Neighborhood Partners on Design of New Massachusetts Ave. Development

The sounds of this month’s fireworks have finally fizzled out, but the spirit behind them remains. Speaking up for the common good has never been more alive and well than in the historic Chatham-Arch district where concerned citizens and neighborhood organizations work together with Indianapolis developers to shape the quality of life in the place they call home.

After some active collaboration, Milhaus’s newest 235-unit mixed use project met with the approval of five neighborhood organizations including the Chatham-Arch and Massachusetts Avenue Urban Design Committees, The Lockerbie Square People’s Club, the Massachusetts Avenue Merchants Association, the Riley Area Development Corporation and the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission (IHPC), the city-appointed authority over design and construction in historic districts like Chatham-Arch. The IHPC and local residents invested significant time and energy to be certain this new apartment building fit with the former industrial feel of the area just south of Massachusetts Avenue between College Avenue and Fulton Street.

Scott Perkins, Partner and Architect at Blackline Studio, says, “For a project of this size, there was surprisingly little remonstrance. In one of our first IHPC meetings, we worked with neighbors to allow Milhaus to vacate the right of way on the Fulton St. side of the project so the streetscape—new curb, sidewalk, parking and landscaping could be improved. We redesigned the street level units in buildings three and four to allow residents to enter from the street which creates more foot traffic and energy on the street. This redesign was a lot of work, but we feel good about the new plans and what it means for the neighborhood.”

Additional negotiations included adding more external brickwork. “The goal,” Perkins points out, “was to hit that perfect balance between achieving an historic feel and not going overboard and busting the budget. In some areas, we actually tripled the amount of brick we had originally intended. We retained the two-story bricked section of the former Mitchel & Scott Machine Company adding to the historic integrity of the project. The restored building will house the property’s leasing office and amenity space on the first level and five very upscale units on the second—we expect them to be pretty spectacular.”

The redevelopment is one of the biggest design projects to cross the threshold of IHPC’s board. “We knew going in,” says Dietrich, “that the design phase would require negotiation and flexibility. And now we feel like we definitely achieved what we set out to accomplish. The final product is a terrific backdrop to the industrial backbone of one of our city’s most treasured historic districts.