience there though there were two major negatives. The first being the previous owner was apparently bankrupt due to a gambling addiction and the last landlord when I was, there was one of the most greedy men in Lexington now living, apparently on a yacht in the Pacific. Ramsey’s located there after the failed Arab grocery store owner can not afford the high rent and the repairs she had to do after I moved out. I think my landlord got in trouble for falsifying a judges signature in an attempt to steal all of his equipment. Luckily, I found a location for the Woodland Grocery and moved for success on Walton Avenue as the Woodland Grocery on Walton.
The banking industry,, with politicians agreeing is financing corporate housing, and we buy houses, so that students will be victimized by higher rent, they already are being, due to banks and greedy landlords.
What about that beautiful tree?!?! Please tell me that they aren’t cutting it down!