A Place of Sense

One of my favorite parts of Indianapolis is Market Street.  The east side of Market Street once hosted two really awesome buildings, the City Market building which is still there and Tomlinson Hall which was lost to fire in 1958.

A view of Tomlinson and City Market from the old County Courthouse

My experience with Tomlinson Hall began when I worked as the engineer for the City Market renovations.  The market space was upgraded and people seem to love it.  What a shame that we lost its companion so many years ago.  There are still parts to admire including an old arch in the west wing plaza.  But if you think that is the only part left, you might be surprised.

This arch is the last bit of Tomlinson Hall above ground

Pieces of Tomlinson Hall sit just below the West Wing plaza.  And not just any random bits of structure, but one of the most impressive basements in Indiana.  This place is special, and people in the city refer to it as the “the catacombs.”

A forest of brick columns

The barrel vaults and brick columns

The foundations of Tomlinson Hall were built using some amazing materials and construction techniques, which you just don’t come across often.  The details of the masonry show an attention to detail and familiarity with brick and stone that is hard to replicate.

A lateral arch supports the barrel vault ceiling at a niche below the sidewalk

Some of Indy's best masonry work is hidden below ground

Although it was not in the scope for the latest renovations for City Market property, this is really cool asset that I hope the city finds a way to share with the public at some point.

A view of the massive cut-stone piers that once supported Tomlinson Hall

Recently, City Market opened a taproom on their mezzanine and named it in honor of Tomlinson Hall.  The catacombs aren’t accessible by the public yet, but anyone can stop in at Tomlinson Taproom and celebrate it with a fresh, local pint of beer.

Footnote:  You can watch a video tour of the catacombs on this Youtube video from 2009 (fast forward to 4:30).

It’s no secret that pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries have been rising in our cities.  As more people explore active transportation options they are coming into conflict with vehicular traffic.  A recent article on USA Today shows that this is a real problem and it is reaching a new level of visibility in the debate on transportation in the US.

Most people understand that the faster a vehicle is driving, the more dangerous it can be for pedestrians and people on bicycles.  Risk is a combination of probability and consequence, and the data in the chart shows a surprising increase in the risk as the vehicular speed increases above 20 mph, as shown in the figure.

This data is well known amongst traffic engineers, and it causes them to design streets in a way that I don’t approve of.  Instead of designing streets that encourage drivers to be more aware of pedestrians and to drive slower, they isolate cars into traffic sewers and funnel them through the city at high speeds.  The problem is that this cuts up the city, street by street.  Pedestrians have only the option of staying on their own block or sprinting madly across several lanes of traffic. We need a better system, one that recognizes that there are places for traffic segregation and there are places for traffic integration.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds.  There are many successful models for building communities which are safe for pedestrians but preserve access for vehicles.  You can look to the dutch “Woonerf” or “Shared Space concept.”  The British have their own “Home Zone” initiative.  But you can also find great examples here in Indianapolis.  Our own Monument Circle is a fantastic place to see cars and vehicles negotiating space safely, and the finished Georgia Street is going to be a model for other cities for many years to come.

Georgia Street during construction (image credit: Curt Ailes)

The examples above are great for low speed interaction between cars and people, but we also have some great ideas when it comes to managing high-speed traffic issues.  The Cultural Trail is designed to move a large amount of people on foot or on bike through downtown, and it really elevates active transportation to the same quality and accessibility that vehicles have.

Indy's Cultural Trail (image credit: Curt Ailes)

These local examples show that there are two effective strategies for reducing pedestrian risks:

1. establish pedestrian zones where cars and people interact at very slow speeds – do this for both commercial and residential areas with local traffic
2. establish arterial zones where cars and people are segregated – give people and cars separate facilities where the speeds are too dangerous for mixing

Earlier this year I witnessed a terrifying event while out in my neighborhood.  Textbooks would refer to it as a “pedestrian-vehicle conflict”, something that can be observed at any number of intersections several times a day.  Seeing it play out in reality, I began to realize that our built environment has done a very poor job of training drivers to watch out for pedestrians.  One glance at the number of pedestrian fatalities statistics shows the devastating consequences on our society.

