PATTERN Magazine Vol. 12 Fall 2017

VOLUME NO. 12_15 dollars

FASHIONING A COMMUNITY.

XII UNDER CONSTR UCTION

+ FEATURING THEASTER GATES, AMY KIRCHNER, ASHLEY FORD, BILL BROWNE, RICHARD MEIER AND OTHERS

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EDITOR’S LETTER

LET’S KEEP BUILDING I AM ALWAYS IN AWE UPON THE COMPLETION OF EACH BI-ANNUAL ISSUE, twelve in total now. The fact that our volunteer editorial team, and contributors have come together AGAIN to create another beautiful volume packed with great stories, beautiful photography and design, is both inspiring and humbling. One thing that I’ve learned being the editor of this publication, and the executive director of PATTERN is to never underestimate the power of a community that stands behind a common goal. Not to be dramatic but thinking about the people who make PATTERN possible rekindles my faith in humankind, especially after any amount of time I spend on Facebook. Haha!

LONG-TIME READERS KNOW THAT PATTERN’S MISSION IS TO SUPPORT CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS so they can achieve financial success while living in Indiana, through networking, education and exposure in this here magazine. While creatives make a great living in other markets around the country and the world, and are highly valued and respected, our region continues to lag in its appreciation and support of the creative class - a hard to swallow challenge given how much data exists showing that the arts, and the creative trades are the underpinning of any city that lays claim to being “world-class”. We might be banging on all cylinders with life sciences, tech, advanced manufacturing and logistics, but guess what, without the vibrancy that ONLY creatives can generate, the Midwest is doomed to remain a “flyover” zone. Which really breaks my heart because if this publication has proven anything at all, it is that the talent in this city can hold its own ANYWHERE in the world.

BUT I DIGRESS. *STEPS OFF BULLY PULPIT* LIVING IN CARMEL I AM INTIMATELY FAMILIAR WITH CONSTRUCTION. I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE who loooooves roundabouts aka traffic circles, and has patiently tolerated a decade of methodical road closures for the sake of never seeing another stop sign again. While the process has been long, and there have been many a day when I’ve cursed like a sailor at the sight of yet another “Local traffic only” sign, I have to admit that the hassle has been well worth it.

CONSTRUCTION WHILE INCONVENIENT IS A POSITIVE SIGN. AN INDICATION THAT A CITY IS GROWING, and planning for its future, and there’s been a lot of construction around Indianapolis of late, some of it quite eye-catching.

This year Indy Chamber’s Monumental Awards is clocking its fortieth year of celebrating built environment excellence, and as I look around our downtown and beyond, there’s a lot to be proud of. In spite of my earlier rant, I’m a huge fan of Indianapolis, and I believe with all my heart that while our progress has been slow, it has been steady, and those of us who have chosen to make this city home, and have continued to advocate for creative problem-solving, inclusivity, and a progressive mindset will ultimately be vindicated. Here’s to being Under Construction...a state of limitless possibilities!

POLINA OSHEROV_EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @POSHEROV

PHOTO ©BENJAMIN BLEVINS

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PATTERN VOL NO. 12

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EVENTS

Event Coordinators Amanda Kieser Volunteer Coordinator Esther Boston Community Outreach Director Julia Rutland

DIGITAL

Online Content Manager Aubrey Smith

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Ault Crystal Grave Freddie Lockett Aaron Reitz Sherron Rogers Sara Savu Eric Strickland Adam Thies Barry Wormser Tamara Zahn

SUBSCRIPTION

Visit patternindy.com/subscribe Back issues, permissions, reprints info@patternindy.com Advertising inquiries ads@patternindy.com

EDITORIAL

Editor & Creative Director Polina Osherov Design Director Emeritus Kathy Davis Design Director Lindsay Hadley Managing Editor Eric Rees Senior Designer Amy McAdams-Gonzales Junior Designer Aubrey Smith Copy Editor Jami Stall Editor-at-Large Maria Dickman Staff Photographers Esther Boston

WRITERS

Bill Browne Tiffany Benedict Browne Colin Dullaghan Abby Gardner Crystal Hammon Michael Kaufmann Charles Letbetter Shauta Marsh Richard McCoy Theresa Procopio Enrique Ramirez Eric Rees Eleanor Rust Monica Sallay Donna Sink Jami Stall Shelby Quinn Walton Paige Wassel

RETOUCHER

Wendy Towle

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Stacy Able Elese Bales Janette Beckman Clay Cook Hadley ‘Tad’ Fruits Christopher Whonsetler Jesse Winter

DESIGNERS

Anthony Carranza John Ilang-Ilang Jon McClure SIVAVIS Stacey McClure Ryan Pickard Cody Thompson

A SPECIAL THANKS TO

ALL the people who contribute with their time and talents to make this publication possible. You’re helping us make the world a better place!

