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They do good work but they need to build Bolder,taller, Big projects! Postcard Worth!! All this low rise stuff should be outlawed Downtown! Should be a 20 floor minimum.
I like your style Micah D. Indy needs a signiture building that really stands out from anything currently downtown or anything anywhere in the Midwest period. I would love to see more modern futuristic looking buildings like what we see in China.
Look up on YouTube: Explore China’s Futuristic Library- Totally Mind-Blown!
+ 1
Any building going up in the heart of downtown should be at least 20 floors.
This plan to dismantle Circle Centre and rebuild it with only three to four
story buildings is not acceptable.
This plan out forth by Hendricks looks like it belongs in Carmel or Fishers.
A 20 floor minimum is a stupid idea for simpletons.
Murray R.
Three and four story buildings in the heart of downtown lacks confidence and imagination. Only a simpleton would think that’s a good idea.
Excited Hendricks is investing in transforming circle center as this is key real estate in heart of downtown. Bottlenecks and Ironworks are both impressive concepts.
However, I completely agree with the comments on 3-4 story building in core and seemingly too low scale, suburban like. One vital component to this project should be density. Taller buildings should be essential in this core center piece of downtown to feed the density (which will also be a positive for mixed use pieces of development).
I don’t think the height is the problem. But, I agree, this suburban like layout is problematic and really isn’t the direction this should go.
Truth is Hendricks has more creativity than all central Indiana commercial developers combined.
I love a skyline changer as much as anyone but unlike most of the commenters I think this will be a tremendous project. Bottleworks is amazing and if they can replicate that feel in the heart of downtown, that will be a huge win for Indy. Downtown needs more destinations that encourage folks to get out and spend the day there and that’s what this project should do.
There are PLENTY of parking lots inside Mike square to build tall on.
+1
I love skyline buildings so much. But with the change in office space environment there has to be a market driven reason for tall buildings. We’re in competition with a lot of other cities. If we make it too hard to develop they can just look elsewhere. I’m excited for the possibilities of this new mall. Downtown Indianapolis needs to be the place to spend the day in Central Indiana, and an obvious consideration for a short getaway for vacationers in the Midwest. Nashville does this well, we can too! minus the bad country music.
Jed F. and Nathan Z.
+1
If anybody can pull this off it would be Hendricks.
A growing skyline is important. It conveys growth, pride, and confidence.
A downtown skyline is also something that out of town visitors will rememberer
and locals can take pride in.
However, as mentioned by commenters, the dynamics of the market place has
changed. That said, there are improvements that can be made creatively and
inexpensively.
Hendrick’s vision, creativity and respect for Indy’s history should be commended. We are fortunate to have an out of state development firm willing to invest their substantial resources in our city, especially in some of our more historic landmark properties.
Would love to hear more from convention/tourism staff about removing indoor walking system/connectivity. I thought this was a big sales piece for brining conventions to Indy.
Walking/connectivity does not need to be indoors to provide the value needed for visitors/residents to move safely and freely from place to place.
Also building on Greg S.’s comments – we need to add greenspace within the open space – check out The High Line in NYC
Tall buildings are great for commercial or residential use and if your primary goal is a skyline statement but they do not increase livability. Plus you have to have demand for the significant space or they become anchors. If you want more people moving and living downtown to further create a vibrant downtown environment you have to create open spaces. Nobody likes to live and walk where there is nothing buy canyons. Walk around any large city and you gravitate toward the open sky. Yeah, tall building in Chicago look great from 10 – 15 miles away but when you are walking around you don’t have your head cranked back for more than 5 minutes admiring the height of the buildings. In fact in some areas it can be claustrophobic. While many people live in downtown Chicago for the convenience the more desirable areas are the neighborhood environments away from the tall buildings.
I agree with this type of project, this location, and the developer chosen. We know there is a push to densify downtown through residential development and destinations like this create more livability. I like the more intimate scale of this too. Yes, I’d like to see more high-rises within the mile square and there is plenty of underutilized land within it to strategically locate tall buildings that can compliment what is existing.
If some think this low rise solution by Hendricks doesn’t fit in the core, I can understand that as well. I think downtown thins out very quickly into a sparce, disparate fabric of detached single-level buildings and parking lots likening that of a small rural town with a single rail line. Like E. Market St. through Cole Noble District …and South St. to I-70…yikes. We could stand to add alot of low-rise 3-5 lvl residential density in these districts. Think blocks and blocks of charming row homes/apartments/condos with architectural styles you see within the Old Northside and intervening pocket parks. I love what Hendricks has done with Bottleworks and I really think “they get it.”
D.C. doesn’t have any tall buildings and has plenty of charming low-rise cool urban residential districts. Indianapolis doesn’t necessarily only need to be concerned about building up downtown due to lack of space, but we should also build out. Eliminating surface parking lots, more contiguous street wall frontage that facilitates the feeling of place and really insist on architectural standards that lend character especially for the historic core of the city and state. I see too much of the opposite (facade-wise, not form wise) like in a lot of the first floor retail of the “newer” downtown mixed-use developments like the low- rise additions to former Market Square Arena site.
You know what, I would rather see this project itself or this same vision applied to redevelop South St. between Virginia Ave and Kentucky Ave. The South St. corridor essentially starts at Kentucky Ave. on the west and the surrounding development pattern changes once you hit Virginia Ave on the east. These are essentially gateways. With the new mixed-use soccer stadium development happening on the west end and the proximity to Victory Field and Lucas Oil, this Kentucky Ave/South St. intersection is the midpoint or epicenter of what is essentially an unofficially designated ‘Stadium District’ for Indianapolis. Victory Field, Eleven Stadium, Lucas Oil, and Gainbridge basically form a crescent which is something to be said.
This new stadium and its proximity to the other two is an opportunity to develop the surroundings into a proper sports district and vitalize the south side of downtown. South St. btwn. Kentucky and Virginia can be a newly envisioned commercial and residential strip that continues the energy and vitality of the bordering Wholesale District. Architecturally, maybe a 19th Century warehouse aesthetic like Hendrick’s Ironworks Hotel at the same scale as the Circle Centre redevelopment proposal and Bottleworks. I would like to see Hendricks specifically chosen to take on a new Indianapolis Stadium District project.