Urban Infill Proposal

I’m currently serving as a committee member for the AIA Indianapolis Home Tour. As part of that process, we decided to host a gallery show as a means of generating buzz for the AIA and the home tour. What began as an offshoot has become a full-on event.. The gallery show will be composed of proposals for an empty lot here in Indianapolis. The show kicks off at September’s First Friday event in the Harrison Center. If you’re from the area be sure to come on by! Hopefully we can come up with a cool way to display the entries by then.

As co-creator of this event I couldn’t resist coming up with a proposal of my own. Not to worry, there isn’t any conflict of interest here, it wasn’t a competition and we ended up choosing to display all the entries. The following is my entry’s text, along with several process sketches and my final board.

Natural History

What is a place without its history? This design seeks to catalogue the history of Indianapolis’s environment, both built and natural. On the ground level, a year-round park puts native plants on display and offers a calming respite in the urban environment. A museum then flows down a series of ramps with exhibits telling the story of Indianapolis’s built environment. The whole structure is then united around the common theme of using site provided natural resources to sustain itself into the future.

What do you think? Could something like this work in Indy? Does someone you know have a few million dollars they are looking to spend? Let me know below.