City planners are seeing red over the bright yellow
facade at a new Buffalo Wild Wings under construction along Washington Street downtown. Turns out the developers won approval
for a sign package with awnings but didn't submit any facade changes, as required by city code. The city has alerted the owner
to the problem and plans to issue a stop-work order if necessary. The new look is "very distracting" and "takes away from
the entire streetscape," said Jeff York, a senior planner. "They wholly did not get approval for what they're doing there."
Franchise owner Pete Watson could not be reached this morning. He owns 12 BW3 locations, including stores in Castleton, Fishers,
Broad Ripple and Greenwood.
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Welcome to Property Lines, Indy's source for neighborhood real estate news. Your host is Scott Olson, IBJ's real estate beat
reporter. Edited by Cory Schouten.
City planners are seeing red over the bright yellow
facade at a new Buffalo Wild Wings under construction along Washington Street downtown. Turns out the developers won approval
for a sign package with awnings but didn't submit any facade changes, as required by city code. The city has alerted the owner
to the problem and plans to issue a stop-work order if necessary. The new look is "very distracting" and "takes away from
the entire streetscape," said Jeff York, a senior planner. "They wholly did not get approval for what they're doing there."
Franchise owner Pete Watson could not be reached this morning. He owns 12 BW3 locations, including stores in Castleton, Fishers,
Broad Ripple and Greenwood.
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Three Magi
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Cats out of the bag. The object of the game is to get acquired. That means the company has no idea how to grow beyond a certain point. Email is a 1990s technology. I have laughed at this company since day one. Such a small bit player. If it was anywhere but here, it wouldn't be newsworthy.
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Esther, Indy has passed Chicago in the local government corruption arena. Don't downgrade us. We're No. 1 in the Midwest.
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Does the buyer get to keep the recent Accu-Chek J.D. Power award? Be careful, those Swiss cannot be trusted. Last June they pimped Mayor Ballard and former Governor Daniels at a media op, announcing plans to invest "$300 million at its Indianapolis headquarters, creating up to 100 new jobs by 2017," only to turn around and close the Roche Nutley, NJ facility and eliminate 1000 jobs there later the same week. It seems that healthcare can be innovated only as long as money is to be made. Right now Roche seems to have big eyes for China: there are many Chinese in China and potential billions in Swiss francs! Since Roche is having difficulty with US insurance companies swallowing the bill for overpriced cancer drugs (with debatable efficacy) why not sell insurance to the Chinese and market the drugs to them there? There is a name for these sort of business practices however proper decorum precludes it use in this forum.
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Same kind of Luddites who oppose I-69. Guessing their 501(c)(4) application probably sailed right through the IRS.
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ESPECIALLY with the very attractive Border's store next door.
What is it with some businesses in Indy always trying to hide from pedestrians with heavy tint, little windows, and small doors?
Agreed on the need for bigger windows. Beer/wing lovers do not melt in natural light.
I think the next architect should consider recreating the original storefront design, preferably by using historic photos of the building that can be found at the IHPC offices and/or the Indiana Historical Society photo archives. If none exist, the vertical lines and/or columns above the entablature can be mirrored, in large part, below. My guess is that it is a relatively easy (and cheap) storefront to re-establish after they demo this fake stucco. Then the owner might realize the hidden profits associated with operating a business out of a classy building that exudes character… even if it is just a wings joint.
Regarding the Regional Center review and appeals process, the smart money is on Jeff York.
The developer should be shot for thinking that he could get away with this. I bet all he can see right now is the escalating $$$$.
Wouldn't surprise me if he's able to get something similar through the city planners...
That's not color. It's more like someone vomitted all over the facade, then put a big, bright light on it so it would stick out like a sore thumb.
Simply USING the building is not enough to justify doing whatever you want to it. We have city planners for a reason; there is a vision that we're hoping to create in this city. An ugly, yellow building with no storefront is certainly not part of that vision. Take a look at Border's next door; the building is elegant and aesthetically pleasing.
If you want cliche', vanilla building design, go out to the north side or Carmel. Castleton and the Carmel Arts District are ripe with this kind of crap.
Bravo, City Planners.
If you can convince the people of Indianapolis that adaquate police and firefighters are more important than football and the Super Bowl, I'll be right there with you. Until then, expect to see new football stadiums in this city each 20 years for as long as we're willing to pander to the Colts organization.
I agree that there are more important things than BW3, but it's not like it's costing the tax payers anything to call them out for not approving a re-design. That bill will go entirely to the owner/developer.
MDB is correct and they should try to recreate the original storefront. It is easy and they won't be seen as bad neighbors.
This really does insult the whole street which is typically made up of large glass storefronts.
The structure this is being placed in also I believe had a large storefront originally though I could be wrong.
This needs to be redone. This is downtown Indianapolis, not Fishers.
If anything we are doing them a favor.
The simple fact is they created something hideous without approval. I don't want my city to be a place where I'm constantly having to just not look at it. I for one am thanking Jeff York and the City for their review!
BW3 shouldn't have thrown good money after bad; if you're going to fix the place up, do it right! Especially on one of Indy's great examples of Art Deco architecture in a prominent downtown location.
