Fletcher Place Market - Indianapolis
Thesis, IIT College of Architecture
2000
Chicago
Student Masters Thesis, Neighborhood, Community and Sustainability, An Interactive Multimedia Presentation 2000
The Fletcher Place project was a proposed intervention to re-create the historic center of that neighborhood. It was the culmination of a detailed analysis of three archetypal neighborhoods:
The Bucktown neighborhood in Chicago representing the archetype of a once independent town annexed by the city which had grown around it. Bucktown was incorporated before Chicago and provided homes for brick makers taking clay from the north branch of the Chicago river.
The Fletcher Place neighborhood in Indianapolis, IN representing the archetype of a pedestrian scaled, suburban, bedroom/commuter neighborhood on a street car line extending out from the center of downtown Indianapolis which was again over run, surrounded by and eventually annexed by the city. A commercial node once stood alongside the streetcar stop, which provided necessities for the surrounding pedestrian neighborhood. Fletcher Place was built a full fifty years before the invention of the automobile. The neighborhood was in the process of being redeveloped by young Indianapolis residents seeking affordable housing close to their places of work in the surrounding city.
The Levittown neighborhood in Long Island, NY, representing the original automobile based suburban neighborhood.
Based on what I found and learned about the natures of these three neighborhood types, what stood out to me at the time was how impactful it would be to simply build back the original node around which Fletcher Place was developed. This was the origin of my proposed Fletcher Place Market project consisting of a neighborhood scaled grocery market with separate entries from the neighborhood side for a storefront butcher, baker, florist, produce and a cafe at street level. Each ‘storefront’ would be a part of and accessible from the greater grocery market, of which they are a part. Parking was located below in a basement.
Multi-family rental apartments were located on top around the store perimeter surrounding a courtyard in the middle.
Sustainability was built into the design by way of natural ventilation, radiant heating and cooling and of course, the reduced mobility required by attracting young residents back to the city to live in a pedestrian scaled neighborhood situated on the commuter bus line which has since replaced the original street car line.
Bucktown Shopping Center
This six corner intersection is a large commercial shopping, food and beverage center which extends up and down every street, but especially the diagonal Milwaukee Ave. The commercial is primarily at grade with residential above which activates the area with people coming and going throughout the day and night. An elevated train stop for the blue line is about a hundred yards down the middle street, which is Damen.
This shopping center actually straddles the line between Bucktown to the north and Wicker Park to the south, which both share the offerings on both sides. This district has actually grown large enough to be considered a regional destination, attracting people from all over the city. Still, residential and commercial are within sight of each other.
Fletcher Place Shopping Center
Another six corner intersection, this formerly large commercial shopping, food and beverage center has seen better days. Still, the basic bones of a promising neighborhood scaled center are here if one looks. Similar to Bucktown, the properties are mixed use with commercial at grade, residential above, serviced from the rear via alleys. This corner used to be a node on a street car line which has since been replaced with a bus line. Residential and commercial are within sight of one another.
Levittown Shopping Center
The typical view of a shopping center on a commercial strip which bisects Levittown. Residential neighborhoods back up to this center on all sides, but that is not visible. Nor is either readily accessible from one another without an automobile. Streets are wide, traffic is heavy and the distances surprisingly great for pedestrians.
Bucktown Commercial Strip
This is a solidly urban commercial strip passing through the midst of the Bucktown neighborhood. Commercial at grade with no set backs from the sidewalks which are wider here for foot traffic. Streets are still relatively narrow. Residential above. Parking and service from the back via alleys. Residential is visible down a side street.
Fletcher Place Commercial Strip
This remnant of a semi-urban commercial strip extends about a block into the Fletcher Place neighborhood before transitioning back to residential. It intersects with the commercial corridor on the diagonal Virginia Ave which connects Fletcher Place to the center of downtown Indianapolis. Commercial at grade with no set backs from the sidewalks which are wider here for foot traffic. Streets are still relatively narrow. Residential above. Parking and service from the back via alleys. Residential is visible.
Levittown Commercial Strip
This six lane commercial strip cuts through the middle of Levittown. It connects with highways traversing Long Island on either side. Commercial strip malls are set back from the major through way across very large surface parking lots. Sidewalks are present, but there are no pedestrians in sight. Walking is very unpleasant. Street is six lanes wide separated by a median. Turning lanes need separate signaling to cross through intersections at entrances to strip malls. Parking and service from the main strip. Residential is not visible.
Bucktown Residential Fabric
Very urban. Lots in Bucktown are 20’ wide, which is unusually small for Chicago, and front yards are only 10’ deep, often less. Passersby on the sidewalks are within easy earshot of residents. It can be very intimate amongst longtime residents. But it can also be very aggressive when non residents are passing through.
