Indianapolis Development News - Page 416

GarfieldPark · May 14th, 2012, 11:06 PM

Moochie: "Barcelona in particular has some truly crappy 20+ story residential towers surrounded by parking lots, think Riley Towers or worse, ...."

I think Riley Towers is fairly cool and is a nice representative of 1960's high rise apartment design. It has a parking garage that is built into the structures. From the east side - along Alabama Street - The Towers look pretty good I think. Lots of greenery. Some courtyard-style areas. You can see the weight rooms for the residents. The swimming pool is set back from the street - as is the tennis court. There used to be a restaurant and a little store in the middle of the complex. Not sure what is in those areas now.

From the west side it is not as good looking -- of course it runs up against the Alley to the west of Alabama Street. If there were better, more dense development along the east side of Delaware Street - you wouldn't be able to see the uglier, "back" side of the complex.

Its not anything fantastic -- but I do think its great to have a couple of 30 story residential towers downtown and a fifteen story tower next to it. Sure - it could look a little better and have a better, more interactive street presence along Alabama -- but, like I said above -- it serves as a pretty good example of a 1960's high rise apartment building - and I think its great that it has kept a pretty high occupance rate of its 500 units for 50 years!

jjgn · May 15th, 2012, 03:24 AM

I like the look and feel of Riley Towers from the street. I think the original plan called for more, maybe nine, of them. The architectural and planning sad thing is the adjacent Renaisance Place. Whatever the benefit of the quick sale of those clones in, I think, the early 80s, it was not worth it.

GarfieldPark · May 15th, 2012, 02:49 PM

Definitely in total agreement on Renaissance Place. Low rise suburbia on three blocks downtown between St. Joseph and Chatham Arch. 120 units spread out over three blocks. Not only is the density pretty bad -- but the design is quite blah too. I think Mike Brady must have received the architectural commission after leaving the Brady Bunch in 1975.

arenn · May 15th, 2012, 03:40 PM

Worth a read: http://crosscut.com/2012/05/13/real-...hout-hi-rises/

cailes · May 15th, 2012, 04:46 PM

Indy still a Bronze level city in 2012 Bike League ratings
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/b...Spring2012.pdf

Bloomington got a silver. A number of other smaller towns in Indiana got bronze level as well.

GarfieldPark · May 15th, 2012, 04:53 PM

Excellent piece. Thanks for posting it Arenn. A bunch more 5 - 15 story mixed use structures throughout the central core will be a great way to fill in Central Indianapolis. There still is plenty of room for ten or more well designed, street-front-appropriate 20 - 40+ story buildings in the core of the CBD as well - within 6 - 7 blocks of the Circle. In the outlying areas around the CBD - the 5 - 15 story infill would work very well to continue increasing the density while maintaining and improving the street life. That's what I'd like to see. Improved transit with several downtown circulators and well-maintained bikeways would be two other keys to improving the livability of Central Indianapolis.

CorrND · May 15th, 2012, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarfieldPark

Definitely in total agreement on Renaissance Place. Low rise suburbia on three blocks downtown between St. Joseph and Chatham Arch. 120 units spread out over three blocks. Not only is the density pretty bad -- but the design is quite blah too. I think Mike Brady must have received the architectural commission after leaving the Brady Bunch in 1975.

Design atrocious, yes, but the density actually isn't that low for Indy. It's 120 units on about 12 acres, or about 10 DUA.

We could only WISH the rest of Indy were that dense. Most of the single family neighborhoods in Indy are in the range of 4-6 DUA. In the whole city, only St. Joseph, Lockerbie Square and the Canal are probably denser than Renaissance Place.

cailes · May 15th, 2012, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarfieldPark

Improved transit with several downtown circulators and well-maintained bikeways would be two other keys to improving the livability of Central Indianapolis.

Very happy to read this :-)

jjgn · May 15th, 2012, 05:47 PM

Observed on Cutural Trail --
A. DPW trash truck picking up contents of new trash AND recycling containers at same time, at Washington and Meridian and at Alabama and about Ohio. When I spoke to the driver he responded, yes, his truck had two compartments, so a lie.

