We (Me/UCPlanner) got into Indy around noon, and parked near Cirlce Centre.  We most meandored through this part of town, but we did hit up the canal area with some others inbetween.

 

First off: Circle Centre, Arts Garden area:

Great job at preserving the facades around the mall:

 

Inside:

 

New Conrad Hotel:

 

 

 

Parisian:

 

 

Arts Garden:

 

and inside..

 

 

Indiana Reperatory Theatre:

 

 

Across the street from IRT, a disgusting National City Bank bldg:

 

Now this is the area around the Circle:

 

View of the Statehouse:

 

Some other views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now off to the canal:

on the way..

 

New Simon Headquarters:

 

I believe the old powerplant:

 

Minor-league stadium:

 

 

Neat Fountain:

 

Garden area, almost there:

 

 

Now the canal...we made it:

 

 

 

 

 

Very cool housing options:

 

 

 

 

On the way out of canal area:

 

 

 

On the way back:

nice rehab in progress:

 

 

 

 

Chase Tower:

 

 

Some Cincy/Ohio calling for attention:

 

 

 

 

Some skylines to finish it up:

 

 

 

So long from Indy!

Circle City Mall is definately one of the better downtown malls in the country (arguably Top 3 in the Midwest, alone).

Great job!  I've never been to Indy but will be checking it out in about a month.

Circle City Mall is definately one of the better downtown malls in the country (arguably Top 3 in the Midwest, alone).

Nice photos. So, when are you going to buy one of those new condos?

What downtown mall in the midwest is better than Circle Center. Maybe the mall at John Hancock building in Chicago, but that would be the only one I can think of.

Very nice.  Thanks!

Awesome, thanks for the pics!

Circle City Mall is definately one of the better downtown malls in the country (arguably Top 3 in the Midwest, alone).

Nice photos. So, when are you going to buy one of those new condos?

What downtown mall in the midwest is better than Circle Center. Maybe the mall at John Hancock building in Chicago, but that would be the only one I can think of.

 

Chicago has several urban malls (Watertower Place, etc) that beat Circle Centre and I believe Minneapolis has one as well.

Beautiful pics! Downtown Indianapolis is an enjoyable place to walk.

 

I love that fountain!

 

This building:

 

 

is the Eiteljorg Museum, featuring American Indian and Southwestern U.S. history. It's exceptionally well done. The garden in the foreground sits between it and the Indiana State Museum, also an excellent attraction.

I am going to give you a quick glance at some of the things I noticed about indy..

 

First off…great trip rando…next, I just want to point out that Indy has probably the cleanest downtown I have ever seen. We discussed as we sat down to lunch what we thought of Indy downtown.

 

It’s nice to be sure. Clean, kept some historical character, has lots of restaurants and shopping, has tall buildings, and is pretty dense in the central part of downtown (almost NO surface lots). These all sound like things that would make for a great downtown.

 

We were left with a missing piece, a certain, I don’t know what. Maybe it was the fact that we couldn’t find a unique restaurant in the area (all we saw were things that you can get in any other city, Hard rock, rock bottom, champs, buca di beppo, mall food court, sub shops...all national brands, nothing that was signature to ONLY Indy),

 

Or maybe it was the fact that there was no street noise. I don’t think I heard a horn blow or someone yell the whole time I was there. There were plenty of cars, but everything just seemed to flow way too smoothly for a city.

 

The wide sidewalks were awesome but it allowed you to stay secluded from all of the people. If you didn’t want to get within 5 feet of anyone you didn’t have to.

 

Maybe it was the lack of that urban grit that I have become accustomed to (and like) in most Midwest cities. It was almost as if everything was over-planned, over-clean, over-suburbanized. I never really felt like i saw something that made me remember Indy.

 

Yah the mall is cool, but on the inside it is not really too different from any other mall. Yah the monument is large and very, very cool looking. But it just didn’t strike a chord with me like come cities have. When we discussed why the city looks and feels the way it does, our reasoning came up to be pretty much the same.

 

Indy is a convention town. People come to Indy for conventions, b-ball games, band competitions (some of the largest in the world…2 world champions are crowned here…I know I am a loser), business conventions, the Indy 500, and all sorts of events, which is awesome! But, it seems as though instead of giving their visitors something special, something unique, something Indy, they just give the same stuff that they are used to back home. If people have eaten at buca-di-beppo, they know it is good, they will eat there again. When you are at a conference, maybe you just want to feel, safe, comfortable, and almost like you are at home.

 

Honestly, there is almost NOTHING bad about the downtown…just nothing too good either…

 

I just found my trip there to be …well….blah… nothing was describingly…. INDY…

 

P.S. that was a lot longer than i anticipated :-D

 

That's my original neck of the woods. I know exactly what you're talking about. It's not a bad city, per se, but it does seem to lack a certain degree of authenticity. If I had to sum up the city in one word, it would be "sanitized". Beautiful photographs, though; makes me think I'm due for a trip back to the cornfields.

I am going to give you a quick glance at some of the things I noticed about indy..

 

First off…great trip rando…next, I just want to point out that Indy has probably the cleanest downtown I have ever seen. We discussed as we sat down to lunch what we thought of Indy downtown.

 

It’s nice to be sure. Clean, kept some historical character, has lots of restaurants and shopping, has tall buildings, and is pretty dense in the central part of downtown (almost NO surface lots). These all sound like things that would make for a great downtown.