The neighborhood is dense with two and three flats comprising most of the homes. Streets are narrow. Separate garages on alleys in back are augmented by street parking.
Corners were originally zoned commercial in Bucktown, so shops, taverns, cafe’s and restaurants were fully integrated into the neighborhood no more than a block away in any given direction. The full sized panorama shows a school in the midst of the neighborhood, also within easy walking distance, and augmenting the open space parks in the neighborhood as gathering places.
Fletcher Place Residential Fabric
This particular area has been devastated by the dilapidation of former commercial properties. However, the typical fabric visible, considered urban by today’s standards, was a pedestrian scaled version of suburbia in the years prior to the invention and proliferation of the automobile. The ubiquitous front porches are close enough to the sidewalks to comfortably address passersby if desired, but far enough away to afford some privacy and comforting distance across the front yard set backs. Single family homes predominate. Most homes are two stories over a basement, vertical, with front, back, side yards and three bedrooms, two baths. Separate garages are in back on alleys.
Levittown Residential Fabric
Prototypical suburbia. Wide streets. No parking. Driveways connect the streets to forward facing garages, crossing the sidewalks. There are no alleys. Exclusively single family homes with wide front, back and side yards. Homes are wood frame construction on slabs. Beautiful, mature yards, trees and gardens.
Fletcher Place Neighborhood
The neighborhood was built outside city limits a mile out from the city center on the Virginia Ave. street car line, which stopped at College Ave. A commercial node developed around this intersection to serve the surrounding commuter, bedroom community. Commercial properties still line Virginia Avenue, but they address and serve traffic passing through on Virginia, an unusual diagonal street.
With the departure of the middle class to the suburbs, Fletcher Place, which had since been over run and surrounded by the city, then divided by the interstate highway passing through to the east, fell into disrepair and the commercial properties serving it were abandoned.
Fletcher Place Site Selection
The neighborhood has been rediscovered and is being re-populated. There is once again a need for the commercial center, much of which is now vacant land, parking, and used car lots. This area lent itself most to a direct architectural intervention.
Fletcher Place Master Plan
The idea was very straight forward: put back the missing center of the neighborhood. Briefly, the plan calls for in-fill of the vacant lots and the alley on the south side of Virginia with commercial storefronts at the street level and residential above as well as replacement and/or upgrading of existing unfortunate interventions over the years.
To the north, the plan calls for adaptive re-use of the flat-iron building at the intersection of Virginia, College and Pine and creation of a wooded alle’ of trees in Pine between the flat-iron building and new residential housing to the east. Meanwhile, opposite the flat iron building to the west, I proposed the Fletcher Place Market highlighted/outlined above in red.
Fletcher Place Market Floor Plans
I chose as my design problem creation of a sustainable, mixed use, courtyard, multi-family housing complex above a neighborhood grocery market (Fletcher Place Market highlighted above in red) at grade. Fletcher Place Market addresses the neighborhood with a masonry facade, storefront entrances and limited height on the neighborhood street side. It addresses the commercial Virgina Ave. with a taller glass facade, entry to the grocery portion of the market off the sidewalk and the garage entrance ramp.Residential balconies on both streets make residents visible to enliven the streetscape day and night. Parking is underground.
Basement parking (Foundations shown below)
Ground Floor (Structure shown below)
The Market concept is that the produce, florist, butcher and baker departments of the market be arrayed along the residential College Ave. with their own storefront style entries from the street. So, the neighborhood gets the intimacy of separate store fronts with the economy of a larger operation.
The Cafe’ occupies the prime corner location with foldable glass panel partitions that can open onto sidewalk seating in better weather.
The main commercial entrance to the Market is from Virginia Ave as is the garage entrance to a ramp down into the basement parking.
An elevator lobby and stair are provided just past the cafe’ on College to take residents from street level up to the courtyard from which the units are accessed.
Second Floor (Structure shown below)
The units are arrayed around the perimeter between the surrounding streets and the internal, landscaped courtyard. They are accessed through glass green houses which are entered from the courtyard. The courtyard is accessed via outdoor stairs or elevator from College Ave.
The green houses, in addition to providing for year round gardens of fresh food and a buffer space between the outdoors and the interiors play a significant role in the climate concept described below.
The structure is flat plate post tensioned concrete slabs. It was anticipated that the weight of the landscaped corridor combined with the need for relatively long spans across the market and garage would require beams.
Third Floor
The mix of units includes: two 500 sf studios; one 750 sf one bedroom; two 1000 sf two bedrooms; one 1250 sf two bedroom; and six 1500 sf three bedrooms; for a total of twelve units. The plan makes good use of the space available; however, it would benefit greatly from adding additional parcels to the west along Virgina.