B. Bleachers for 500 Festival parade on the C T in first block of East Washington.

C. Not yet seen, but May is the month to paint corner curbs and other no-parking curbs bright yellow -- so it could be happening soon to new C T curbs, which will be ugly. The yellow curbs need to go away everywhere. Some older C T curbs were painted yellow last year. And, recently, painters have been adjudicated people and not professional painters.

GarfieldPark · May 15th, 2012, 07:17 PM

City’s final tab for hosting Super Bowl: $1 million

The city’s final tab to host the Super Bowl in February came to $1 million, tourism leaders said Monday afternoon.

That’s $200,000 more than originally budgeted by the Capital Improvement Board of Managers of Marion County, the entity that operates Lucas Oil Stadium and the city's other downtown sports venues.

But CIB and city tourism leaders said on Monday that the money was well spent considering the game could translate to $300 million in direct visitor spending over the next several years.

“There’s no question in my mind that the Super Bowl generated interest in Indianapolis,” said Leonard Hoops, CEO of the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association.

In the first quarter of 2012, the ICVA logged interest in 998,000 room nights for future conventions, a whopping 156-percent increase from the same time last year. If the city wins enough conventions over the next 10 years to fill a third of those room nights, it should capture the additional $300 million in visitor spending, Hoops said.

Link to the IBJ story here:

http://www.ibj.com/city-s-final-tab-.../article/34414

GarfieldPark · May 15th, 2012, 07:28 PM

Does anyone know if "they" are going to turn on the fountains at Monument Circle anytime soon? Its been beautiful weather for quite a while now. If I remember correctly, it was down all of last Summer while Lady Victory was taken down and cleaned. If something needed to be fixed withh the plumbing for the fountains, they should have done that last year as well. I'll be more than aggravated if they are down all summer again. Blue water looks so much better than dry, gray limestone.

btw -- what ever happened to the plans for the "re-do" of the Circle? They made a big deal about it a year and a half ago - and now I haven't heard anything since. I thought IDI was supposed to be working on new programming and special events and activities down there. In my opinion, it seems like things around the Circle have been moving in the wrong direction as opposed to seeing improvements.

cdc guy · May 15th, 2012, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarfieldPark

I think Riley Towers is fairly cool and is a nice representative of 1960's high rise apartment design. It has a parking garage that is built into the structures. From the east side - along Alabama Street - The Towers look pretty good I think. Lots of greenery. Some courtyard-style areas. You can see the weight rooms for the residents. The swimming pool is set back from the street - as is the tennis court. There used to be a restaurant and a little store in the middle of the complex. Not sure what is in those areas now.

From the west side it is not as good looking -- of course it runs up against the Alley to the west of Alabama Street. If there were better, more dense development along the east side of Delaware Street - you wouldn't be able to see the uglier, "back" side of the complex.

Its not anything fantastic -- but I do think its great to have a couple of 30 story residential towers downtown and a fifteen story tower next to it. Sure - it could look a little better and have a better, more interactive street presence along Alabama -- but, like I said above -- it serves as a pretty good example of a 1960's high rise apartment building - and I think its great that it has kept a pretty high occupance rate of its 500 units for 50 years!

IMO the only real issue with Riley Towers is the interruption of the street grid. There was no real reason to cut off Walnut and Hudson around the development.

GarfieldPark · May 15th, 2012, 07:35 PM

I saw the bleachers on the Cultural Trail too. They should have put them in the parking lane. Closing about six or seven car parking spaces for about three weeks makes a lot more sense than completely blocking the bike lanes.

Cars can park in tens of thousands of other places. This is the only Cultural Trail route and it really messes things up for a lot of people who will be out riding around on the trail during the next few weeks - which pretty much are the biggest weeks of the year for Indy to attract race fans, visitors and other tourists. This needs to be changed soon. I hope someone at the CT offices will be taking care of this immediately.

cailes · May 15th, 2012, 09:34 PM

Cmon guys, its for the cars! Tradition! Indy 500! Who cares about bikes anyway?

