A $32 million plan to replace a troubled low-income
housing project at 16th Street and Park Avenue cleared a final hurdle Wednesday at a hearing of the Metropolitan Development
Commission. The development arm of the not-for-profit Indianapolis Housing Agency, Insight Development Corp., plans to redevelop
the complex to better connect with the Herron-Morton Place neighborhood. The agency bought the failed co-op called Caravelle
Commons in 2009. 
The 1970s suburban-style complex at 1643 N. Park Ave. sits in the middle of a historic urban neighborhood
and invites crime with dead-end streets and fenced-in apartment homes that surround crowded parking lots. 
The more urban replacement, slated to break ground in October, is dubbed
16 Park on renderings from locally based Domain Architecture (click on the images for larger versions). The housing agency,
which administers the federal Section 8 program, used a grant of about $400,000 from a city housing trust fund to acquire
the property and begin drawing up redevelopment plans. The agency has won stimulus grants and low-income housing tax credits
it expects to apply to the project’s cost. An earlier post looking at efforts to target blight along 16th Street is
here.
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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.
Plans for $32M development near Herron-Morton Place neighborhood move forward
July 22, 2010
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Laura-the festivals and tastings are free. What does is strengthen the sense of community with activities. What are those empty lots doing for the Village? it's sad you can't see the good that this progress can do for the area. No one is requiring anyone to shop there. I guess you'd rather see a Dollar store move in or no, we'd rather see the property stand empty b/c change is out of the question.
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Read down to the part about Brizzi. Someone needs to subpoena his "purchases" of Red RockPictures and Cellstar and his corresponding bank records, I mean c'mon, I'd like to see his alcohol usage records, too. http://diana-vice.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
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Wonder if my neighborhood can advertise our "retention" pond and act like it is a beach too?
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a new record at the '11 salebration until they realized that it was a futile effort to get their crapwagon moter and crapwagon car up speed. And then they just quietly slunk off into the night and never spoke of it again. Nothing to see here folks.
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millions for putting a company's bumper sticker on one of its Lolas. But you gotta take what you can get.
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I would say the orange is the only thing I find really bad. The rest is a good start for a bad area.
Also I thought dead-end streets reduced crime because there was less ways to drive through and exit a community.
More neighborhoods are trying to close off some of their streets to prevent people from driving through. Also I thought fencing helped with crime also. Community East just put a huge wrought iron fence around their property.
"A fence will only keeps an honest man out."
are WHITE folks! Gnome sane?
Ultimate failure is the unfortunate result of socialized objectives involving the government.......
Too bad we keep building this low-income housing. It hasn't worked.
BTW, not sure about the statistics and dead-end streets however in this particular case its best not to make a wrong turns into this development and try and get out of there without getting jacked. . . I made that mistake awhile back but my smooth driving skills and bright smile got me out alive and in one piece . . . I'm just saying. . .
Bulldozing the existing site and reopening Park Ave. is the right thing to do. And unfortunately, strict government regs prevent "dislocation" of existing Section 8 tenants, so they will be part of any mix of housing on the site. Sec 42 is the way to go; it will be similar in that way to the replacement projects built at Red Maple Grove and at 38th & Sherman.
Re Meckstroth's post... Every building will front a public right-of-way, with one exception: In the third rendering, above, you're looking south, across 17th Street. The building skews to the northeast, so that travelers on Park Avenue gain a broad vista of King Park. It's a clever and useful design.
Overall, the site layout is actually quite well thought-out, and there are a lot of features that haven't received much notice yet... like three parking areas located under active green roofs, a dramatic upgrade to the 16th Street sidewalk, the extension of Park Avenue north to 18th Street, and much better integration with King Park and all adjoining neighborhoods. Also, the renderings don't do the project justice, in terms of form and exterior materials. If this thing is in any way typically suburban, then I've yet to visit the suburb where one like it exists.
Operationally, the housing authority agreed to grant a legitimate advisory role to a coalition of project residents and adjoining neighborhood organizations, which, so far as I know, is unprecedented.
And thanks for the additional details, all day breakfast.
1. Lose the orange. Jeez
2. I thought these cinder block public housing projects were discredited long ago. To me this place looks dated before its even built. Orange?
3. One defining feature of good urban architecture is that buildings have a recognizable entrance, front door, whatever, and its in the front of the building so people can find it. How do you enter this place? I don't see a front door in any of the renderings. Even the corner, which one might think would be a logical place for one, has row of bushes where there ought to be a gate or something that says "this is how you enter".
It looks like at least one of the frontages has a six foot fence along the street. You can plant all the trees you want and it will never make this an inviting city scape. This is more of the same bland architecture you find in many modern developments that kills the character of the city.
I could go on and on. It doesn't cost a lot to incorporate good design into these projects, just some imagination and creativity. This design is a mistake.
looks about as inviting (and safe) as a
prison "Big Yard". But, yeah, it'll
probably serve as a great safe-haven
for "dealing".
You might want to take your shade off and
take a closer look; it's Suburban "Angst",
not ANGEL. Correction FAIL.
Oh, and just so you understand, that's how things are supposed to work in the USA. It's called America's Incentive System. Nothing on the socialist scale will work over time without incentives.
Lastly, how is a clue freaking???
Perhaps your self-proclaimed rightiousness can enlighten the rest of us with a possible solution to the problem of "bulletproof glass"? Ignorant people are often quick to criticize without offering a suitable solution, and since I know you're not ignorant... I'm all ears.
sorted out because it is about the individual but it can be with
everyone.
Careers