BTW, is it just me or do JJT, Nick, BJY, and Chance Buckman all sound like the same person? Interesting that they all posted within 20 minutes of each other. Hmmmm...
That Woolworth storefront looks amazing Wheat1.
Here is a simplistic approach in an urban setting
http://www.picsbydave.us/pib03/070815-0065.jpg
A modern storefront
http://www.peoriarestaurants.com/images/rest_pics/buffalo_wild_wings.jpg
It's hard to believe at one time people actually thought they were improving buildings downtown by replacing the original, beautiful storefront windows with huge slabs of tacky granite and terrible small windows.
This isn't the first time the ground floor of this building has been marred.
1. This is not finished...people are commenting on the windows and the doors...which have yet to be replaced / modified. please wait to criticize until its complete.
2. My guess is that most people don't remember what this building looked like before. The graffiti, broken windows and dirt was an eye sore that provided nothing to downtown. BW3s is both a huge improvement aesthetically but also a huge draw for race and sports fans alike. ITS GREAT TO HAVE BW3s back!
The LAW requires THIS owner to get approval of facade changes on THIS building. PERIOD.
On another note, my experience with BW3 is that less natural light would be good, so you cannot see the dirt and grease.
If those things are irrelevant, thundermutt, then what is the purpose of said law? Why would the law require a developer to get approval of an aesthetic change?
Because what the building used to look like, and what neighboring properties look like, are both completely relevant. Those are the primary contexts in which that law functions.
Jeff York, the senior planner Cory quoted, emphasizes that context in his comment:
The new look is 'very distracting' and 'takes away from the entire streetscape...' â€
You have to get approval, among other things, because:
A. The city wants to make sure the new facade fits in with its surroundings
B. A shotgun developer may ruin a perfectly usable, sometimes historic facade in the name of modernization or cost-savings.
If those reasons are removed, that kind of law doesn't have many legs to stand on, beyond public safety and decency standards.
BUT...such doom and gloom here...horrible, uninviting, shut 'em down, schmuck(!?), hideous, yadayada......chill out, relax and eat some hot wings dudes (And dudettes).
While you're doing that (Or drinking a nice cold beer), don't miss the giant TV monitors piping in your favorite sports in HD...(sans window glare)...you most assuredly will not complain about the small windows then.
Approval should have been requested. Different isn't always bad. Old is...well, old, It isn't the 1930's anymore...you might just have to move on.
There's a difference between new and tacky. This doesn't fit the surrounding developments, and it should feel like the same neighborhood.
There's a difference between a downtown BW3's and a strip mall BW3's. People live downtown to avoid that kind of stuff, so it makes sense that the city is fighting the design.
I understand the reasons for and the reasoning behind the Urban Design Guidelines. If we'd had them eight years ago, we wouldn't have Central Library. Preventing another piece of work like that is well worth it.
The BW3 project wasn't stopped because it doesn't look good...it was stopped because the developer broke the law. Discussion of how bad it looks is premature because it's not done.
Since it also doesn't look good, it's unlikely to continue to completion. The Guidelines and the Regional Center Ordinance give Jeff York and his boss quite a bit of latitude in their administrative approvals, but based upon my experience with those two gentlemen I am confident that they are unlikely to use their discretion to allow the Mr. Bumblebee facade.
I agree with Bob: not much sunlight streams into any window in Indianapolis that faces north. And no sunlight streams into ANY window after dark, when most of BW3's business is done.
Oh, I forgot, we are a socialist nation now. The government owns everything and you have to have permission to do anything. It's not about health and safety anymore. It's about being the design police and controlling others. Thank goodness we have an elite who know architecture better than us commoners.
You think it's ugly - that's what we elite think too. The personality of a city goes beyond individual buildings to how the entire street operates. It's the business of every resident whether 1. LAWS ARE FOLLOWED and 2. bad projects are built.
You're right: after 25 years in the field, I DO know more about design than you do. Whatever your area of specialty is, you know more about it than I do, so why not try to go do some good in that area, and when you make your educated opinion known I'll listen to it?
God Indy residents are such a bunch of status quo sheep. I'm so ready to move out of this stupid city. Between the arts funding, inability to have any kind of mass transit, and this ignorant acceptance of publicly built crap (that ridiculous stadium being high on the list) Indy is not a city that is going anywhere in the next 25 years but down the toilet.
Then please leave. We'll be fine without you.
If your a wings and sports freak, this is the place to be. When will they open? I can't wait!
C’mon, how come noone is talking about this horrific, polka-dotted abortion that is across the street? I kept waiting for a Volkswagen to pull up, and have 50 clowns pour out, while honking bicycle horns.
I am not an architect, but I know ugly. That said, I welcome Dunkin Donuts back to Indy. You have been gone way too long.
I didn’t think that the Buffalo place looked that bad. I guess the good news is that we are finally filling in store fronts that have been closed for years. I agree that downtown needs to maintain a level of standard, but by reading the comments here, there obviously is an element in our city that would prefer to sip their whine, and eat their cheese, and do all that they can to prevent new businesses from coming, all the while showing their contempt for the peasants that must share the same streets as them.
Get off your high horses.
Lots of happy memories - downtown has really changed