I just posted the third and final part in a series on Urban Indy, about the Chatham Park development proposal in the Chatham Arch neighborhood near downtown Indianapolis. I already posted parts I and II in late December/early January, and this final article–a very minor one–simply reveals the modified proposal, based on feedback the developer received in late 2016. Here’s a before/after rendering:
Though the physical layout has changed somewhat, and more of the dense development has shifted to the western (East Street) side and away from Park Avenue, the overall unit density is more or less the same as before. The Urban Indy article shows more details.
The Department of Metropolitan Development hearing for this proposal is February 1, at 5:30 pm on the second floor of the City-County Building. Advocates for good urban form (from both inside and outside of Chatham Arch) should attend and explain why this project is so good for the neighborhood. Comments as always are welcome!
3 thoughts on “Chatham Arch, Part III: Time to restore history–and density–to the neighborhood.”
I’d quibble a bit. I think the “previous” East St. streetscape was a little more diverse and less monolithic and blocky. Now it looks like the developer redesigned things to move more units to that side of the site, in order to scale down the neighborhood-facing side.
To me, it’s not entirely bad, and more urban on the East St. side, but now it looks more like a block-long development. The southern building maybe could use a different facade treatment?
You’re welcome to pipe up about that. Among the few criticisms I agreed with back in late 2016 was that the entire undertaking was too uniform in appearance. The developer, from what I can tell, focused on shifting most of the density away from Park Avenue, which largely aligns with the neighborhood requests. So you’re dead-on. He also created more visual diversity among the Park Avenue housing. Of course, the opponents would prefer a row of SFD houses along East Street as well, but that’s another story.
It’s still obviously not as visually distinct as it could be, but some slight façade treatments could make a world of difference.
It will be interesting to see what convoluted “reasoning” comes out of the mouths of the IHPC members tomorrow evening.