Recent Posts
Architecture as narrative: a precedent from Berlin
Light Rail in Indiana, Part II
Diagram of Indiana as an steam and interurban light rail center, 1907
Indiana’s interurban electric light rail system experienced peak ridership in the mid-1920s with over 50 million passengers per year. The state’s population was just 3 million at that time, equaling about 16 trips per capita per year. Interurban service in Indiana was almost entirely shut down during the 10 years between 1930 and 1940, with only the South Shore line remaining in service after 1940. This comprehensive system of electric transit was replaced by much slower travel in private automobiles over roads which required ever-larger sums of public money to build and maintain. In his 1961 book The City in History, the prescient historian Lewis Mumford noted:
Light Rail in Indiana, Part I
Indiana's interurban light rail lines, 1910 (IHS)
Across the state, one finds fragments and ruins of what was the most comprehensive statewide interurban electric light rail transit system ever built in the United States. Every city in Indiana with a population over 5,000 except for Bloomington, Madison and Evansville was connected by the interurban system (Evansville was connected to a regional network).
Nice Move
On the subject of embodied energy and the useful life of a building, here is one very unique example:
In 1929, the Indiana Bell Telephone Company (now a part of AT&T) purchased the Central Union Telephone Company Building (1906-07) at the southwest corner of Meridian and New York Streets in Indianapolis. The building, overlooking University Park, was 118 feet tall, with eight floors and a roof garden on top of the elevator penthouse. Originally the company planned to demolish the Central Union Telephone Building, but architect Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. (father of the famed novelist) determined that the building could be moved to obtain its full life of service.
Sustainable vs. Green, a brief overview
Today we hear a lot about “sustainability” and “green” alternatives, both from the media and in business. I think it is important to differentiate between these two distinct but related terms, so that we don’t confuse ourselves and others.
Indy’s Flatiron Buildings:the Vance Block
New York City has its Fuller Building (1902, D. H. Burnham & Co., architects), better known as the “Flatiron Building” because of it is shaped like an old-fashioned iron. Indianapolis once had a number of “flatiron”-shaped buildings of its own, thanks to Alexander Ralston’s plan of the city, with its four radiating avenues. These triangular sites present unique design opportunities not available on traditional rectangular lots. I will try to feature a few of these buildings in weeks to come.
Preservation Vision
What do you see when you look at an old building? I have noticed that preservationists sometimes see the world differently than other people. This is particularly true in the case of neglected or unsympathetically remodeled buildings. We tend to see the potential for what the building could be, when other people just see rust, rotted wood and peeling paint. Sometimes a building requires a second look to really see it.
After a renovation is complete, many people often comment that they never noticed the building before. I think that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow summed it up well in his poem “Haunted Houses” (1858):
“The stranger at my fireside cannot see
The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;
He but perceives what is; while unto me
All that has been is visible and clear.”
Designing the capitol city
Alexander Ralston's 1821 plat of Indianapolis (IHS)
The original town of Indianapolis (what we now call the “Mile Square”) was laid out by Alexander Ralston in 1821. Ralston had been an assistant to Pierre/Peter Charles L’Enfant at the time he created the plan for Washington, D.C., and Ralston’s plan for Indianapolis was influenced by L’Enfant’s axial plan for Washington. › Continue reading
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