A Dramatic Encounter at the Intersection of Ritter and Washington

The situation happened along East Washington Street in a pedestrian friendly commercial district.  A car stopped at a red light and wanted to turn right.  At the same time a young family with a baby in a stroller arrived at the corner and wanted to cross the side street.  The family saw the “Walk” signal lit for them and proceeded across the street.  The driver, having earlier noticed the family, failed to anticipate that they were going to cross the street and shifted attention to traffic from the left in the main street.

What happened next is the stuff nightmares are made of.  When the family was halfway through the lane, the driver saw a break in traffic and began accelerating.  There was a loud noise and a scream, but thankfully it wasn’t what I feared.  The husband had slammed his fist down on the car hood and yelled “STOP!”, and luckily the driver found the brake quickly enough to prevent disaster.  It happened so fast that I could barely process that an entire family had almost been killed or seriously injured, just because they wanted to cross the street during a nice summertime day.

This incident reveals a larger problem with our transportation system.  Humans are great at identifying threats to them, but not so good at identifying the threat that they pose to others.  In addition to this, drivers often have a hard time recognizing pedestrians and cyclists as rightful users of the street.  They don’t realize that pedestrians don’t always stay on the sidewalk or that cyclists don’t behave like cars, especially if the drivers never spend time as pedestrians or cyclists themselves.

While this conflict had a fortunate resolution, many other conflicts don’t turn out so well.  Are there steps that Indianapolis and other cities can take to make street crossings more safe for pedestrians?  The answer is a positive YES, and that is one of the goals behind the movement referred to as Complete Streets.  It is surprising that more citizens haven’t actively supported complete streets here in Indiana (see Indiana Complete Streets Campaign), because it gives us something that has a huge amount of political support – better streets and more opportunity to walk and bike places.

Just wanted to throw out a reminder to everyone that IndyCog’s 2nd annual Tweed Ride is this Saturday from 11am – 5pm.  Go to their event page for more information.

event flyer

If you are anxious to celebrate the last bit of good weather for this year, you should consider the Full Moon Ride tomorrow night (Tuesday Oct 11). Just like the Moon rides in other cities around the US, this one will feature a lot of biking and some good conversation.  It’s also a great place to meet people from all different backgrounds.

Full Moon Riders of Indy

The Riders leave from City Market about 9pm-ish, some people gather at Tomlinson a bit earlier to chat.

It’s a fun and active gathering of people who spend a bit of time each month to pedal around downtown Indy.  If interested consult the facebook group and sign up to hear about similar events coming in the future.

Someone please correct if I’m wrong, but I believe that Indy regulations require a working front and rear light.  Also recommended are:  helmet, a bike in good working order, and some cash money and ID in case you wanna buy anything after the ride.

Hey Indianapolis!  I’ve been away from the keyboard for a while, but I’ve been busy studying cities at Ball State’s Indianapolis Center.  The one thing I noticed in my studies was how much parking lots we have in our cities, so I’m going to bring you a few posts that focus on them and what we can do to minimize their impact.  Let’s start off with a competition of sorts – What is Indianapolis’ worst parking lot? 

Recently, Indianapolis finally gave up big plans to redevelop the old Market Square Arena site.  This was my hands down favorite for worst parking lot (WPL).  For a decade, citizens endured an enormous gravel parking lot adjacent to the densest urban neighborhood in the state.  In its place, we now have a paved lot (hooray?).

The previous title holder for "WORST PARKING LOT IN THE CITY"

So, we bid farewell to our old gravel lot, which clearly held the top spot as worst parking lot in the city.  Not only for being gravel, but for occupying a valuable space in the city and destroying the connection of downtown to the near eastside.

We have a few contenders that I want to nominate for consideration (and please feel free to add your own in the comments).

WPL Candidate #1:  Under the freeway
If you have ever driven under I-65 along the north side of downtown, you have probably noticed that this space is used as a parking lot.  It’s a subtle reminder that freeways kill urban land use.  It’s dark, depressing, and without value.

