Indiana University--Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The purpose of this thesis is to discuss and explain the commitment to arts and culture in Indianapolis from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s by focusing on the origins, activities, and legacy of an extraordinary event in the history of Indianapolis’ arts community: the 1986-1987 Pan American Arts Festival. Early efforts by the City Committee, a local growth coalition comprised of several civic leaders, focused on the physical revitalization of downtown Indianapolis’ cultural landscape. The group’s work in this area, which was part of a larger downtown revitalization project, played an important role in the creation of the Pan American Arts Festival. Ultimately, the planning and administration of this festival had a significant impact on the city’s arts community as it shifted the arts and culture commitment from Indianapolis’ physical structures to the actual livelihood of the organizations housed within them.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Urban forestry is a very important element of urban structures that can improve the environment and life quality within the urban areas. Having an accurate classification of urban forests and grass areas would help improve focused urban tree planting and urban heat wave mitigation efforts. This research project will compare the use of high – resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data when used to classify canopy and grass areas. The high – resolution image, with 1 – meter resolution, was captured by The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) on 6/6/2012. Its coordinate system is the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). The LiDAR data, with 1.0 – meter average post spacing, was captured by Indiana Statewide Imagery and LiDAR Program from 03/13/2011 to 04/30/2012.The study area is called the Near East Side Community Organization (NESCO) neighborhood. It is located on the east side of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Its boundaries are: 65 interstate, East Massachusetts Avenue, East 21st Street, North Emerson Avenue, and the rail road tracks on the south of the East Washington Street. This research will also perform the accuracy assessment based on the results of classifications using high – resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data in order to determine and explain which method is more accurate to classify urban canopy and grass areas.

The North Meridian Street Historic District, in Indianapolis, Indiana, is an area which still reflects the tastes and lifestyles of earlier decades in a contemporary urban setting. Listed in 1986 on the National Register of Historic Places, the district has been regulated by the Meridian Street Preservation Commission since 1971. The Commission, created through state legislation, was conducting design review in the district through nationally established guidelines, the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. In order to more effectively protect and preserve the district, the Commission wished to establish a set of design guidelines specifically tailored to the North Meridian Street Historic District and its particular built and natural- characteristics. This project involved developing a set of design guidelines that would fulfill the needs and desires of the North Meridian Street Historic District, its preservation commission, and its property owners. Each district has its distinct resources and needs. A district's unique built and natural features are guidelines in themselves, but unless the principles and relationships that they represent are translated into words and pictures, many people will not recognize them as such. After researching and analyzing the architectural and environmental qualities of the district a draft set of design guidelines was developed and presented to the Meridian Street Preservation Commission for review. In response to comments and expressed concerns made at a series of public hearings held from March 1992 to August 1993, several rounds of revisions followed the initial presentation of the guidelines. The August 1993 version of the guidelines was adopted by the Commission in September 1993 and is currently in effect. / Department of Architecture

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Where and why there? -- Demand for office space -- Architectural influences -- Building inventory / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Architecture

This research and documentation project of surviving Indianapolis automobile factories examines the importance of Indianapolis, Indiana, as a center of automobile manufacturing in its early days. Automobile factories appeared in the city as early as 1895, and were often an outgrowth of bicycle or carriage-building companies. This followed a national trend. As the industry grew, Indianapolis firms continued to produce low-volume, high-quality cars instead of the more popular, low-cost cars being produced by Ford and other Michigan-based manufacturers. The recession of 1921 and the Great Depression of 1929 decimated the market for expensive cars and by 1937 all Indianapolis-based firms were out of the automobile business. A number of their production facilities remain and are employed in a variety of uses. This project documents these buildings and recommends a range of adaptive re-uses based on successful conversions. / Department of Architecture

This study has determined the historical significance of the James A. Allison Estate as a designed historic landscape and suggested possible guidelines for future development at the site by the current owners, Marian College. Historical evidence indicated that the James A. Allison Estate was designed by noted landscape architect Jens Jensen of Chicago. This was proven through the identification of definable design elements utilized by Jensen in his design work. These included: reliance on native plants, manipulation of space, light and shadow, architectural features (pergolas and bridges), water features, a meadow, and a player's green and formal gardens. National Register Bulletin #18 was then used to determine that the James A. Allison estate could be classified as a designed historic landscape. Suggestions for the future treatment of the site, including guidelines for development, were then created. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The department store retailing concept grew out of the nineteenth century dry goods retail trade. Dry goods stores were usually housed in a group of nineteenth century commercial buildings. As the United States became more prosperous during the late nineteenth century, dry goods establishments outgrew their buildings and developed a new department store building type. The "second generation" store design was generally tripartite: large ground floor display windows, intermediate stories with regular banks of windows, and decorative upper one or two stories capped with an elaborate cornice. These flagship buildings were expanded and remodeled until the 1950s, when the focus of department store retailing shifted to the suburban branch stores. The branch stores anchored shopping centers in the 1950s and 1960s and enclosed shopping malls thereafter. / 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

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on June 4, 2010). Department of History, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): William H. Schneider, Robert G. Barrows, Stephen J. Jay. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This history investigates the beginnings of community foundations in general and the creation of the Indianapolis Foundation specifically and its eventual funding of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. My findings reveal that, contrary to previous histories that have been written, the creation of community foundations was not driven by benevolence but by changes in federal and state banking laws starting in 1913 that allowed banks to have trust departments that broke the monopoly that trust companies had long enjoyed. In response, trust company executives chartered community trusts to publicly position themselves as benevolent, community-minded businessmen. This distinguished them as trustworthy compared to the greedy bankers of the day, which helped trust companies gain trust customers. Community trusts were responsible for identifying and disbursing funds to deserving beneficiaries, thereby relieving trust companies of a costly and time consuming burden. Even more important, the trust companies retained control over the community trusts by appointing surrogate board members. In addition, none of the trust companies that chartered the Indianapolis Foundation donated their own money, yet appeared charitable. All of these factors made community foundations a very lucrative arrangement. Funding the areas of arts and culture was not designated in the Indianapolis Foundation’s original purpose statement, yet the Indiana State Symphony Society was funded at the height of the Great Depression while many Indianapolis citizens went hungry. The love of music played a very small part in efforts by the wealthy elite to garner support from the Indianapolis Foundation for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The public justifications for funding the symphony began with giving psychological relief to the citizens of Indianapolis from the pressures of the Great Depression, to the need of employment for musicians, then the importance of musical education of children, expanding to the importance of the symphony to the city’s reputation, and finally, in the 1980s, the symphony as a community asset that helped rejuvenate downtown Indianapolis. However, the real reason for funding was that the wealthy elite wanted the symphony to use as a flattering cultural institution that would elevate their social status and attract fellow elites and businesses to Indianapolis.