 

We were left with a missing piece, a certain, I don’t know what. Maybe it was the fact that we couldn’t find a unique restaurant in the area (all we saw were things that you can get in any other city, Hard rock, rock bottom, champs, buca di beppo, mall food court, sub shops...all national brands, nothing that was signature to ONLY Indy),

 

Or maybe it was the fact that there was no street noise. I don’t think I heard a horn blow or someone yell the whole time I was there. There were plenty of cars, but everything just seemed to flow way too smoothly for a city.

 

The wide sidewalks were awesome but it allowed you to stay secluded from all of the people. If you didn’t want to get within 5 feet of anyone you didn’t have to.

 

Maybe it was the lack of that urban grit that I have become accustomed to (and like) in most Midwest cities. It was almost as if everything was over-planned, over-clean, over-suburbanized. I never really felt like i saw something that made me remember Indy.

 

Yah the mall is cool, but on the inside it is not really too different from any other mall. Yah the monument is large and very, very cool looking. But it just didn’t strike a chord with me like come cities have. When we discussed why the city looks and feels the way it does, our reasoning came up to be pretty much the same.

 

Indy is a convention town. People come to Indy for conventions, b-ball games, band competitions (some of the largest in the world…2 world champions are crowned here…I know I am a loser), business conventions, the Indy 500, and all sorts of events, which is awesome! But, it seems as though instead of giving their visitors something special, something unique, something Indy, they just give the same stuff that they are used to back home. If people have eaten at buca-di-beppo, they know it is good, they will eat there again. When you are at a conference, maybe you just want to feel, safe, comfortable, and almost like you are at home.

 

Honestly, there is almost NOTHING bad about the downtown…just nothing too good either…

 

I just found my trip there to be …well….blah… nothing was describingly…. INDY…

 

P.S. that was a lot longer than i anticipated :-D

 

 

Yes, you are right, downtown Indy is very clean and safe, and there are a lot of national restaurants and stores (maybe that is a sign of a strong market). But, the place is alive after 5 o'clock and on the weekends and most midwest downtowns can not say that. The wide sidewalks were put in so that the city could allow all the sidewalked cafes (and there a bunch of them). With that said, there are a lot of local restaurants downtown, Malibu on Maryland (its in one of the pictures) the famous St. Elmo's, but most of the local scene is in the Mass. Avenue district in the northeast section of downtown. That is were a lot of the local restaurants, art galleries, and the main theater district is located. The architecture is historical and their are 1,000s of residential units. I think this part of downtown would give you what you thought was missing. I think the average citizen doesn't want 'urban grit' they want a place that is clean, safe, alive 24/7 and easy to navigate. Maybe more midwest downtown should lose the 'urban girt' and they might find a future or keep the 'urban girt' and continue to have vacant store fronts and empty streets after 5 and on the weekend. I personally would take a downtown that is alive over the ones that are dead.

 

Here is a link to Mass Avenue district website

http://www.discovermassave.com/home.cfm

 

Downtown buildings look kinda like Minneapolis -- on the newer side.

Great pics Rando.

 

Indy is very clean and nice, it just needs help creating its own identity. That canal is really cool though.

Yes, you are right, downtown Indy is very clean and safe, and there are a lot of national restaurants and stores (maybe that is a sign of a strong market). But, the place is alive after 5 o'clock and on the weekends and most midwest downtowns can not say that. The wide sidewalks were put in so that the city could allow all the sidewalked cafes (and there a bunch of them). With that said, there are a lot of local restaurants downtown, Malibu on Maryland (its in one of the pictures) the famous St. Elmo's, but most of the local scene is in the Mass. Avenue district in the northeast section of downtown. That is were a lot of the local restaurants, art galleries, and the main theater district is located. The architecture is historical and their are 1,000s of residential units. I think this part of downtown would give you what you thought was missing. I think the average citizen doesn't want 'urban grit' they want a place that is clean, safe, alive 24/7 and easy to navigate. Maybe more midwest downtown should lose the 'urban girt' and they might find a future or keep the 'urban girt' and continue to have vacant store fronts and empty streets after 5 and on the weekend. I personally would take a downtown that is alive over the ones that are dead.

 

Here is a link to Mass Avenue district website

http://www.discovermassave.com/home.cfm

 

 

Thanks a lot for your comments...they shine a new light on the indy that i saw

^I think it's suppose to be pretty good.Obviously the bigger the city is, generally the more options you have.

They have a place up in Broad Ripple that gets a lot of travelling acts, sort of like Bogarts (it was an old movie theatre) or Southgate House.  Broad Ripple is sort of the "Clifton" of Indy...but its on the north end of town, well away from downtown.

 

That Northeast quadrant  area has some good gay bars, too...I liked the Metro as they had a deck from which you could see the skyline. 

 

I really like what they did with that canal...these pix are just a taste of it, as that canal acts as sort of armature for new residential condo/townhose development to the north of downtown, all the way to I-65.

 

And Rob is correct about the Indiana State Musuem.  That was one of the best state/local history museums Ive seen.  I was going to see that western art museum and the state museum but spent nearly all day in the state museum. They have recreated the old LS Ayres resteraunt in the museum, down to the china, menu, furniture, and even the waitress' uniforms (Ayers was Indys big downtown dept store).

 

 

 

 

They have a place up in Broad Ripple that gets a lot of travelling acts, sort of like Bogarts (it was an old movie theatre) or Southgate House.  Broad Ripple is sort of the "Clifton" of Indy...but its on the north end of town, well away from downtown.

 

Vogue Theater, is what you are thinking of.