If you like raised freeways, you'll like this parking lot too

WPL Candidate #2:  The Zoo Lot
The environmental costs of building a society dependent on automobiles are often hidden, but the Indy Zoo shows how our priorities affect the world around us.  We have marginalized nature, even in the places where we seek to celebrate it.  The Zoo fights hard to create special places for the animals, but its difficult when they need so much space for visitors to park.

A great view, but a bad parking lot

WPL Candidate #3:  The Market Square Arena
The previous title holder isn’t giving up that easy.  It wants you to know it is still here, and still taking up valuable space in downtown Indy. Is this really what we want fronting our Cultural Trail?

The new paved and landscaped parking lot

WPL Candidate #4:  The Northwest Side (aggregate lot)
Sometimes it seems like this part of the city is nothing but parking lots.  We’ll just lump them all together, because the effect of that much paved surface is 1 big dead spot.  The sad part is that this is adjacent to the only rail transit we have in the city (people mover), and also within walking distance of the canal, the central mall, downtown, and the cultural trail.

Is it parking lots like these that are truly responsible for urban design crimes like DeRimini?

Lots of Parking on Indy's NW side (image credit Curtis Ailes)

WPL Candidate #5:  IUPUI Campus (aggregate lot)
IUPUI has a land use other than parking lots somewhere (because the parking lots are always full), but I think the proportion of parking lot to academic space makes for a very non-urban place.  It is also lacking that “integrated campus” feel, because the only thing continuous throughout is the paving.  This place has a history of being a commuter campus, but what’s so wrong with buses, bikes, and walking as a school transportation policy?

Surface and garage lots leave less room for campus

Due to personal reasons, the author will be taking an extended vacation from updating this site for the foreseeable future.

The city welcomed St Patricks Day on Thursday by dyeing the canal green and holding festivities around town.  Judging from my scenes out of my window, the revelers started early and kept going late into the night.  I’m sure the fact it fell on a Thursday and featured beautiful spring weather helped the turnout.  I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and is looking forward to more sunshine, warmer weather, and more streetlife.

The Indy Canal near the Govt Center

My interests in cities led me to enroll in Ball State University’s Master of Urban Design (MUD) program at their Indianapolis Center (CAP:IC).  Urban design focuses on the public areas of our cities, including parks, plazas, transportation, and zoning/land use policy.  The MUD program and CAP:IC are part of an effort to bring new ideas about planning, design, and theory to Indiana’s capital.  The long-term mission of the center is “be a catalyst for recovering and redefining the experience of urban places.”

The CAP:IC Storefront Studios

The purpose of the MUD degree is to integrate knowledge from the fields of urban planning, landscape architecture, community advocacy, and real estate development into a single curriculum.  While I am an engineer by profession, current and past students have come from all kinds of backgrounds related to urban design.  A good illustration of this interdisciplinary effort is our recent participation in the ULI’s design competition where I worked in a group of 5 graduate students, including 2 urban designers, an architect, an MBA student, and a landscape architect.

Interdisciplinary design meeting (with coffee)

One of the goals of the Indianapolis Center is to become a trusted resource for Indy’s urban design questions.  You may never have heard of CAP:IC, but the people here have helped facilitate important initiatives including:

• Indianapolis Regional Center Guidelines
• Great Indy Neighborhoods
• Historic Irvington Neighborhood Plan
• Speedway Speedzone plan
• workshops, charrettes, and other community actions

In our studio work, my classmates and I are focusing on the next big plan for West Washington Street.  The corridor is active and full of opportunity, and our job is to suggest a vision to the community of how it could develop over the next 30 years with the right mix of policies, investments, and infrastructure plans.  I guarantee that when the final projects are submitted this summer, there will be many entertaining and educational concepts presented.

The students and professors are hard at work finding solutions

The center is located at Meridian & Maryland, just down the street from Monument Circle.  Basic information on the program can be found at the school website, and the work of previous students can be found online at Indianapolis 2.0.  So far it has been a great experience and I look forward to each new project.

This Valentine’s Day season the internet world will be flooded with stories like “The top 10 cities for single people to find love” or “The best cities for a romantic getaway.”  These stories are all based on the same premise – that finding a great match and maintaining a strong relationship is much easier in the city.

Sometimes finding Love just means being in the right place!

