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Butler University is planning a six-story building on a portion of its Christian Theological Seminary property, with the structure expected to house a parking garage and a new headquarters for its campus police department.
The project, known as the Safety and Transit Hub, would be part of Butler’s ongoing Gateway Project, a multi-faceted effort to further develop areas of the main campus and portions of the seminary property.
The proposed structure is expected to feature the police headquarters on the first floor with structured parking above. A cost for the project has not been finalized, nor have specifics of the plan, including the total number of parking spaces, the amount of space the police department will use and whether the building also would offer some retail tenant spaces.
Melissa Beckwith, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for the university, said all of those factors are still in flux as Butler evaluates its design plans and determines how the building can best be used. She also said the university is still considering funding options for the project and has yet to finalize a development timeline.
“We are still considering, in addition to [Butler police], how much square footage we devote to potential tenant space in there and just how many spaces that we are going to add to the campus,” she said. “So right now it is still up in the air. We’re also looking at how might this be a sustainable structure for the university, including solar panels at the top of the structure.”
The Butler University Police Department currently is located in a former home at 525 W. Hampton Drive.
While the building is expected to be constructed on a portion of the 32.3-acre seminary property, the exact location has not been disclosed. Butler acquired the seminary property in late 2017 for $16.6 million, according to property records.
Butler now considers the property to be its South Campus. It’s home to the College of Education, as well as the new Founders College that offers high-achieving students from low-income families a pathway for an associates degree, as well as some opportunities for a low-cost four-year degree.
The seminary has a long-term lease with Butler for portions of the campus and retained ownership of a 6-acre parcel at the northeast corner of West 42nd Street and Michigan Road.
Beckwith said while the university is still charting its plans for other portions of the property, it doesn’t intend to push out the seminary.
The university is seeking to rezone the 32.3-acre site from its current SU-2 designation for special use districts to UQ-1—the same as the rest of Butler University—that is more geared toward university development. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission will consider the request at its meeting on Wednesday.
Beckwith said through its Gateway effort, the university is continuing to identify opportunities for growth, as well as the renovation or expansion of its assets of all types. Butler is also working on multiple other projects, including a modernization of Clowes Memorial Hall and the development of a hotel inside the former Ross Hall dormitory.
The design firm on the police headquarters project is Indianapolis-based CSO Architects.
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**Butler University planning six-story parking garage with police HQ
Your headline doesn’t exaggerate the truth enough Chris.
Really bad headline describing what the project really is
I hope that Butler takes architectural design seriously with this project, unlike it has with the new addition to Clowes Hall.
We made some changes to the original headline to better describe the project.
Not much grace, character, or warmth. Dull, but unlikely to offend most people – cuz they’re used to it… Looks like the goal was lowest cost per parking space. Bad for the block, but maybe good for the campus core, to the extent it helps reclaim the asphalt surface lots in the core.
People say it’s just a garage. But garages can be better. Some even welcome you. This one doesn’t.
Forget how beautiful some pre-war garages were (and there still exist, you just don’t notice cuz they look like regular prewar buildings, not parking decks. Can’t do it today? – Wrong! Just look the following contemporary examples:
1. St. James-Beth Ahabah Parking Deck, Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University
2. Cumberland Street Parking Garage, Charleston, South Carolina
3. Grace and Henry Street Parking Decks, Richmond, Virginia
4. The Shrine Parking Structure, Los Angeles, University of Southern California
It’s not too late. We get more imaginative for the sake of campus, and the neighborhood that has to look at it? Let’s make every building beautiful. The university will benefit, both immediately and in the long hall. Everyone will benefit.
How do you design a building and publicize it without giving its “exact location”? All we can do is guess from the rendering.
Looks from the rendering as if the site is the current surface parking lot at the NW corner of Haughey and 43rd just south of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house.