COLUMBUS, INDIANA ARCHITECTURE – OTHER

The Miller House is located in a residential neighborhood and not accessible by the public - entry onto the property is obtained via tours, which start at the Columbus Visitors Center.

Find out much more about Miller House and Garden HERE.

The Miller House and Garden is the collaborative masterpiece of Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard, Dan Kiley, and their patrons, J.I. and Xenia Miller.

Travel + Leisure magazine said the "Miller House ranks alongside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, and Philip Johnson’s Glass House as a hallmark of Modernist design (and) it is surrounded by some of the most beautiful Modernist gardens in the United States, created by landscape architect Dan Kiley." Read what the press has been saying about Miller House and Garden HERE.

• Find out much more about Miller House and Garden HERE.
• See more photos of Saarinen's Columbus work on Pinterest 
• Architectural Digest - Fifteen Landmark Buildings by Architect Eero Saarinen

Sycamore Place is a HUD-subsidized public housing project for seniors. Located four blocks east of City Hall, it is surrounded by a mixture of commercial buildings and modest houses. At three stories, it is the tallest building in the area, but recedes due to its muted color and varied form.

With 24 one-bedroom apartments, the building plan stairsteps back, creating a private balcony space for each unit. The staggered corridor also provides privacy at the entries and features natural daylight at the ends, unique for public housing. The building also includes a double-height community room, a kitchen, a lounge, a laundry and a beauty salon.

The wood-framed building is enclosed with low-maintenance horizontal cedar siding stained gray, accented with white framed windows and trim.

The site has been landscaped with a variety of trees including Bradford Pears, Douglas Firs, Red maples, Littleleaf Linden, and Honey locust.

Four Seasons Retirement Center was designed by the Architects Collaborative, with Norman Fletcher as the principal architect. Built in 1967, this one-story center has residential apartments, a healthcare center, beauty and barber shop, gift shop, activity studio, library, branch bank, dining areas, and a recreation lounge. A separate brick A-frame chapel is connected to the facility.

Pence Place is the second HUD-subsidizied housing project in Columbus designed for family housing. With 40 two-story townhouse-styled threebedroom apartments, the project is arranged with five housing blocks and four pedestrian “mew” entries on a triangular site. Each townhouse has a fenced front yard, storage structure, and entry gate facing one of the mews. The site is located in a predominantly working class residential area in east Columbus, bordered by a railroad and adjacent industrial area.

With wood-frame construction, the design found additional cost efficiency with back-to-back apartments and typically three common walls per unit. to minimize the overall perimeter and exterior wall construction. The simple pitched asphalt shingle roofs and shed roof dormers provide clerestory natural lighting and ventilation into the apartments and a distinctive building profile.

All of the buildings are horizontal cedar clapboard stained gray, with white window frames, doors, and picket fences. Landscaping has been incorporated around the site perimeter and in the front yard to create an allée within the mews. The project includes a playground and a community plaza.

New street lights, complete with banners, provide increased illumination to sidewalks and storefronts. Two-way traffic along Washington Street eases traffic movement to retail establishments on both sides of the street.

Concrete paver bricks create plazas at major intersections; brick sidewalks use contrasting colors for pattern; corner amenities include marble-topped benches, trash receptacles, and concrete planters with seasonal plantings, junipers and pear trees.

Funding for the Streetscape project included an “Adopt-A-Brick” program, which allowed people, organizations, and businesses to make contributions and have names or messages inscribed on bricks. To date, over 7,000 inscribed bricks have been laid in the Washington Street sidewalks.

The Washington Street sidewalk design in front of the new Commons and on 3rd Street were modified by Copley Wolff Design Group with strong diagonal bands that related to the skew of the new playground form. Sloped planters, custom bollards, and additional named bricks were incorporated at the 3rd and Washington Street corner.

Landscape Management recognized this 85-acre riverfront park as one of the top 100 parks in the nation for design, reputation, and accessibility. Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh, and featuring structures by Stanley Saitowitz, it includes an 84-foot observation tower, a covered bridge, people trails, fishing at two lakes, picnic shelters, playground equipment, horseshoe pits, basketball courts, and an amphitheater that hosts concerts and performances.

A series of “follies” that become micro-destinations and serve specific functions are found throughout the park. Designed in collaboration with Stanley Saitowitz, these structures include an observation tower, a boathouse, a river lookout, a fishing pier, the amphitheater stage, an arbor, restrooms, and picnic shelters, many painted in what is now known as “Columbus Red.” The 84-foot-high observation tower provides a bird’s-eye view of downtown Columbus and the river it sits on.

• See many more photos on the Mill Race Park Pinterest board
• The Bridges of Bartholomew County
• Learn more about the Saitowitz structures at the Stanley Saitowitz website

The first project to come from this process was Jean Muller’s a twin-arched overpass bridge at the I-65 intersection, in 1997. The red arches emerge between the two interstate lanes, with rods supporting cantilevered beams below the concrete roadway.

The Robert Stewart bridge into downtown Columbus was completed in 1999. The site was aligned to create an entry vista centered on the historic courthouse tower, with Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church’s modern bell tower seen in the distance. The bright red steel supports connect steel tension cables arranged in an arc that is dramatically lit in the evening hours.

Both bridges were designed by Jean M. Muller of J. Muller International, Chicago.

Those involved in this project include:

• Paul Kennon, master planner, 1988
• Michael Van Valkenburgh, landscape design
• Robert Venturi and Steve Izenour, Concept Design, 1991-1993

Alley projects can be explored on the 400, 500, and 600 blocks of downtown Columbus, featuring granite-topped benches, goose-neck lighting, and English Ivy ground cover along with flowering perennials planted on trellises.

The bricks that form the alleyway located between Fourth and Fifth Streets (400 block) were a gift from the citizens of Miyoshi, Columbus’ sister city in Japan. Called Friendship Way, the south wall of the alleyway features a neon sculpture by San Francisco artist Cork Marcheschi.

The walkway project was managed by William Johnson of Seattle, who also created the master plan for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Johnson was Dean of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan from 1975 to 1983. He was named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1973 and awarded the ASLA Medal in 1986.

This branch bank was an expansion with drive-up teller service from the small bank building (now a flower shop) across the street designed by Harry Weese in 1961. The bank features two parallel two-story brick walls that conceal mechanical equipment and office space in between.

The trapezoidal site is enhanced with trees and landscaping which give the building a small, park-like setting. The street front is layered with a formal row of trees, similar to the downtown bank by Saarinen, while the back is more natural.

This building is currently in transition, awaiting a new owner.

3330 International Court, Columbus
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The former Republic Printing Center, this building is in ownership transition.

The printing and distribution facility was designed to house the print production capacity for several of area newspapers including The Republic (Columbus), the Daily Journal (Johnson County), and The Brown County Democrat (Nashville), as well as an expansion into commercial printing.

The primary exterior materials are glass, metal panels and painted metal commonly associated with industry and technology, but rendered here with refined detailing and a palette which includes terracotta brown, referencing Indiana soil. The rooftop mechanical elements are arranged beneath an articulated yellow enclosure and clerestory windows illuminate the mailroom area.