Fletcher Place Market Elevations
Virgina Elevation
All glass facade facing the commercial strip. Balconies and bay windows are separated by glass chimneys for natural ventilation supply and exhaust for the residences. Glass windows swing outward from the Cafe’ at the corner to open up to outdoor seating. Full height glass windows enclose the grocery. Spandrel glass covers the interstitial space above the grocery ceiling.
College Elevation
The glass facade was softened with masonry and awnings at the first floor to blend better with the residential character of College Ave. Balconies and bay windows separated by glass chimneys for natural ventilation supply and exhaust for the residences, similar to the Virginia facade. The height on College was lowered to two stories so as not to overshadow the surrounding neighborhood residences.
Fletcher Place Market Sections
Section through courtyard
Section through courtyard entry stairs
Fletcher Place Market Climate Concept
The concept was to integrate hydronic heating and cooling into the slabs for maximum efficiency with ceiling fans to move air combined with a natural ventilation scheme. The natural ventilation concept was based on natural temperature differences from one side of the units to the other depending upon location of the sun resulting in warm air rising either through glass chimneys on the street sides or continuous greenhouses on the courtyard side, drawing in air behind it, creating air flow across the units. Fan assist would be provided when needed.
Today, I would add geothermal to the mix as well as heat pump technology, which could be appended to the original concept with relative ease. Portions of the facades may need to be made opaque for additional insulation to reduce overall demand as well.
Proposed Fletcher Place Market
Proposed Fletcher Place Shopping Center
Proposed Fletcher Place Commercial Strip
Proposed Fletcher Place Residential Fabric
Fletcher Place Market
Technology
The long narrow images above are 360 degree panoramas stitched together from 24 vertical photographs taken with a 35 mm lens on a carefully leveled tripod for the purpose. They take some getting used to when printed on the page. They were part of an interactive, multimedia presentation which is how this project was originally presented to my thesis committee using the QuicktimeVR technology developed by Apple. It effectively looked and felt like a custom made website with fully custom navigation. The panoramas were interactive in that they could be rotated by the viewer or the presenter to create a very lifelike experience of actually being in the places. Before and after panoramas were powerful arguments for (sometimes against) a project.
The Fletcher Place Market was modeled and rendered in an early BIM ware product called Archicad. The meshing of perspectives to facilitate compositing rendered and/or found images into the panoramas was all done manually first by planning out in advance where each shot would be taken from and then coordinating the rendering process accordingly. Archicad had QuicktimeVR panorama capability built in, so it was possible to set up a viewpoint of the model in the software, rotate it, and record a panorama of the model from the same perspectives as those from which the panoramas of the existing conditions were created. Compositing in 360 degree photographic perspectives was and remains a tricky business requiring a great deal of attention to detail. The gist of it was to simply cut and paste the new information - ie a proposed project - into the panoramic images of the existing conditions to show the viewer what it would look and feel like to actually experience the proposed project in the existing space. Working in black and white helped decrease the complexity, decrease the file sizes which was a very real issue at the time and provided the added benefit of creating the look and feel of documentary photography, lending more credibility to the story.
The panoramas were activated onscreen by the viewers/presenter by clicking on interactive nodes added to the maps of the various neighborhoods which also rotated in sync with the rotating image to orient the viewers to where they were looking within the neighborhood. The historical data, design explanations, graphics, still photos, composited panoramas and images - everything - were all integrated into a digital environment which was fully interactive for viewers/presenters to navigate as they wished, not unlike a highly customized website with a custom user interface. This custom presentation software was built around the Shockwave technology, a precursor of the Flash technology, and was scripted in a development author ware called Director, all of which was developed by a prominent technology firm at the time called Macromedia. Neither Macromedia nor any of their software is available any more.
A similar compositing process is being done today to great effect with still photographs combined with photographic quality renderings of modeled projects, though it’s not uncommon to model all or portions of the surrounding environment and render it all together. Modeling and rendering technology have improved dramatically in the intervening years since this project was presented in 2,000 and the people who do this work all the time have learned how to blend the new and the old together such that it’s virtually impossible to tell where fact and fiction start and stop. BIM ware is of course now universal, as are composited images of rendered models with images of existing conditions. Websites are of course still around, but panoramas and complex interactive multimedia pieces did not take off for various reasons relating to computer security, complexity, cost, the advent of smart phones, and many other factors.
This presentation exists in book form as a thesis in the library at IIT, and now, what you see here in this webpage. But the original interactive multimedia presentation can no longer be played. So, if by some miracle, you are reading these words and looking at the work, thank you for your interest.