Today's planners and designers are working to improve the quality of living areas in cities, as is observable in such urban centers as Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Atlanta and of course, Indianapolis, just to mention a few. To create or keep those desirable spaces, cityscapes, historical sites, plazas and recreational areas, the use of planning, design and redesign is necessary.This creative project deals with the redesign of the City Market Plaza in Indianapolis. Potentials and possible future concepts are addressed.Today's City Market is not a major place of interest that attracts a large clientele. Places like Union Station, Pan American Plaza, The Indianapolis Circle and the recently approved circle Mall, diminish its importance as an attraction. The large O'Maiia's and other smaller specialty markets detract from its value as a market. But the potentials still are there for tourism, daily shopping and restaurant dining. By adding new locales in the City Market's plazas, with new uses and adjusting a well planned program of activities to these locales, it will help survive and compete successfully against the competition. / Department of Landscape Architecture

This creative project has examined the cooperation between the public and private sectors (public-private partnerships) and how they effectively combined resources to revitalize downtown Indianapolis. The public-private partnership process operating in Indianapolis was explored using two specific partnership efforts. A detailed discussion of the development of Market Square Arena - the city's first major partnership effort - and the development of the proposed Circle Centre Mall - the city's latest and reaching attempt at public-private cooperation - serve as two examples in defining the partnership process.In addition, the creative project defines five components necessary for public-private partnerships to operate effectively in Indianapolis. / Department of Urban Planning

The purpose of this report was to investigate the role of George Edward Kessler and the historical events which effected the development of the Indianapolis park system. Heretofore, this area of study has received little scholarly attention. Kessler has proven to be a significant figure in landscape architecture and city planning history; his landscape and planning philosophies profoundly restructured the urban fabric of Indianapolis and numerous other cities throughout America. As a result of Kessler's involvement, Indianapolis is heir to a sophisticated network of parks and boulevards representational of City Beautiful Era planning. This park system is an historically and a culturally valuable legacy as it has shaped the city's urban character.The study focused on the Indianapolis park system's developmental period, 1895-1915. Primary and secondary source material was researched in order to document the park system's initial beginnings during the Park Movement through its maturation during the City Beautiful Era.Kessler's original plan contemplated 175 miles of parkways along the city's river and stream corridors, and an additional 175 miles of connecting boulevards. The Kessler park system included a total of 12,000 acres for the city. It should be noted that the system fell short of this grandiose scheme, however, the study concluded that Kessler played a significant role in the development of the Indianapolis park system. By the close of the 1920's, much of the groundwork for the Kessler plan had been successfully implemented.In recent years, designed landscapes have gained considerable new attention from preservationists, landscape architects and allied professions. Kessler's visionary scheme for the Indianapolis park system is a significant layer of design upon the city's physical plan.In light of this growing appreciation of the nation's historic urban greenspaces and the events which shaped them, this study was undertaken. / Department of Architecture

One of the top priorities in American cities has been the improvement of business conditions in downtown shopping areas. Downtown Indianapolis, as other American cities is involved in economic revitalization in order to be able to compete with rapid suburban expansion. This revitalization effort seeks to attract more people to the city core.Downtown economic development is integrally related to the urban space revitalization. Since the beginning of cities, open spaces have been regarded as an important public amenity for providing quality urban environments. Open space provides the life of community and a place for human activity.As an entertainment center, Indianapolis can not just develop new sophisticated buildings, it needs also to comprehensively revitalize the open spaces. This project is an effort to demonstrate how urban environments located in the core area that have easy access, security, and comfort and also are joyful and attractive place for its citizen and guests.In this creative project, the designer/planner proposes an open space improvementconcept and program that can be implemented in the south-western section of downtown Indianapolis. The concepts derived m analyzing the potentials and assets that exist in the area today and responding to known future developments.The major goals of thesis project are:1 . Strengthening the pedestrian loop through out the project area in order to create a continuity of pedestrian spaces.2. Creating a pedestrian mall along five blocks of Illinois Street as a major effortto provide a pedestrian oriented environment.3. Creating a pedestrian corridor to connect the Circle Center Mall complex withthe Hoosier Dome and Convention Center.All planning and design concepts that are recommended in this project will reinforce the assets that already exist. The recommendations proposed within are meant to serve as "idea pieces" to aid in the planning and design of revitalization of downtown Indianapolis. / Department of Urban Planning

