Indy2Miami2Columbus

I took a stroll this afternoon to see the progress at Jefferey Place and Kramer Place. Here are a few pics that I took. I really like the new loft building in Jefferey Place, lots of glass and great proportions. I don't care for the architecture of the Kramer Place building, but it definitely creates a much improved urban environment. Along with these developments, if we could just get 4th street and Summit streets converted back to two-way traffic the Italian Village would really be on its way!! (sorry these pictures are a little mixed up. The first picture with all the white Tyvec is Kramer Place. The finished brick buildings are the Jefferey Place Townhomes, and the glass and steel beauty is the new Loft building.)

It is not necessarily the color or the material that needs to change (though it is ugly), it is the entire design. The Architecture. That is why I recommend they go hire a different architect. This building would be just as ugly if it was covered in brick. The massing, proportion, rhythm of openings, windows, etc. are all wrong. The most basics aspects of the architectural design. I think you can get density in the Brewery District without having to support crap. It was really exciting when the condo boom just started in Miami, seeing all of the cranes and buildings rise up, but after a while it became really depressing when you realized how much total crap got built and that will be there forever.

That is a really slick tower. I love the proportions. They wouldn't build it if it wasn't stable. I bet it has an L-Shaped cast concrete shear wall that is about 5' thick next to the elevator shaft. There is an extremely narrow, though not as narrow as this, condo going up in Miami that has 4' thick shear walls. Insane!

Count me in.

High Street could certainly use some dense mixed use development, but that is one extremely ugly building. It would be better they build nothing than build that. Please, hire an architect with talent!! There are a few in this city (Jonathan Barnes, George Acock for example). Really, one hideous building can really screw up the aesthetics of an entire neighborhood (or skyline - Louisville's twin tower red and white lighthouse topped crap). I really doubt this project ever gets built anyway based on the experience of the developer (none).

Awesome Pictures!! The third picture down looks like project boards from the Purdue school of Landscape Architecture (I'm an Alumn of that program)! The seventh picture down is the apartment building I lived in at one time. Great place! Thanks!

Please, everyone that cares about the Columbus Streetcar, visit the Columbus Dispatch's website and vote in favor of the streetcar and write something positive about it in the comment section: http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=229961&RS=11 Right now 5% say the streetcar is more important than the caps over the I-70/71 Split while 85% say the caps are more important. We really need to sway that survey. Only 20 people have voted so far, and I know there are at least that many on this forum that could lend a supporting hand. I know caps would be nice, but the streetcar has the potential to connect a lot more people to downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. Thanks for the Help!

Here are a few pictures I took back in the late summer of 2003 when I was a senior at Purdue University. We lived in a great little apartment downtown in a building that was located on the courthouse square at Main and N. 4th Street. To get to class in West Lafayette I would either ride my bike across the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Wabash river or take the free trolley (actually a bus that looks like a trolley). The Trolley was super reliable and very convenient with waits of less than 5 minutes between each bus and a simple loop route through downtown and campus. Plus, there were about 4 coffee shops (thankfully none being starbucks, you have to cross the bridge to West Lafayette for that) located on the square so you could always get something to warm you up while you waited in the winter. The train station offers passenger trips several times a week to Chicago. It is a very healthy urban downtown, and probably one of the most comfortable places I have ever lived. Enjoy the pics!

While I agree with Brewmaster that it is kind of close to the heart of the CBD for the density that they are proposing, I think it is much more important that there will be something with some density located there instead of surface parking lots. There is so much open space in Downtown, it will probably be 100 years before it fills in. And when it does, they can just tear down the low density stuff and build taller. But in the meantime, I would rather see a pedestrian friendly downtown that is all connected together with well designed, well planned, urban infill. Right now downtown is not a bunch of buildings with a few parking lots, it is a giant surface parking lot with a few buildings floating around. Anyway, I think the more important arguement is not if this proposal is dense enough, but is this a well designed project that will be built in a responsible and sustainable manner. I don't think that can be determined with one, glossed up artistic rendering of an idyllic street scene. I want to see plans, elevations, construction details before I make my decision. I hope the city commision feels the same way. I really hope they break the blocks down further and have units facing the main streets as well as the alleys, creating smaller scaled quite back streets to stroll through like Beacon Hill in Boston. Parking can be contained underground. The buildings need to be built with real stone, brick, and concrete; not the fake looking plaster coated foam they use in Easton and elsewhere. There needs to be street trees lining all of the sidewalks and even the alleyways where there is room. I could keep going, but you get the idea.

Awesome pictures of Indy! All those cranes downtown are building the new football stadium for the Colts. Lucas Oil Stadium. When it is complete they are going to tear down the Hoosier Dome (RCA Dome) so they can expand the convention center. It looks like they are really making progress on the Central Library expansion finally. I really hope that Circle Center doesn't go the way of City Center (in Columbus). City Center was fairly successful until all the new suburban malls were built (Easton, Polaris, and Tuttle Crossing). Indy is having a suburban mall boom right now with the Eastonish Metropolis on the Southwest side, Clay Terrace on the far north, and two more in the Fishers/Noblesville vicinity (Northeast side). Thats on top of the already existing plethora of suburban malls in the city (Simon Malls is headquartered in Indy). I guess Simon should have a lot of motivation to maintain their flagship, but it seems like they might be killing themselves with all these new malls. Castleton is really going to take a dive with all the newer malls so close by. Thanks for the pics!

^ BOILER UP!! Anyway, great pictures! That new Museum Plaza is going to be sic! Check out this website, go to the Video Clips section and watch the video called 'How it Will be Built'. It sure makes me jealous of Louisville. http://www.museumplaza.net/ Also, Louisville has a great river front park. I have some pictures on my computer somewhere that I will have to post sometime.

Don't forget the west side or the south side if you are looking for grit. Indianapolis lacks pre-war skyscrapers mainly, I think, because of an unwritten rule of not building anything taller than the monument. Up until I think 1960 or 61, Fort Wayne had the tallest building in the state. Here is an overview of the new downtown bike/walking trail: http://www.indyculturaltrail.info/before-and-after.html

I believe the Monument is 287' tall.

For my first post of pictures I am using some older photos from 2004 of my hometown. I hope you enjoy them:

Yeah Summit Street Raceway! I've got front row box seats all day long... Pearl Street is great, just don't park there. Several times I've passed vehicles parked there with their windows open, then noticed the pile of glass on their front seats and on the ground. Lots of break-ins in the middle of the day there. Hmmmm, It has been a while since the last power outage. It was like twice a week all summer, maybe they are waiting until it gets freakin cold to the cut the power on us. At least that way the food in the fridge won't spoil!