IU, Purdue Indianapolis campus leaders envision transformed academic cityscape

Leaders from the Indianapolis campuses of Indiana and Purdue universities outlined their visions for a transformed urban campus Wednesday, highlighting plans to collaborate with each other and local industry as never before.

“What is IU Indianapolis today rests on the legacy that was built by IUPUI, the culture of collaboration, the culture of engagement,” Latha Ramchand, IU Indianapolis’ inaugural chancellor, said during an Economic Club of Indiana luncheon Wednesday afternoon.

In fact, with all the talk of unity by Ramchand and Dan Hasler, chief operating officer for Purdue University in Indianapolis, it could be easy to forget that the two schools just officially split IUPUI last summer.

The pair talked broadly, citing the prestige and importance of having two Research 1, or R1, status universities in the same city, saying that Indianapolis could model itself after Boston’s success of having multiple top universities fuel innovation and growth.

The new IU Indianapolis achieved R1 status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in February. An R1 designation is presented to universities with $50 million in research and development expenditures that award at least 70 doctoral degrees in any field in a year.

Purdue University, which considers operations in Indianapolis as an expansion of its West Lafayette campus, is also an R1 institution.

The two distinct campuses are starting to take shape with significant construction projects in the works.

Ramchand mentioned the $110 million James T. Morris Arena, which officially broke ground in February, and the planned IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, or IU LAB, supported by a $138 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. The six-floor IU LAB, expected to open in 2027, will be based at the 16 Tech Innovation District.

“If I think about the industry in this region, two things stand out: bio, life science, health science, and the need for us to bring more technology into these spaces,” she said. “And then, of course, there is sports.”

Hasler said Purdue studied urban campuses and found that some universities designed their schools to be so blended into the community that it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended. He cited examples including Purdue Motorsports and the Ray Ewry Sports Engineering Center at Dallara’s U.S. headquarters in Speedway.

“There are no ivory towers anymore,” he said.

Purdue University’s new 15-story, multi-use Academic Success Building, planned for the northwest corner of Michigan and West streets, is expected to open in 2027.

Such blending of city and campus, Hasler said, requires a rethinking of the area between the former IUPUI and the heart of downtown.

“West Street might as well be a moat,” Hasler said. “I’m not a designer. I don’t know what needs to happen. I do know that we need to quickly think about how we can make that much more pedestrian friendly…. We want these students to view the community of the city as their campus.”