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LVL1 Entrance

It's finally here! After months and months of hard work, we've been granted occupancy of our new space at The Pointe in Butchertown, 1205 E Washington Street!

Starting on 8/5, we'll be holding our regular Tuesday meetings at the new space (join us, 8pm, every Tuesday!), and on 8/9 we'll have a grand opening celebration at 4pm!

LVL1 is Louisville's Hackerspace. We're a community of engineers, artists, makers, tinkerers, scientists, and hobbyists of all types. With over 75 paying members, and a huge community of non-members, Louisville can come to LVL1 to learn, teach, or discover just about any skill on the planet. We give Louisvillians access to the tools they need to make anything they might want to make, including 3D printers, laser cutters, soldering irons, sewing machines, vinyl cutters, large format printers, welders, and lots more.  At The Pointe, LVL1 has 8800 square feet of space for making, including a fully featured Wood and Metal shop (each over twice as large as our old space!), a main work room (again, twice as large as the old space!), classroom space, and a huge boneyard of derelict, decrepit, and unwanted goods for your tinkering.

Over the past 5 years, LVL1 has become a community hub for tinkering with just about everything. From our humble beginnings meeting in bars and coffee shops (thanks, BBC and Heine Bros!), to our original space on E Broadway, now to The Pointe in Butchertown.

Join us, 4pm on 8/9 for a short ribbon-exploding ceremony, followed by tours and demonstrations at the new space. Are you a Louisville Maker? Bring your project and show it off! Stick around and celebrate the new space with the rest of our community!

Questions? Send an email to BradLuyster@gmail.com, or hop on the mailing list thread here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/lvl1/QLUUHZH9VQM

LVL1 Move, Wall Logo

It's been a busy month around LVL1! As we announce in April,we're moving to a new building at The Pointe in Butchertown! The new digs feature 8800 square feet of concrete floors, with three phase power, plenty of electricity run throughout, a dedicate wood/metal shop area (including the ability to weld indoors!), and better climate control. We've been working hard to get the new place ready to inhabit. We raised $9,001 through the Community Foundation's Give Local Louisville campaign (thanks to you, our community!), which we've been using to customize our space for hacking. In true DIY fashion, we've been working on this almost entirely on our own.

Plenty of space upgrades some along with the sweet new hackerspace, including new member shelves (care of the Community Foundation capacity building grant), a Shapeoko mill (care of Inventables), upgrade networking equipment, brand new kitchen appliances (care of GE), new projectors and smart-board technology (care of Power Creative), and more!

We've spent the past two months clearing out the new space, moving the old space, pulling building permits, and building walls. Currently, the walls stand roughed-in, waiting for inspection. After we receive our rough inspection, we'll add drywall and insulation. Following that, we can receive our final inspection and occupancy certificate. As soon as we receive our occupancy certificate, all operations move to the new space!

Until further notice, operations are still at the 814 E Broadway location! When operations move to 1205 E Washington, we'll let folks know via this blog, facebook, twitter, meetup.com, our public mailing list, our member's only mailing list, and possible smoke signals from the roof. Our grand-opening celebration is tentatively scheduled for August 9th, so save the date!

More pictures and details of our move after the break:

...continue reading "Pardon our dust — LVL1 is Still Moving!"

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The rumors are true! LVL1 is moving! This spring, we'll be moving from our current home (814 E. Broadway), to a new building, The Pointe in Butchertown.  We'll be moving into the basement space formerly occupied by The Alley Theater. Everyone is very excited to see what the new space will become! Right off the bat, the new space features:

  •  9000 sq. ft. of flat, level concrete floor
  • 13' ceilings
  • Plenty of electricity
  • 3 Phase Power
  • Heat throughout
  • Windows!
  • A concrete "bunker" area, suitable for indoor welding and metalworking
  • A floor which does not flood
  • A ceiling which does not leak

Along with plenty of other perks, including being co-located with plenty of other creative Louisvillians!

We're currently working to develop a moving plan, as well as kick off a crowdfunding campaign to help us defray some moving expenses. If you'd like to help us move, drop us a line! We'll be posting updates to this blog, our twitter account, and our public mailing list throughout the process.  Expect a complete move-out plan sometime in the next two weeks.

 

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Spacers, I am unbelievably excited to announce that LVL1 has been selected as one of the recipients of a $23,500 award from the community foundation! This is a huge achievement for anyone who is part of the LVL1 community, and we cannot thank you enough for making this space the wonderful community that it is!

This grant program is for "capacity building" upgrades, so we're exploring paths which will help us better help you make the cool stuff that you want to make! Per the budget submitted to the Community Foundation, we'll be working on upgrades including: Professional cleaning services (so you don't have to spend time scrubbing toilets or taking out trash!), Public "Open Hours" (we're still not sure how this will work, but it will probably include a maker-in-residence being available to help you make stuff), an 80 watt laser (so you can cut through twice as much stuff!), an upgraded precision mill, more A/C upstairs, more storage shelving (and less collapsible), and a wheelchair ramp for the main entry.

We receive the money at an awards ceremony on January 7th. Shortly afterwards, expect to see lots of stuff getting upgraded!

Until then, you can help us get another $2,500 for space upgrades by participating in this Facebook Poll: http://t.co/nAnlVGS9PR

You can vote once a day, so remember to vote early and often! Thanks again for everything you do, LVL1 depends on it!