Community Night with Legacy Lands Alliance
Using the best of the past to frame the future
Thursday, April 13th
Join LLA and ULLI for a community night of activities and discussions about the past, present, and future of Indianapolis’s near northwest side, held at The AMP at 16 Tech
Supported by Herbert Simon Family Foundation
At Legacy Lands Alliance Community Night on Thursday, April 13th at The AMP, Ebony Chappel will moderate a panel discussion with four Harvard GSD students regarding their intentions and processes in creating protopian futures for the west side of Indianapolis.
Engage in the history of Indiana Avenue and surrounding neighborhoods with interactive educational opportunities. Activities and discussions include highlights of Indianapolis's hospital and health systems, the state of White River, and cultural conservation.
Interested in being a part of the conversation?
Join ULLI and LLA for a Community night on April 13th. Register online.
Catch a glimpse of LLA’s lunch and learn hosted at Flanner House on March 24th.
Video courtesy of Tedd Hardy
Lunch & Learn with Legacy Lands Alliance
Legacy Lands Alliance (LLA) hosts a working lunch session, using the best of the past to frame the future.
Hosted by Urban Legacy Lands Initiative (ULLI) and Legacy Lands Alliance, community and civic leaders gathered at Flanner House on Friday, March 24th, to review Harvard Graduate School of Design (HGSD) students’ stunning urban design, thinking how Indianapolis’ near westside could have been different had not systemic displacement, erasure and blatant racism not created dramatic harm to the once vibrant area of greater Historic Indiana Avenue.
Claudia Polley, ULLI President, and Brandon Cosby, Executive Director at Flanner House, welcomed and thanked guests for their willingness to participate and understand the importance of identifying the future of greater Historic Indiana Avenue.
Ebony Chappel, LLA Program Coordinator, led a conversation on the genesis of Legacy Lands Alliance and introduced special guests Isabel Oyuela Bonzani, ULLI Fellow, and Alicia Seeley, both HGSD students.
Isabel led a discussion on “Conserving Intangible Cultural Heritage” with prompts and an open group conversation. Alicia shared a portion of her “Play as Medicine” presentation from the Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures studio with a follow-up chat with Ron Rice to discuss the impact.
Guests were invited to continue conversations and join Community Night to grow the discussion of greater Indiana Avenue’s future.
Legacy Lands Alliance Community Night
Thursday, April 13th
Join LLA and ULLI for a community night of interactivity and discussion about the past, present, and future of Indianapolis’s near northwest side.
At Legacy Lands Alliance Community Night on Thursday, April 13th at The AMP, Ebony Chappel will moderate a panel discussion with four Harvard GSD students regarding their intentions and processes in creating protopian futures for the west side of Indianapolis.
Engage in the history of Indiana Avenue and surrounding neighborhoods with interactive educational opportunities. Activities and discussions include highlights of Indianapolis's hospital and health systems, the state of White River, and cultural conservation.
Interested in being a part of the conversation?
Join ULLI and LLA for a Community night on April 13th. Register online.
Video courtesy of Tedd Hardy
Background on LLA and Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures
Legacy Lands Alliance’s formation
LLA was formed through the product of the civic and community leaders’ engagement with ULLI through the Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures design studio.
In Fall 2022, ULLI partnered with Harvard Graduate School of Design and Professor Toni Griffin on the design studio Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures. The studio's goal was to envision protopian versions of Indianapolis had systemic racism, eminent domain, and slum clearance policies not disrupted the lives of Black and Indigenous peoples. Twelve students composed narratives shaping their final presentations, featuring cutting-edge urban designs and imagined practices that celebrated communities of color in our city.
All images courtesy of Wildstyle.
Legacy Lands Alliance
Legacy Lands Alliance, a new group formed through ULLI
ULLI’s partnership with Harvard Graduate School of Design spawned more than outstanding presentations of the future of Indianapolis. It birthed a new cohort - Legacy Lands Alliance. The group includes Indianapolis citizens who went to Cambridge to experience the students’ work and individuals who invest their time in building a better future for Indianapolis while honoring the histories of Black and Indigenous peoples. The alliance aims to bring positive change to their neighborhoods through programs promoting deep thinking and bridging the gap between civic leaders and the communities they serve.
Legacy Lands Alliance (LLA) is actively working in the Near-Northwest side of Indianapolis, with the first LLA event set in March, planned to be a small workshop introducing the Protopian Future concepts created by Graduate School of Design students. Civic and community leaders will be invited to attend as the group focuses on imaginative thinking of what the Near-Northwest side of Indianapolis could have been if systemic racism and disinvestment had not forced Black and Indigenous communities out.
A second LLA event will be held in April, showcasing the Protopian Futures theories to the community, with interactive segments and a panel discussion with the Harvard Graduate School of Design students who created these possibilities for Indianapolis’ future and community leaders.
Colored Knights of Pythias Building
Built 1910 and dedicated in 1911, “Castle Hall” or the Colored Knights of Pythias building still contains some prominent features from the order. However, the building is in need of repair and ready to have fresh life breathed into it.
