Louisville’s Go-To Guys
Source: Turf Magazinee
Author: Jerry Mix
Date: January, 2012
From snow management to green roofs to community service,
Steele Blades does it all
Steele Blades Lawn & Landscaping Services, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., knows what it’s doing when it comes to landscaping services. For sure, Steele Blades does a lot of the usual things lawn and landscaping companies do, like mowing and fertilizing, but a whole lot more, too. For example, green roofs. Steele Blades has become the go-to company in northern Kentucky and southwest Ohio for green roofs.
“I’m a turf nut. I grew up working on the golf side.” says Alex Fransen, the company’s landscape development manager. “Steele Blades does high-definition mowing, laying good stripe patterns, not rutting up properties.” It also provides lawn care services, and uses top-quality, granular, slow-release fertilizers.
Steele Blades has employees with the expertise to handle…
Steele Blades served as “champions” for PLANET Gives Back
Source: Turf Magazine
Author: Ron Hall
Date: Dec, 2011
Landscape and lawn service company owners and their employees are providing more community service than ever before. Inexplicably, this spirit of giving seems to be spreading in spite of what many feel is the most challenging economic environment yet faced by the industry.
Here Alex Fransen of Steele Blades lays out the afternoon’s plan.
PLANET Gives Back
Source: Professional Land Care Network
Date: 2011
Steele Blades is part of our industries large organization and we are actively involved in several committees. This year at the GIE Conference/Expo Alex Fransen landscape development manager for Steele Blades Lawn and Landscape championed “PLANET Gives Back”, the first ever PLANET community volunteer project. “Our company loves to help with a few volunteer projects each year. My crews and I feel great when we get to do what we love and help a great organization at the same time”!
Mazzoli Federal Building goes green
Source: WAVE-3
Author: Megan Kean
Date: Aug 22, 2011
LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – Louisville is a bit greener since Monday’s unveiling of the metro’s newest green roof.
A large garden now covers the roof of the Mazzoli Federal Building in downtown Louisville. The green roof has multiple benefits, including helping to absorb excess rain water, which will keep it out of our sewers.
Federal Building roof goes “green”
Source: WDRB News
Author: WDRB
Date: Aug 22, 2011
LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) — The largest green roof in Kentucky is now growing on a building in Louisville. It will help the environment and cut costs at the same time.
Neil Morgan, Director of the Kentucky Service Center, explains, “The sustainability project started with an idea between the federal government and the city government.”
That green partnership morphed into a flourishing garden on top of the Mazzoli Federal Building in downtown Louisville. The idea is to recycle rainwater instead of letting it create costly waste runoff.
Muhammad Ali Center recasts identity
Source: Courier Journal
Author: Sheldon S. Shafer
Date: Aug 14, 2011
As it tries to sharpen its identity as one of Louisville’s premiere attractions, the Muhammad Ali Center has opened a major new space called the Brown-Forman Pavilion that overlooks both Sixth Street and the Ohio River and is available to rent for private functions.
A gift from the Louisville-based distiller paid for the $250,000 pavilion project, said center spokeswoman Jeanie Kahnke. The money was part of a larger donation Brown-Forman made recently to the center’s Legacy Campaign, an effort to raise $10 million to finish some long-planned center needs, including creation of an endowment fund, adding a library, and upgrading mechanical systems and the Ali museum exhibits.
Lawn & Landscape Magazine-2011 Sustainability Report
Source: Lawn & Landscape Magazine
Author: Carolyn LaWell
Date: July, 2011
Surely it sounds peculiar, but one of the hottest trends in landscaping is taking place in urban centers.
Cities are looking to control stormwater runoff, increase air quality and reduce the urban heat island effect. Companies and property managers are looking to save on energy costs, increase the value of their property and provide green space for workers and residents.
Through green roofs, landscapers can capitalize on those needs in big ways.
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“Anywhere from 3-6 inches (of soil) is a typical extensive system.” says Alex Fransen, landscape development manager of Steele Blades Lawn & Landscaping Services in Louisville, Ky. “Then anything from about 6 inches up is going to be an intensive system.”