#facepalm

cdc guy · May 16th, 2012, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarfieldPark

I saw the bleachers on the Cultural Trail too. They should have put them in the parking lane. Closing about six or seven car parking spaces for about three weeks makes a lot more sense than completely blocking the bike lanes.

Cars can park in tens of thousands of other places. This is the only Cultural Trail route and it really messes things up for a lot of people who will be out riding around on the trail during the next few weeks - which pretty much are the biggest weeks of the year for Indy to attract race fans, visitors and other tourists. This needs to be changed soon. I hope someone at the CT offices will be taking care of this immediately.

Yabut...the city or 500 Festival would have to pay the parking-meter operator a bag fee for each one of those spaces. The CT is "free" parking for their bleachers.

The consolation is that Indy's parking meter lease isn't as bad as Chicago's.

cailes · May 16th, 2012, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdc guy

The consolation is that Indy's parking meter lease isn't as bad as Chicago's.

That isn't much consolation to me.

That's like saying, well both of my dogs died, but at least only one of them suffered...

GarfieldPark · May 16th, 2012, 03:53 PM

I don't care if the city has to pay for seven parking spaces to be bagged for three weeks. They bag them all over the place for much poorer reasons. Here's my guesstimate of what it might cost to pay for the spaces to be made unavailable:

Each space can potentially earn 16 hours worth of payments of $1.50 per hour -- or $24 per day.

Seven spaces at $24 per day = $168 per day.

Three weeks = 21 days, 21 x $168 = $3,528

I'm not sure what the payment rate is for bagged meters. It is probably less than what I estimated -- which assumrd that the spaces will all be filled for the entire time possible. There also may not even be 7 spaces there - there may only be about 5 or six. So basically the number above is the maximum the city might have to pay.

About $3500! The city should definitely pay this small amount instead of closing off a block of the Cultural Trail for three prime weeks.

cdc guy · May 16th, 2012, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GarfieldPark

I don't care if the city has to pay for seven parking spaces to be bagged for three weeks. They bag them all over the place for much poorer reasons. Here's my guesstimate of what it might cost to pay for the spaces to be made unavailable:

Each space can potentially earn 16 hours worth of payments of $1.50 per hour -- or $24 per day.

Seven spaces at $24 per day = $168 per day.

Three weeks = 21 days, 21 x $168 = $3,528

I'm not sure what the payment rate is for bagged meters. It is probably less than what I estimated -- which assumrd that the spaces will all be filled for the entire time possible. There also may not even be 7 spaces there - there may only be about 5 or six. So basically the number above is the maximum the city might have to pay.

About $3500! The city should definitely pay this small amount instead of closing off a block of the Cultural Trail for three prime weeks.

Suggest you submit this to the Mayor's Action Center.

tjfd88 · May 16th, 2012, 07:20 PM

I apologize ahead of time for the bleachers along Washington Street. I am an adult leader with a Boy Scout troop that has regularly had that section (Section 13 along the parade route) for the 500 Parade. I had wondered what would happen when the Cultural Trail was built alongside Washington Street what that would do with the parade route, now I know. I would have just been fine with having chairs set up along the street. In that vain, people will usually fill up the gaps between the street and what was then the sidewalk with their own fold-up chairs to watch the parade without a ticket (which is legal.) If I have the chance to help out with the parade again this year, I will make an effort to not have my own chair along the Cultural Trail, so that at least I won't be blocking the trail, symbolically.

moochie · May 16th, 2012, 07:32 PM

Wow.. I just now remembered working putting up and taking down folding chairs in that area once as a Boy Scout. That was a thousand years ago.. Troop 125, St. Philip Neri. We were considered the ghetto scout troop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjfd88

I apologize ahead of time for the bleachers along Washington Street. I am an adult leader with a Boy Scout troop that has regularly had that section (Section 13 along the parade route) for the 500 Parade. I had wondered what would happen when the Cultural Trail was built alongside Washington Street what that would do with the parade route, now I know. I would have just been fine with having chairs set up along the street. In that vain, people will usually fill up the gaps between the street and what was then the sidewalk with their own fold-up chairs to watch the parade without a ticket (which is legal.) If I have the chance to help out with the parade again this year, I will make an effort to not have my own chair along the Cultural Trail, so that at least I won't be blocking the trail, symbolically.

