IBJ's print and online subscribers got an early
look this weekend at plans for a 26-story apartment tower along downtown's Central Canal. 
The $83 million proposal from Valparaiso-based Investment Property
Advisors calls for 616 bedrooms in 485 apartment units, atop a six-level parking garage (partly below grade) with 5,600 square
feet of canal-level commercial space including two small spots for restaurants or retail. It would be built on two adjoining
parcels along Ninth Street between Senate Avenue and the canal. The tower as proposed would become the city’s ninth-tallest
building, just after the new JW Marriott, which has 34 stories, and the City-County Building, which has 28 stories. The full
story is here.
You can click on either of the renderings above for larger versions. If you want a closer look, check out these PDFs: Southeast Tower Perspective; Southwest Tower Perspective; and Top of Tower Perspective. The architect is Ratio.
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The idea of a huge dorm tower with over six hundred under grad students along the canal doesn't make sense to me. We have spent decades making the canal into a linear park of sorts and while some of the development has been too suburban in design, this still seems out of scale for the surrounding area. Students undoubtedly bring a needed sense of vitality and diversity to the surrounding neighborhoods, but I don't necessarily want to see a massive dorm tower alongside our canal. I believe the 1201 Indiana Avenue and Avenue apartment buildings are scaled more appropriately. From my perspective, more input needs to be gathered from those around the proposed structure regarding location, scale and design.
The design, however, leaves me greatly wanting!
My guess: typical developer tactic to show a terrible design so that later anything (and I mean anything)else submitted will be approved.
I really hope that 600+ students get to call the canal home during their stay at IUPUI via a new building located there. That would really vitalize the area and be a good use of the space.
I don't think the design is terrible, but it could be better. I am most disappointed with the canal level space. I would prefer if it had more than two small retail spaces.
I think the height is needed and set back enough from the canal that when you look up at the base you really won't see it because of the ugly base they have designed. They need to improve the base.
While it has more interest than the JW, both look like they belong in the 1960's in Cleveland.
Having said that the city will approve this
with little if any change.
If this is all the vision a developer can aspire to construct in Indianapolis then we don't need their participation. Check out their website at www.investmentpa.com where you'll see heinous low-end housing that looks frightening.
The monotonous punched window pattern (if it can be called a pattern), tack-on detail and lack of imagination are pathetic. This design is a standard issue, three story suburban apartment block extruded 260 feet toward the sky.
A previous commenter is correct: we shouldn't aspire to be Jacksonville or any other city that has similar crap.
I have no problem with the density of the proposal, but rather with the scale and design of the building. Six hundred residents living along the canal would be great and I don't care if a large portion of them are students, but that doesn't mean I want to see an uninspiringly designed dormitory built there. Many of those posting here I am sure either attended or visited college campuses with dorm towers and can attest to there lack of aesthetic qualities. Think about some of the IU dorm towers and whether you would want such imposing, impersonal structures built along the canal. This does not appear to be a building focused on quality design or living, but rather one to get as many students in one building as possible. I support urban design with high density, but it needs to be responsible and I don't believe this fits the bill.