It’s easy to write off such stories as media hype or just plain silliness, but there are reasons that you see them coming back every year.  Finding love is serious stuff!  Many people really do want to find a partner, whether they are looking for a potential spouse, a soul-mate, a lover, or even some of those new categories you might find on Craigslist (and the city is great for that too!).

The city offers many advantages to the aspiring lover that can’t be found in low-density, sprawl neighborhoods, even those with large populations.  This is because urban areas help people meet in unique ways and help keep those contacts relevant. Here are some reasons that cupid is has traded in his wings for a transit pass:

• The Right Market
  Those media stories mentioned above often focus on demographics, and for good reason.  Urban areas offer a great mix of people, and enough of them so that you can actually find someone that can tolerate you!
• Chance Encounters
  Dense, transit-rich cities offer the chance to meet people you wouldn’t have otherwise.  Some may think it’s the height of civilization to solo commute from your home garage to your office garage without human interaction, but urbanists know otherwise!  And what’s a better introduction: exchanging names after bumping into someone on the bus or exchanging insurance cards after hitting their bumper during rush hour?
• An Interconnected Network
  This is the best advantage of cities – meeting new people that are friends of your friends.  Instead of making eyes across the arugula patch at every girl/guy in the supermarket, ask your buddy for an introduction.  This gives every relationship a huge advantage because there is a expectation that everyone will act honorably or face the social consequences.  It also ensures that our relationships stay relevant, as we build unique communities.
• Shared Experiences
  Do you have a fondness for Jackson Pollack artwork or French movies?  Well, before the internet evolved into a useful place, people actually visited “museums” or “art cinemas” to find others interested in similar things.  The same is true today, and on a larger scale.  The city you live in may be famous for its views of the ocean, successful sports teams, or its reprehensible politicians.  Discussing shared experiences may be trite, but it’s a good first step towards more interesting conversations!
• A Better Alternative
  Not every relationship lasts, and some kissed frogs never change into a prince.  Cities always offer the hope of something better.  On the other hand, some relationships do last.  Your city can still offer something valuable – by hanging temptation in front of lovers every day, all are reminded they had better “be all that they can be” or their lovers might be spending next year with someone else.

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In honor of Valentine’s Day, I asked our contributors to share their personal stories about finding love and how their city was involved.  Please feel free to share your own stories in the comments or give a VDay shout-out to your own special someone.

Graeme: “I met my wife in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University.  She tutored my friends in calculus, and I couldn’t have been happier to have friends who were bad at math.  I asked her out and we began exploring the city together as our dates took us to all sorts of neighborhoods, restaurants, and museums.  The city of Pittsburgh isn’t perfect, but it’s my favorite place in the world because all I can think about when I visit is how much I still love her.”

Kirsten: “My husband and I met at the Melody, chatted for the first time at the Red Key, went on our first date to Mass Ave, the canal and Fountain Square (walking from Mass through Lockerbie and over to the canal), and basically fell in love while talking about our shared love of, yes, music, Indy, food and books, but also our shared hope of living in a great old neighborhood.”

And what about your Urban Indy creator…?

Kevin: “The year was 2005. I had finally saved enough money to live in an apartment on my own downtown.  It was small, it was quirky (the bedroom had 7 walls), but I was walking distance from work and of course post-work fun.  At the time I posted on an international travel website called http://www.bootsnall.com.  One day, out of the blue, I got an instant message from another person in Indianapolis. The conversation went something like this:

Netts: I see you like historic neighborhoods. Are you familiar with Chatham Arch.  I just moved in and I love it!

Me: Wow, hi, yes, I live in Chatham Arch.  It is great.

Netts: I’m in the Argyle building above Aesop’s Tables.

Me: Me too!

Netts: I’m in room ###

Me: You’re my new next door neighbor!  I’m in room ###.

We met each other that evening.  She had a long distance boyfriend at the time so neither of us had any expectations.  We decided to walk to Scholar’s Inn and the Chatterbox, and we had a great time.  One month later, after many fun nights out in the surrounding neighborhood, she decided to break off her relationship (I hope he doesn’t find this article somehow), and the rest is history.”

Happy Valentine’s Day Indianapolis!