Cultural Trail plaza to honor ‘people of peace’

By Bill Brooks

As work begins on the North Corridor, the third leg of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, organizers have unveiled a

The Glick Peace walk will be located on Walnut Street between Meridian Street and Capitol Avenue, honoring 10 “people of peace.” Two others will be honored at installations elsewhere Downtown.

major amenity along that corridor – the Glick Peace Walk, a two-block-long plaza which will honor a dozen people of peace.

“With the Glick Peace Walk, we hope to honor ‘luminaries,’ people of peace whose creativity, perseverance and concern for others improved life for everyone who came after them,” said Marianne Glick, daughter of Gene and Marilyn Glick, whose $2 million gift has made the unique plaza possible. It will be located on Walnut Street between Meridian Street and Capitol Avenue, just west of the Central Library.

Along that stretch, the Cultural Trail will travel down the middle of Walnut Street, creating a boulevard with driving lanes divided by the Peace Walk.

Once completed in 2010, the Glick Peace Walk will include 12 distinctive sculptural gardens that celebrate the lives and accomplishments of 12 luminaries (see list, above). Each garden will feature a granite terrazzo plaza depicting the individual’s contributions to society and a timeline noting significant events that helped shape the person he/she became. Interpretive signs will tell the story of the person’s life through descriptive text and images. The centerpiece of each garden will be a 12-foot stainless steel and glass “luminary” featuring a lighted glass etching of the individual.

Brian Payne, Cultural Trail founder and president of Central Indiana Community Foundation, thanked the Glicks for what he called their tremendous generosity, vision and leadership. “You have chosen people who have inspired you,” Payne said, “yet today, we are also inspired by your generosity and vision that will enlighten generations of Hoosiers and visitors from around the world.”

Ten of the luminary gardens will be located on the Cultural Trail. The two-block length of Walnut Street will also receive new brick roadway pavers, lighting and landscaping to transform the street into a pedestrian-friendly destination along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

Illustration by plaza designers Rundell Ernstberger Associates shows a side view of the 12-foot steel-and-glass "luminaries."

Two of the installations will be placed elsewhere Downtown. The luminary garden dedicated to Abraham Lincoln will be located at the southwest corner of Washington and Illinois streets, and the luminary garden dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. will be located at the southeast corner of Washington and Pennsylvania streets. The construction of the Walnut Street section of the Peace Walk has already started and should be completed by fall of 2010.

More information about the construction and the Peace Walk is available on its website, www.IndyCulturalTrail.org. The $2 million donation from Gene and Marilyn Glick comes in addition to their $15 million contribution to the trail. Because of that major gift, the trail is officially known as the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene and Marilyn Glick.

To date, nearly $42 million has been raised toward the trail’s $55 million budget. Recent gifts to the Cultural Trail include:

$500,000 from Frank and Katrina Basile. This gift will be acknowledged with a two-block corridor on Walnut Street from Capitol Avenue to Senate Avenue named “The Frank and Katrina Basile Corridor.”
$100,000 from Citizens Energy Group dedicated to the construction of the Southeast Corridor to Fountain Square.
$100,000 from Jim Bisesi, senior vice-president of Gene B. Glick Co.
$85,000 from the W.C. Griffith Foundation, bringing its total Cultural Trail gift to $100,000.
$25,000 from an anonymous donor.
The Indianapolis Urban League donated a portion of its property at Indiana Avenue and St. Clair Street.