City, universities say West Street stymies development and pedestrian safety

You can call it what you want—a highway, a boulevard, a vehicular artery—but for many on the west side of downtown, West Street is a barrier.

The nearly 2-mile stretch north to south from Interstate 65 to Interstate 70 is one of downtown’s busiest streets and reaches up to eight lanes in some places.

And it divides Indiana University Indianapolis and Purdue’s downtown campus extension—as well as neighborhoods, entertainment venues and part of a historic stretch of Indiana Avenue—from the rest of the city’s central business district.

The street is also a safety concern. It has been the scene of dozens of vehicular crashes with injuries over the past decade, particularly from Indiana Avenue to Washington Street. The incidents include a handful of pedestrians and bicyclists struck by vehicles, according to data from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, an entity that helps fund and plan roadway improvement projects across central Indiana.

The Hogsett administration has begun “preliminary discussions” with the neighborhood and universities to develop potential solutions, city officials said. But any fix likely to come from those talks—whether spanning the roadway with bridges or tunnels, creating a parkway, or adding more crosswalks to slow traffic—will be expensive.

Dan Parker, deputy mayor and chief of staff for Joe Hogsett, said “everything needs to be looked at” to make West Street safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles. But he also said some solutions, such as lowering the street and topping it with pedestrian-friendly spaces, would likely be cost-prohibitive.

While changes might not be implemented before Hogsett’s term ends in 2028, Parker said he hopes a plan will be in place, especially as Purdue begins planning for growth on a 28-acre plot that borders West Street.

That’s “critical in terms of being able to take advantage of that connectivity … to make sure that [Purdue] actually is connected to the core of downtown,” Parker said.

A revamp could be complicated by the fact that portions of West Street—the interchanges at I-65 and I-70—are under the purview of the Indiana Department of Transportation. The rest of the street is under the control of the Indianapolis Department of Public Works.

Kyle Bloyd, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Works, said “preliminary discussions about the future of this corridor” are ongoing but have produced no proposals so far.

INDOT spokeswoman Natalie Garrett said the agency “does have a vested interest in the city’s efforts to identify potential solutions to improve operations and mobility” along West Street. She said the department is also sharing with the city any West Street-related feedback it receives from its ProPEL Indy planning study, which is considering changes to interstates within the city’s Interstate 465 loop.

A major barrier

Safety and development opportunity are at the heart of Purdue’s push to rethink the street, said Evan Hawkins, the university’s senior director for administrative operations.

“It’s an eight-lane highway, essentially,” Hawkins said. “And it’s problematic—particularly when we think about pedestrians.

“Purdue is committed to really understanding and collaborating with the community—with IU, with other institutional partners, as well as the city of Indianapolis and state of Indiana—to be at the table and be in the solution business.”

Purdue’s 50-year plan for its Indianapolis extension includes 16 buildings ranging from five to about 20 stories west of West Street as well as a handful of buildings on the east side of the street.

The first structure, the 15-story Academic Success Building, is already under construction on the northwest corner of Michigan and West streets. That will essentially act as the front door to Purdue’s campus. Other buildings are expected to be constructed over several decades, though funding for those has not been identified.

IU Indianapolis officials declined to be interviewed for this story. But spokesman Mark Bode told IBJ in a statement that opportunities for the west side of downtown are “considerable.” They’re dependent, however, on finding ways to safely connect the area with the central business district, he said.

Bode added that discussions are underway with Purdue officials about creating near-term solutions to pedestrian safety.

“We’ve engaged, and will continue to engage, with the city of Indianapolis and other key stakeholders to talk about how the redevelopment of West Street can help drive connectivity, generate investment and spark new activity [downtown],” he said.

“Our capital planning staff has also engaged with our colleagues at Purdue, with a focus on pedestrian safety through updated lane and crosswalk markings,” Bode said in the statement. “As these conversations continue with a broad set of community leaders, we stand as a willing partner in driving connectivity and safety across the west side of downtown.”

Big ideas, big money

Parker said Purdue’s plans, plus IU’s (more than 650,000 square feet in projects set to open by the end of 2027), create an opportunity for future city administrations.

“It’s going to be somebody else’s opportunity,” he said. “Everything they’re talking about is absolutely a great opportunity for building off of this new higher ed, university investment that is going to lead to growth in downtown.”

And a pair of architects told IBJ that any changes to West Street could spur even more development on the west side of downtown.

Drew White, principal and co-founder of Indianapolis firm StudioAxis, said he considers West Street to be among the most dangerous parts of downtown for pedestrians. And he said any change should include a multimodal approach to accommodate not only pedestrians but bicycles.

“You can’t cross [the street] unless you want to get killed,” White said.

He said implementing a “road diet”—an approach that reduces the number of vehicular traffic lanes and reduces speed limits—could go a long way in helping address West Street’s biggest challenges, and added, “I think bridges would help.”

Bill Browne, principal of Ratio Architects, said while West Street was never officially designated as a connector road for the interstates, it’s nothing short of an eight-lane highway running along the edge of downtown’s core.

He also said while constructing bridges or tunnels is the most practical approach, the idea of burying the road and essentially capping it with pedestrian-friendly areas is still enticing. An organization called the Rethink Coalition is advocating lowering and then capping parts of I-65 and I-70 downtown to boost the connections between downtown and nearby neighborhoods.

The organization’s discussions have included the interstate exchanges on West Street, though not the street itself.

But Browne acknowledged that approach would be expensive.

“That’s a big number. It’s a lot of money to try to think about sinking something like that,” he said.

Still, he said, “if you’re looking at a 50-year plan and considering what could be done to really make a transformational change, just imagine what that would do.”

“It would still allow traffic to cycle through the city,” he said. “But all of a sudden, you change the connection between the campus and the downtown, and … it’s a very different kind of place. From my standpoint, those are the kind of big-thinking kind of things that ought to at least be considered.”•