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Thursday, June 21, 2012

FLAHERTY AND COLLINS - Where it seems their heart is. Where it seems they even spend their own money. "Block 400." Downtown Indianapolis.

You can always rely on the architects to be more than willing to show off their renderings, even when it is routinely ugly Flaherty and Collins look-alike stuff.

CSO Architecture - Architects-Interior Design, online at csoinc.net.

This is a sampling of their Marsh Market Mega-Multi-Million Mega Next Big Thing - They call it "Block 400" but I like my naming better; with Flaherty and with an upscale super-market chain, Marsh, developing. The images are a few of theirs, so, please go to that site and see it all.

Start with an overview: Text first: "The project includes an approx. 930 space cast-in-place parking garage that will have a lower level grade, and three above grade levels; a white box retail 40,000 square foot space for a Marsh Supermarket; approx. 487 units of housing; the project also features an amenity area with pool, fitness center, leasing office, and community area and will incorporate three exterior courtyards." To put that in perspective, an aerial view:



Click it to enlarge. The existing Cosmopolitan by the Canal, is 1. Existing. Already on the ground. "The Point" (actually a wedge) is 2, imaginatively named because it is built on a triangular lot I suppose, making it triangular, etc., with "the point" appearing to be more appealing developer-speak than "the wedge."

"The Axis" (not actually having a thing to do with WW II), is 3, and is labeled "MARSH" in red, where, you guessed right, Marsh will have its luxuriant store.

"The Centerpiece" might have been a better name, since, "The Axis," well, we fought them hard and many lost their lives.

Finally 4, is - it's Flaherty so there has to be one - 4 is the boondoggle subsidized city financed free-parking garage. This time not for Flaherty as in Ramsey, the free city-paid parking garage space is for the tower labeled "One America" (neighboring "The Axis"), where that business operation gets the parking garage freebie thrown in since it gives up Axis land, (its parking lot presently), for Flaherty's Marsh madness and magic touch.

And did I say routine Flaherty butt-ugly? 

What else would you expect? They appear intent to meet expectations. And then some.

This is The Axis, imagined in its best light:




Now for something entirely different. The Wedge, (aka "The Point"), imagined likewise.




So was I wrong? Routine? Routine Flaherty-Collins? Ugly?

The subsidized ramp, ours looks better - ours being more open air. One America, in the distance. As in Ramsey the parking ramp appears to have more architectural integrity than Flaherty tart-it-up jobs.




Remainder, interior imagined Marsh store thinking - which unlike the shops and restaurants thinking we've heard of in Ramsey - is to be real as promised. (Don't you wish ---- )





A beautiful interior, for beautiful people. From Flaherty, a beautiful person who wears beautifully tailored top-line suits (see sidebar).

__________UPDATE___________
Do not blame the architects for the blandly tarted-up consssssssssssitency of Flaherty exterior designs. It is not their fault. They work within owner-design constraints. Left to their own, they have design smarts. This Video. It might be beneficial if Darren should get to know them.