COLLABORATION FOR THE FUTURE
Alan Henderson, owner of the Colored Knights of Pythias (CKoP) Castle Hall building, and ULLI have agreed to collaborate on necessary work to breathe new life into the historic building.
Located at Senate Avenue and Walnut Street, the three-story brick building was constructed in 1910 by Indianapolis architect Frank B. Hunter and dedicated in 1911 by four Indianapolis lodges of the Colored Knights of Pythias. The CKoP was a fraternal order specifically for African-American men begun in the mid-19th century. The building stands as a testament to Indiana members of the order, one of the largest memberships in the country, who combined their efforts to build the lodge hall dubbed “Castle Hall.”
The building, now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, also served as a node for commercial activity in the neighborhood, with several storefronts in the first story. It was last occupied by its former owner, Stuart Moving & Storage, in the early 2000s.
Henderson and ULLI are working with Mark Young, Crossroads Development & Consulting, for potential.
ULLI and Ransom Place Neighborhood Collaboration
ULLI works alongside Ransom Place Neighborhood Association to improve proposed development
ULLI works alongside Ransom Place Neighborhood Association to improve the development planned for the corner of Dr. M.L.K., Jr. and St. Clair streets
The development planned in Historic Ransom Place, led by Mark Young and architect Mark Beebe planned to create an apartment complex in the Historic Ransom Place neighborhood.
Beginning in July of 2022, ULLI presented testimony regarding the apartment project at the Indiana Historic Preservation Commission (IHPC) meeting to express concerns about the project’s suitability with existing homes in the area, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Commissioners listened to objections and granted a continuance to allow and encourage both sides an opportunity to find a middle ground.
ULLI and Ransom Place Neighborhood Association (RPNA) found evidence that the land on which the proposed development would site was the first location of Flannher House, built in 1918, and the city’s first Black settlement house. Flanner house served the Black community centered around historic Indiana Avenue from that location for more than 20 years.
After three demonstrations before the IHPC against the project as proposed, together with the neighborhood association, ULLI offered a more appropriate design than initially proposed. IHPC confirmed the design should be architecturally respectful to the history of the land and the needs of the Ransom Place neighborhood.
After multiple continuances by the IHPC, the developer presented adjusted plans with decreased apartment units, improved materials, and a design more appropriate to match the neighborhood's aesthetic. The commission voted to allow the project to move forward as newly proposed, though the commission stated it would be watching staff’s approvals and the developer’s actions very carefully.
ULLI, RNPA, and the developer agree to collaborate on a commemorative space in the development to showcase the historical significance of Flanner House and Historic Ransom Place. Future historical components will be presented to IHPC for approval.
LEGACY LANDS | PROTOPIAN FUTURES
Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures is a multidisciplinary design studio
A Design Studio at Harvard Graduate School of Design, supported by ULLI with funding provided by the Herbert Simon Family Foundation
Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures’ professor, students, and guests
Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures
Reconciliation, Reclamation, and Reconstruction in Indianapolis is a multidisciplinary design studio at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) that imagines the future possibilities for Indianapolis’ Historic Indiana Avenue neighborhoods if racial segregation, eminent domain, and slum clearance policies had not disrupted their existence.
The studio, created by Professor in Practice Toni L. Griffin, developed design concepts by experimenting with a protopian approach rather than a utopian approach to unlock the unrealized potential of centering Black cultural production, innovation, and entrepreneurship as the influence for the design of the built environment.
Graduate students in the Legacy Lands studio visited Indianapolis for on-the-ground research and first-hand engagement with communities in the fall of 2022. Only four weeks into the course, students arrived with compiled research on waterways, mobility, industry, culture, and shelter, focused on Historic Indiana Avenue neighborhoods. While in Indianapolis, students were given tours of neighborhoods, talked with elders of the community, and had conversations with city officials and community leaders.
The sponsored studio represents the first of ULLI’s Legacy Lands program, an initiative created to bring design thinking to the work of the community groups are doing on the ground every day in our communities. The GSD studio generated grand and imaginative aspirations to see the futures that could have been radically reversing the gut-wrenching harms much of Black Indianapolis was stripped of, preventing its right to growth.
Community leaders were invited to attend the mid-semester and final presentation of Legacy Lands | Protopian Futures in Cambridge, MA, in December.
The takeaways from the studio are endless. The level of impact the students’ work is having on leaders is evident with immediate action at work to collaborate with surrounding communities, residents, and leaders to begin implementation for the improvement of Black heritage neighborhoods.
Central Green Project Collaboration
The Central Green at 16 Tech, designed by Merritt Chase, is designed to serve as a regional destination for Indianapolis while also accommodating the needs of the local neighborhood. The unique location at the confluence of the White River and Fall Creek and along Indiana Avenue positions the Central Green to be integrated among the city’s cultural and natural resources and amenities.
Through a robust research and engagement effort, the significant history, culture, and ecology of the neighborhood at the confluence of two important water corridors are being documented to capture the spirit and legacy of the neighborhood’s heritage intentionally.
ULLI is working alongside 16 Tech as a key partner to share insight and feedback on the design concept.