This proposal is a catalogue of considerable contextual issues that inform the architect about values, environmental qualities, and principles, found within existing building structures of an American downtown. It is the intention of this collection to help the architect considering a broader range of ideas in a new single building to be designed, with the intent of improving foremost the public quality of a future building in the downtown.The main architectural questions embrace the definition of the contextual influences, dimensional and non-dimensional, and the clarification what type of influences remain under the control of the architect.It is my overall premise that buildings in downtown are indeed of "higher quality" when they reflect the surrounding rules, i.e., when the architects, clients and any other powerful participants of the building enterprise know about the additional ideas that have been established around the proposed site. The downtown is often the oldest part of a city where first housing, first trade, growth, and the idea of neighborhood had its roots, where it all began. I specify downtown still as the traditional center of a community, a center, not defined so much geographically or architecturally as it is socially.How can a future best building become a piece of the existing downtown environment as an ideal. Is there such an ideal answer? Or is the downtown itself a conglomerate of random individual and uncompromising Inventions?What is the basic language, the common traits that all buildings in downtown shareMarkus Vogel, May 1997•What parts of a building are of importance in becoming a part of downtown and what reasons can we identify for attaching importance to those parts?What generates form, use and expression in downtown buildings which we consider as being a successful part of the place.Out of these questions, a catalog of influences will be presented, a reference framework of 21 issues, notions, and contextual influences, divided into dimensional and non-dimensional influences. Each of the influences analyses a single aspect out of the pool of qualities of downtown buildings. The consideration of non-dimensional contextual influences without any obvious visual dimensions such as contextual symbolism, questions of aesthetics, and behavioral aspects is of special importance. In defining the references the following set of questions serve as a guideline:A) Why are the notions important and where are they coming from?B) How can we look at them in downtown Indianapolis?C) What are the related suggestions and implications for a design study?The research includes visual, graphical and oral analysis whereby downtown Indianapolis serves as an example and as a resource city. The target groups includes senior students of architecture, architects and the community, or any other public client involved in design decisions or design reviews which supervise new developments in downtown.It is the position of this paper that only a consideration of all contextual influences together in one building may create what utopists could consider an ideal building. Aware of this heavily difficult ideal, an overview on those constraints that are not sufficiently under the control of the architect will be given in order to clarify the dualism between the ideal outcome and realistic possibilities. This proposal is therefore the creation of a methodology which defines questions and issues rather than providing the answers, describing final design implications.In conclusion, I assume that the belief and the application of such a contextual framework is characteristic of those people interested in particular and individualistic design responses rather than those individuals preferring universal and broad rules honoring all kinds of manifestoes that can be found in the pluralistic mishmash of present day's architectural theories. / Department of Architecture

This study reveals the potential for urban design where multi-modal transportation corridors intersect. An overarching challenge to urban design and planning relates to the impact mobility has on the social, environmental, and economic health of America's cities, including Indianapolis. In response to this challenge, this study explores transit-oriented development, a strategy based on the principle that transportation and land use are closely related and should therefore be planned in coordination, as a viable alternative to current practices that force transportation to follow rather than inspire and enhance development.Two primary phases constitute the study. The first introduces the principles of transit-oriented development. This phase also highlights some of the urban design opportunities that stem from this alternative strategy and examines and evaluates how effectively transit-oriented development principles work in various American cities.The second phase explores how these principles may be applied to the city of Indianapolis and demonstrates how one site within the city can serve as a model for coordinating various modes of transportation with adjacent land use. This phase consists of selecting a demonstration site within the city, researching the existing and historical make-up of the site, and developing a master plan for the site. The master plan is based on two primary goals-to create a safe and efficient transportation node and to create a unique and vibrant urban "place" that functions as both an origin and a destination. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The City of Indianapolis, in wanting to become the amateur athletic capitol of the United States, needs to provide appropriate housing for training athletes and their coaches in order to fully realize the city's goal of creating the optimum amateur athlete environment. This project provided a master plan for an athlete housing complex located in the peripheral downtown area along the Canal, and near several sports training facilities. A major purpose of the project was to approach the housing site development utilizing Latin American Spanish Colonial planning-design concepts adapted to a North American urban site. Thus, the proposed housing and its site plan serve not only as a living environment for visiting athletes, but as an enduring post- X Pan American games commemoration of our respect and friendship for the people of Latin America. / Department of Landscape Architecture

This is the documentation of my thesis in which the project designed was a cultural center for Indianapolis, Indiana. Large theater, medium size theater, an amphitheater, a gallery, shops and studios, exhibition areas, restaurants, and parking structure.The cultural center is proposed for the part of white river park. It is bounded by Washington Street on the south, White River on the west, Blake street on the north, and the Blackford street on the east.The site chosen was of particular importance, since the activities that would take place in the cultural center would attract more people to white river park.The Indianapolis cultural center would act as a catalyst for the cultural development of the Indiana State. / Department of Architecture

The processes by which urban areas come to be and evolve create outdoor spaces that experience different uses and have different characteristics over a period of time. For example, a space previously used for industrial purposes may presently be used as a community park. In some cases, a significant area of land may become a kind of leftover or remnant space whose uses are unclear, undefined, or unprogrammed, but exhibits natural characteristics. The purpose of this study is to utilize one of these natural remnants, Marott Park, in the cultural arts district of Broad Ripple in Indianapolis, Indiana as the basis for a design effort that provides access to the site while retaining both its site-specific and contextual characteristics. The intent of this effort is to enhance the community/pedestrian recreational, educational, and cultural experience through a detailed design for a portion of Marott Park. A set of recommendations also addresses the potential for connections between the site and other features such as existing open space, schools, and cultural features in the Indianapolis area. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI / Charter schools are a major movement in American education and increasingly used as a city strategy for neighborhood rehabilitation. Indianapolis is one of a growing number of urban areas to promote charter schools as catalysts for neighborhood revitalization. Previous studies find mixed results about the causes of neighborhood change or how residents make mobility decisions. The present study seeks to create an empirical model that discovers the impact of charter schools as a neighborhood amenity. This is based on two measures of well-being: change in percentage poverty and change in percentage school-aged residents. Data indicate a negative relationship between charter schools in a census tract and the school-aged resident population. However, statistical analysis did not support a significant relationship between either measure and charter schools in the ten year time frame.