May 15th, 2012, 03:40 PM	#8304
arenn Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 2,626 Likes (Received): 22	Worth a read: http://crosscut.com/2012/05/13/real-...hout-hi-rises/ __________________ My Urban Affairs Blog: http://www.urbanophile.com/

May 15th, 2012, 04:46 PM	#8305
cailes Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 1,453 Likes (Received): 16	Indy still a Bronze level city in 2012 Bike League ratings http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/b...Spring2012.pdf Bloomington got a silver. A number of other smaller towns in Indiana got bronze level as well. __________________ Urban Indy: http://www.urbanindy.com

May 15th, 2012, 05:47 PM	#8309
jjgn Registered User Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 160 Likes (Received): 0	Observed on Cutural Trail -- A. DPW trash truck picking up contents of new trash AND recycling containers at same time, at Washington and Meridian and at Alabama and about Ohio. When I spoke to the driver he responded, yes, his truck had two compartments, so a lie. B. Bleachers for 500 Festival parade on the C T in first block of East Washington. C. Not yet seen, but May is the month to paint corner curbs and other no-parking curbs bright yellow -- so it could be happening soon to new C T curbs, which will be ugly. The yellow curbs need to go away everywhere. Some older C T curbs were painted yellow last year. And, recently, painters have been adjudicated people and not professional painters. Last edited by jjgn; June 1st, 2012 at 05:22 PM.

May 15th, 2012, 09:34 PM	#8314
cailes Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 1,453 Likes (Received): 16	Cmon guys, its for the cars! Tradition! Indy 500! Who cares about bikes anyway? #facepalm __________________ Urban Indy: http://www.urbanindy.com

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May 14th, 2012, 11:06 PM	#8301
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	Moochie: "Barcelona in particular has some truly crappy 20+ story residential towers surrounded by parking lots, think Riley Towers or worse, ...." I think Riley Towers is fairly cool and is a nice representative of 1960's high rise apartment design. It has a parking garage that is built into the structures. From the east side - along Alabama Street - The Towers look pretty good I think. Lots of greenery. Some courtyard-style areas. You can see the weight rooms for the residents. The swimming pool is set back from the street - as is the tennis court. There used to be a restaurant and a little store in the middle of the complex. Not sure what is in those areas now. From the west side it is not as good looking -- of course it runs up against the Alley to the west of Alabama Street. If there were better, more dense development along the east side of Delaware Street - you wouldn't be able to see the uglier, "back" side of the complex. Its not anything fantastic -- but I do think its great to have a couple of 30 story residential towers downtown and a fifteen story tower next to it. Sure - it could look a little better and have a better, more interactive street presence along Alabama -- but, like I said above -- it serves as a pretty good example of a 1960's high rise apartment building - and I think its great that it has kept a pretty high occupance rate of its 500 units for 50 years!

May 15th, 2012, 03:24 AM	#8302
jjgn Registered User Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 160 Likes (Received): 0	I like the look and feel of Riley Towers from the street. I think the original plan called for more, maybe nine, of them. The architectural and planning sad thing is the adjacent Renaisance Place. Whatever the benefit of the quick sale of those clones in, I think, the early 80s, it was not worth it.

May 15th, 2012, 02:49 PM	#8303
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	Definitely in total agreement on Renaissance Place. Low rise suburbia on three blocks downtown between St. Joseph and Chatham Arch. 120 units spread out over three blocks. Not only is the density pretty bad -- but the design is quite blah too. I think Mike Brady must have received the architectural commission after leaving the Brady Bunch in 1975.

May 15th, 2012, 04:53 PM	#8306
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	Excellent piece. Thanks for posting it Arenn. A bunch more 5 - 15 story mixed use structures throughout the central core will be a great way to fill in Central Indianapolis. There still is plenty of room for ten or more well designed, street-front-appropriate 20 - 40+ story buildings in the core of the CBD as well - within 6 - 7 blocks of the Circle. In the outlying areas around the CBD - the 5 - 15 story infill would work very well to continue increasing the density while maintaining and improving the street life. That's what I'd like to see. Improved transit with several downtown circulators and well-maintained bikeways would be two other keys to improving the livability of Central Indianapolis.

