Parking plan approved in support of new ‘Landmark Center’

This illustration by Rundell Ernstberger Associates depicts the landscaping plan and parking lots planned by Indiana Landmarks to serve the organization’s new state headquarters. The plan involves pushing the parking lot farther from the main entrance, to be replaced by a plaza (the space just above the words “Indiana Landmarks Center”).

Indiana Landmarks has gotten the go-ahead to establish a parking lot on two parcels just north of its new headquarters – the former Old Centrum – but not before the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission took action to ensure that the approval would expire should Landmarks ever sell or stop using the property.

At its July 7 hearing, the IHPC approved two variances to allow the work be done at 1225 and 1229 Central Ave. A month earlier, the commission had balked at rezoning the property, an action which would have made it easier for any future owners to continue the parking lot. Commissioners suggested that Landmarks ask instead for a variance. However, the petition brought before the IHPC on July 7 sought a variance which would be assigned to the land, not to the owner.

That brought a renewed objection from Paul DePrez, chair of The Old Northside Association’s Land Use Committee. IHPC member Susan Williams agreed with that opinion, starting a short debate which ended with Landmarks’ willing approval of the proposed change to a variance which would end should the organization ever sell or stop using the property.

Some discussion also involved any precedent which may be set within the neighborhood by the approval of a parking lot. One point which was made is that IHPC researchers could find no historical evidence that any residences were ever located on the two properties, going back to 1898 records. All seemed to be in agreement that the significance of the historic building, which dates to 1892 as the Central Avenue United Methodist Church, was critical in justifying the parking lot.

Commissioner George Geib said that historic preservationists have long recognized that a very few buildings of significant character require the sacrifice of surface parking to ensure their viability. “This project is brilliantly conceived, a wonderful solution to a very different adaptive problem,” Geib said.

Indiana Landmarks said it required the expanded parking – 52 spaces, where 36 are now available – for its staff and other daily needs at its new headquarters to be known as the Landmarks Center. The statewide historic preservation organization has undertaken a $10 million renovation on the historic building at 1201 Central Ave. Part of the plan is to eliminate parking as it exists next to the building in order to create greenspace to better serve the building.

The July 7 variance approval also allows Indiana Landmarks to establish a 48-inch-tall fence in the front yard and an 8-foot-tall fence at the side and rear of the property.

The IHPC had previously approved the plans for restoration of the 48,000-square-foot facility, which had been previously operated by the Old Centrum Foundation.

Ken Sauer, president of The Old Northside Association, repeated the neighborhood’s overall support for the Landmarks project. He said the current plan “affords an opportunity for the facility to recapture some of that vitality” it had when it served the Central Avenue United Methodist Church.