Posted August 5, 200717 yr Fort Wayne has a very inviting downtown: loads of greenspace, gleaming old gems, and sparkling contemporary infill. The city has several mind-blowing landmarks including the Allen County Courthouse (recently exposed with a new plaza), 23-story Lincoln Tower, old post office/federal building, St. Paul's Lutheran, the old city building, and the Elektron Building. While the amount of greenspace is fantastic and makes the city feel extremely clean, I agree with Rob that it hurts the density of downtown. Things definitely seem to be happening however, with a newly opened Convention Center and the proposed Harrison Square mixed-use project. Big thanks to Rob for the wonderful tour! The first order of business was a visit to the newly opened Starbuck; the coffee shop did a fabulous job restoring a portion of a former Firestone store. They've taken an eyesour and created a viable, modern business while retaining its cool old architectural elements! After meeting up with Rob's friend Jon, we cut through a residential street on the west side of downtown. These homes are part of the Harrison Square project and will probably be lost. The Pennsylvania RR Station was next; a fantastic structure that fits right in the street grid Federal Building Lincoln Insurance; used to have a weird cupola thing that has since been replaced with an office tower St. Paul's Lutheran We were fortunate to get a look inside; its might as well be a Catholic cathedral The old Central High School; now a career center Masonic Temple Old city hall Whoa... :-o Another favorite...the Lincoln Tower The Allen County Courthouse with new plaza; the plaza was actually planned with the courthouse's construction, but was just recently completed Modern Ft. Wayne :-o :-o I'm not a fan of this thing Into the new convention center...Schuster Center anyone? I believe the Harrison Square project suggest a hotel on this parking lot New library addition/entrance Fort Wayne has a fantastic new library; you'd expect to see something like this on a college campus COC Old canal buildings
August 5, 200717 yr Very nice photos. Ft Wayne looks clean, with lots of nice architecture, plenty of trees not a lot of visual pollution. Love the art deco look of the Catholic cathedral contrasting with the big old Lutheran church.
August 5, 200717 yr Excellent job! I enjoy seeing my town through a visitor's eyes. The interior shot of the Baker Street Station turned out quite nicely, especially considering that you had to shoot through the glass on two doors. Here's the building that the Starbucks folks started with. It had been on the local "endangered" list for several years, and they planned to raze it and build one of their generic stores until the local historic preservation folks and redevelopment commission talked with them about the local landmark status of the building. They willingly embraced the restoration, spending more than they would have to raze and replace it. The One Summit Square tower gets mixed reactions; I think most people locally have become indifferent to it, but I've heard from some out-of-town skyscraper buffs who think it kicks butt. It's definitely different, if out-of-scale compared with everything else here. For a long time I didn't like it, but it has grown on me. On the north side, the way the building is raised above the ground floor and the way it works with the plaza are rather imposing, I think. The Window Garden Cafe on the 13th floor, open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays, has some good views of downtown. Very nice photos. Ft Wayne looks clean, with lots of nice architecture, plenty of trees not a lot of visual pollution. Love the art deco look of the Catholic cathedral contrasting with the big old Lutheran church. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception dates to about 1860, and other related structures of that era also stood on the square until the 1950s, when the deco-styled McDougall Chapel was built. On the far side of the Cathedral is the diocese office building, also limestone but more of a typical 40s - 50s style. The Cathedral has had several renovations over the years that changed its appearance, and the stone facing was applied over the original brick some time in the late 30s, I think.
August 5, 200717 yr Fort Wayne is an interesting city. I was very surprised by it when I visited--I went in with low expectations. Thanks for the tour.
August 6, 200717 yr Wow, downtown Fort Wayne is even better than I remember it. I'm glad Starbucks was convinced to save the old building. It is certainly more unique than anything they would have built. Rob, what's the latest on the Harrison Square project?
August 6, 200717 yr Rob, what's the latest on the Harrison Square project? It's moving along, maybe even picking up speed. Demolition and site preparation for the hotel have begun with razing Belmont Liquors and the Palace Restaurant. The open house at the Grand Wayne Center drew about 300 people last Thursday evening, and most of the public input was positive, even enthusiastic. Councilman Tom Smith, the most visible public figure initially opposed to the project, appears to be climbing aboard, if somewhat cautiously, and one local realtor said he has more requests for downtown residential space than he can accomodate. Check out this site for updated info: http://downtownfortwaynebaseball.blogspot.com/ There's a link to a vimeo fly-through of the proposal; they presented it on a projection screen at the open house and it stirred a lot of interest.
August 6, 200717 yr Nice! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
August 6, 200717 yr Surprised me as well. What's the population now and at its peak? The city just passed the 200,000 mark with annexation of an entire township.
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