Developer plans expansion of Riley Towers apartments

January 12, 2010
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The owner of downtown's Riley Towers apartments is working on plans for a 5-story expansion at 225 E. North St. that would add 54 apartment units and more than 4,000 square feet of retail space. Barrett & Stokely Inc., which bought the 525-unit Riley Towers in 1993, wants to include street-level retail along North Street with the rest of the first floor and all of the second housing 79 parking spaces. The third through fifth floors would house a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments with balconies. The new building would be across the street from a portion of the Cultural Trail. The project is being designed by Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects. Riley Towers, which includes two 30-story towers and a 16-story building, is about 90 percent occupied. You can check out a PDF with maps and elevations here. More details are here.

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  • Ambition?
    NickJanuary 12, 2010 3:42 PM
    This seems pretty small potatoes compared to their other buildings. I suppose it is the highest they can go without losing one of the best assets of the South Tower, which are the downtown views. The only bright side is more retail...
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  • Surface Lot
    ShaneJanuary 12, 2010 4:01 PM
    At least they're taking over a surface parking lot. The design is typical of many new downtown apartment buildings, nothing exciting.
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  • Development along Cultural Trail
    DANJanuary 12, 2010 4:24 PM
    As someone on Skycrapercity.com said, imagine this, the Cultural Trail generating new development. Wonder if WTHR will cover this
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  • The better story..
    MikeWJanuary 12, 2010 7:53 PM
    The better story within this story is the 3rd to last paragraph. Can you imagine sometime in the late 60's if the planned development would have gone through. We would have 10!!!!!! 30-story Riley Towers. Talk about urban density. They should have done it.

    You should find the elevations for that when proposed in the 60's! Cool.
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  • 10? No thanks.
    BrandonJanuary 12, 2010 8:51 PM
    I would not want to look at 10 Riley Towers. I hardly can take looking at 2 and a half. It would however be nice if we didn't have to still call Riley Towers the largest residential building in the state after 40 years.
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  • Yucky
    MariaJanuary 12, 2010 9:52 PM
    This continues the ugly legacy of Riley Towers. Blah!
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  • Whatever
    Boomer indyJanuary 13, 2010 9:13 AM
    Brandon and Maria - for those of us who have lived in Indianapolis our entire lives, the Riley Towers are a significant part of downtown. Please don't make flippant remarks. They may not be the crown jewel of downtown living, but complaining doesn't help anything.
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  • Good News
    CoryWJanuary 13, 2010 10:56 AM
    It is great to hear that the Cultural Trail is already leading to new developmet! Further, I have always thought that Riley Towers had plenty of room to potentially develop one of the "failed" towers that was propsed when this project was first developed way back in the day! NOW, here's hoping that the interior of the towers gets some much needed love and make-over.
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  • We don't need no stinkin' streetscape
    MDBJanuary 13, 2010 2:57 PM
    At the sidewalk level, the streetscape has been massacred. The north elevation isn't horrible (due to the storefronts) but the other sides should be substantially more sympathetic to the surroundings.
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  • re: streetscape
    CorrNDJanuary 14, 2010 8:51 AM
    I'm not necessarily excusing this design, but as far as the streetscape is concerned, the North Elevation is the only one that matters. The rest of the building will be internal to the block.

    As long as they're building new around the south tower, I wish they had considered relocating -- or doing away with completely -- the swimming pool that fronts Alabama. Such a waste of street frontage.
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  • Agreed
    Jeff LJanuary 14, 2010 11:31 AM
    Another mediocre design drawn on a napkin by Browning Day. Apartments over parking spaces - have we seen this before in the Circle city? This building does not relate well to the cool retro aesthetics of the original Riley Towers buildings, and the facades give street scape to the cars and not the pedestrian. Nothing special here.
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  • Perkins+Will
    DaveJanuary 14, 2010 3:43 PM
    Many ignorant comments here about the merits of the original towers. Before they were poorly renovated, the 2 main towers were very fine examples of work by the respected Chicago firm Perkins+Will. Maybe if Barrett and Stokely had started there, we'd be having an entirely different conversation here. While BDMD certainly has a few very well executed designs such as the Eiteljorg and the IMS tower to their credit, I don't think even they would bestow this project with the title of "well thought out".
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  • tired
    DizzleJanuary 15, 2010 12:36 AM
    OK people...I work in this industry, and with the economic climate, I don't know how you can turn down someone wanting to grow.

    Second, this, as the story reads is a study of what could go there. I don't understand some of you that want urban density, but don't like to see parking garages? Where are these people supposed to park? You really think we are a "car-less" society in Indy. If you want that move to Chicago.

    This design will be refined, the street scape will be refined, and it will turn out to be much better than the existing towers. I think it is a good start.
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  • Part of the City
    JoshJanuary 20, 2010 12:20 PM
    I am happy to see more bodies living in this area, but at the same time - Riley Towers was a clear thought - this seems to muddy that thought.

    Some of the New Urbanists that think the whole world should be four-story brick boxes on build-to lines hate it, but at least is was something.

    This feels very confused and bored.
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  • cut and paste
    bobJanuary 31, 2012 7:26 PM
    more living downtown is always a good thing, BUT, this looks like there trying to add 50 more deck chair on the titanic. 'Make it fit" it don't seem to fit with the existing building/locating. looks kind of crammed in, you have Mid Century with done to death details. did the just cut and paste the elevations from the AOL lots..... something NEW would be nice other then brick panel/glass window/balcony and repeat...
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  1. Good ole' Obamacare. Thanks liberals and those who didn't bother to vote.

  2. Yes. Blame those who were too lazy to go vote Obama out and those who voted him in again. That's my take on it. I know folks won't get it on the left. OK. Start berating me now!

  3. Serioulsy, people are AGINST this project? Most communities would be salivating over a project like this. You'd rather have an empty eye-sore gas station and shacks posing as apartments? This project is exactly what BR needs. BUILD IT MR MAYOR. And yes, I am a BR resident, and have been for 20 years.

  4. As a St. Vincent employee of over 20 years, I am saddened and disheartened by this announcement. Unfortunately, as the healthcare "industry" continues on this political and corporate path, all that St. Vincent Hospital has stood for spiritually for its employees and this community is being sucked dry. I know it truly has no choice. It is not just Obamacare or just competition or just any single thing. This trend started long before I was even born when the government became involved in healthcare and it became an "industry." I grieve for those who will lose their jobs, one of whom may be me, but I also grieve for this hospital which I have served for over 20 years. May God give us and it the grace to withstand the future of healthcare.

  5. Why do people constantly harp on this issue and act ignorant about what a city population measures? A city's population is the city's population. There is no argument or debate about it. If you want to measure the density of a city--measure it. If you want to measure the size of a metropolitan area, then measure the metropolitan population. City boundaries cover different sized areas--and they always have (though the disparity has probably increased since about 1900 or so when more cities began annexing their surrounding communities). For example, San Francisco only covers 49 square miles while Houston cover nearly 600 square miles. No one argues about the population rankings of either city even though they clearly cover extremely different sized areas. Indianapolis is the 13 largest city by population in the U.S. That is a fact. While the population of a metropolitan area may give you a better sense of how large a community is, as noted, even metro areas can vary widely in the size of geographic area they cover--so that is not a perfect comparison either.

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