Monument Circle, Georgia Street going (partially) car-free
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The southwest portion of Monument Circle will close to traffic in July and become park space. Image: Courtesy of City of Indianapolis via Merritt Chase
Indianapolis is closing part of Monument Circle to traffic and redeveloping Georgia Street to make it mostly car-free by 2025, two steps toward improving downtown's appeal.
Why it matters: Mayor Joe Hogsett's administration is adding new public spaces for visitors and residents alike — but especially residents — to bring energy to downtown after the pandemic exposed the city's dependence on office workers and tourism.
What's happening: The southwest portion of Monument Circle — in front of the Emmis Communications building and South Bend Chocolate Co. — will close July 8 and become a miniature park with plans for a bar, beer garden, listening booth and public restrooms.
- It's an expansion of last year's SPARK on the Circle program, which featured entertainment and food trucks, and will run through October.
Details: The Capital Improvement Board is spending $750,000 on the temporary green space, which will have 24-hour policing, and the city tentatively plans to bring it back next year at an earlier date.
- All streets connected to Monument Circle will remain open.
What's next: City officials plan to watch how people use the pedestrian-only area to help guide the future of Monument Circle, a hot debate in which urbanists and motorists are at odds.
- "It may not lead to us saying we need to close down the entire circle, but this is a chance for us to test some things out," Scarlett Andrews, deputy mayor of economic development, tells Axios.
Meanwhile, the Hogsett administration on Wednesday plans to seek support from the Metropolitan Development Commission to spend $1.3 million on design work for a reimagined Georgia Street, with a total project cost yet to be determined.
Details: Early conceptual drawings show Georgia Street transforming from a walkable, yet underused, streetscape to a park-like space full of seating and landscaping, with shops and restaurants spilling out from adjacent buildings.
- The plan is to give unique identities to the three blocks between the Indiana Convention Center and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with the western block known as The Park, the middle block The Forest and the eastern block The Patios.
Flashback: The current iteration of Georgia Street was completed in 2010, ahead of the 2012 Super Bowl, and was designed with sporting events and conventions in mind.
Of note: Georgia Street would go car-free between Capitol Avenue and Illinois Street while remaining drivable between Illinois and Pennsylvania streets — with design features intended to discourage traffic.
- The lanes "would be very narrow to ideally keep people from (driving) there," Rusty Carr, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development, tells Axios.
Be smart: The redesign goes hand in hand with Circle Centre Mall, a massive property on the north side, whose tenants would have prime spaces on the new Georgia Street.
- Axios first reported that Hendricks Commercial Properties, which built the Bottleworks District and Ironworks at Keystone, is in negotiations to redevelop Circle Centre.
The big picture: The Monument Circle and Georgia Street projects stem from an effort the city launched last year — dubbed the Downtown Resiliency Strategy — to solicit feedback on best uses for downtown.
What they found: The city was inundated with requests for more green, walkable spaces that offer entertainment, food and beverages.
What they're saying: "A lot of what we want to do here is make this a more livable place. If it's a livable place, then it will be a workable place and a place where people want to play," Carr says.