May 15th, 2012, 07:17 PM	#8310
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	City’s final tab for hosting Super Bowl: $1 million The city’s final tab to host the Super Bowl in February came to $1 million, tourism leaders said Monday afternoon. That’s $200,000 more than originally budgeted by the Capital Improvement Board of Managers of Marion County, the entity that operates Lucas Oil Stadium and the city's other downtown sports venues. But CIB and city tourism leaders said on Monday that the money was well spent considering the game could translate to $300 million in direct visitor spending over the next several years. “There’s no question in my mind that the Super Bowl generated interest in Indianapolis,” said Leonard Hoops, CEO of the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association. In the first quarter of 2012, the ICVA logged interest in 998,000 room nights for future conventions, a whopping 156-percent increase from the same time last year. If the city wins enough conventions over the next 10 years to fill a third of those room nights, it should capture the additional $300 million in visitor spending, Hoops said. Link to the IBJ story here: http://www.ibj.com/city-s-final-tab-.../article/34414

May 15th, 2012, 07:28 PM	#8311
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	Does anyone know if "they" are going to turn on the fountains at Monument Circle anytime soon? Its been beautiful weather for quite a while now. If I remember correctly, it was down all of last Summer while Lady Victory was taken down and cleaned. If something needed to be fixed withh the plumbing for the fountains, they should have done that last year as well. I'll be more than aggravated if they are down all summer again. Blue water looks so much better than dry, gray limestone. btw -- what ever happened to the plans for the "re-do" of the Circle? They made a big deal about it a year and a half ago - and now I haven't heard anything since. I thought IDI was supposed to be working on new programming and special events and activities down there. In my opinion, it seems like things around the Circle have been moving in the wrong direction as opposed to seeing improvements.

May 15th, 2012, 07:35 PM	#8313
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	I saw the bleachers on the Cultural Trail too. They should have put them in the parking lane. Closing about six or seven car parking spaces for about three weeks makes a lot more sense than completely blocking the bike lanes. Cars can park in tens of thousands of other places. This is the only Cultural Trail route and it really messes things up for a lot of people who will be out riding around on the trail during the next few weeks - which pretty much are the biggest weeks of the year for Indy to attract race fans, visitors and other tourists. This needs to be changed soon. I hope someone at the CT offices will be taking care of this immediately.

May 16th, 2012, 03:53 PM	#8317
GarfieldPark Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,649 Likes (Received): 22	I don't care if the city has to pay for seven parking spaces to be bagged for three weeks. They bag them all over the place for much poorer reasons. Here's my guesstimate of what it might cost to pay for the spaces to be made unavailable: Each space can potentially earn 16 hours worth of payments of $1.50 per hour -- or $24 per day. Seven spaces at $24 per day = $168 per day. Three weeks = 21 days, 21 x $168 = $3,528 I'm not sure what the payment rate is for bagged meters. It is probably less than what I estimated -- which assumrd that the spaces will all be filled for the entire time possible. There also may not even be 7 spaces there - there may only be about 5 or six. So basically the number above is the maximum the city might have to pay. About $3500! The city should definitely pay this small amount instead of closing off a block of the Cultural Trail for three prime weeks.

May 16th, 2012, 07:20 PM	#8319
tjfd88 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 15 Likes (Received): 0	I apologize ahead of time for the bleachers along Washington Street. I am an adult leader with a Boy Scout troop that has regularly had that section (Section 13 along the parade route) for the 500 Parade. I had wondered what would happen when the Cultural Trail was built alongside Washington Street what that would do with the parade route, now I know. I would have just been fine with having chairs set up along the street. In that vain, people will usually fill up the gaps between the street and what was then the sidewalk with their own fold-up chairs to watch the parade without a ticket (which is legal.) If I have the chance to help out with the parade again this year, I will make an effort to not have my own chair along the Cultural Trail, so that at least I won't be blocking the trail, symbolically.