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PATTERN VOL NO. 12

CONTENTS PATTERN ISSUE NO. 12 patternindy.com

WORDS EDITOR’S LETTER, 4 CONTRIBUTORS, 10 HOUSE OF TOMORROW, 24 PROJECT ONE, 26 SHE’S ALL WRITE: ASHLEY FORD, 38 CHRIS MERRITT, 40 GROUNDBREAKERS, 43 INDIANA-NOW-POLIS, 64 PAINT THA MUTHA PINK, 68 GOING THE DISTANCE, 70 EXHIBIT COLUMBUS, 80 CONVERSATION PIECES, 84 VDGN, 96 TRAINING TOMORROW’S ARCHITECTS, 98 GARY NANCE, 114 FREE FROM FORM: AMY KIRCHNER, 118 BRIAN PRESNELL, 126 HOSPITALITY IN THE HOUSE THAT COKE BUILT, 128 SIGN LANGUAGE, 130 JEREMY EFROYMSON, 136 VOLUME 11 LAUNCH PARTY, 158 OP-ED, 160

IMAGES SILHOWETO, 12 SHE BE JEWELED, 30 PLANE JANE, 58 RETR-OH!, 88 FALL, 100 PRINT IS NOT DEAD, 138 NO PARKING, 148 ON THE COVER Sarah Arvin, Independent Photography by Stacy Able Style, Hair & Makeup by Andrew Elliot Retouch by Wendy Towle ON THIS PAGE Oumar, Chase Models Photography by Esther Boston Style by Tamara Raquel Jones Grooming by Kokayi N’Namdi Assisted by Polina Osherov Retouch by Wendy Towle Wardrobe: Orange Hat, Brown Hat Shirt & Jacket, Thomas Chu Silver Satin Embroidered Pant, OS.NYC

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AMY KIRCHNER

White Circles, 36 x 36 inches, acrylic and graphite on canvas, @Amy Kirchner

1 North Illinois Street, Suite A Indianapolis, IN 46204 24 West 57th Street, Suite 606 New York, NY 10019 L O N G S H A R P G A L L E R Y. C O M

CONTRIBUTORS WORD SMITHS, DOCUMENTARIANS AND LAYOUT NINJAS

IF YOU COULD COME BACK AS A FUNCTIONAL ART OBJECT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

ANDREW ELLIOT M A K E U P A R T I ST ANDREWELLIOTBEAUTY.COM @ANDREWJELLIOT

TAMARA RAQUEL JONES

RYAN MILLBERN

JAMI STALL

WRITER

C O P Y E D I TO R

ST Y L I ST

@RYANMILLBERN

JAMISTALL.COM

@RYANMILLBERN

@JAMIWITHOUTANE

TAMARARAQUELJONES.COM @TAMARATHESTYLIST Andew Elliot lives a life consumed by music, art and beauty, through which I strive to encourage joy, inspiration and kindness.

-I would return as a beautiful quill pen, as I believe that the written word holds a great deal of power.

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@TAMARATHESTYLIST Tamara Raquel Jones is a Chicagoborn fashion stylist, editor, creative director and aspiring designer based in New York City.

-I would come back as a shoe rack, simply because I could possess all the shoes that I wanted without feeling guilty about it.

Ryan Millbern is the senior marketing writer at the Indiana University Foundation and a freelance writer for hire. He fronts dark suburban dadcore band The Here Now and lives in Brownsburg with his wife, two children and yellow lab.

Copy editor and writer, Jami Stall views herself as a “story architect” for this issue. “It seems an apt title, considering I design narratives and supervise in the construction of others’ words.”

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I’d reincarnate as a Mid-Century Modern bench — streamlined, Scandinavian and unpretentiously arty, yet surprisingly comfy. My sole existence would be providing weary ones a way to take a load off and reflect.

I asked my talented artist friend Amy Kirchner what functional art object I would be, and she gave me a list that included bottle opener, tambourine, CB radio and keytar. I interpret that to mean I’m two parts music, one-part boozehound, one-part chatty trucker.

That seems about right.

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SPENCER MCNEELY O’HARA

STEVIE GATEZ

ENRIQUE RAMIREZ

STACY ABLE

ST Y L I ST

WRITER

P H OTO G R A P H E R

WRITER @SIMPLYCROSSDRESSING

STEVIEGATEZ.COM

@RIQUERAMIREZ

STACYABLE.COM

@STEVIE.GATEZ

@ENRIQUERAMIREZ

@STACYABLEPHOTOGRAPHY

@STEVIEGATEZ

Spencer McNeely O’Hara is a professional crossdresser from the cornfields of Indiana. They are excited about the future and will not respond to questions about the past without a lawyer present.

Born and raised in the city that never sleeps, Stevie Gatez is doing everything he can to keep up with it. A firm believer that hard work pays off, he’s just happy to be here!

Enrique Ramirez is an architectural historian, writer, and former game show contestant. He sometimes lives in Indianapolis.

Stacy Able is a professional photographer based in Indianapolis, Indiana who specializes in local and destination weddings.

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If I could come back as one functional art object, it would probably be an intricately designed skyscraper. (From NYC of course!)

The outside would be aesthetically pleasing, so people would love me.

But the inside would be residential, so I’d be providing housing as well.

I would come back as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand’s LC 2 lounge chair because it is featured on the sleeve art of Ray Parker Jr.’s The Other Woman LP ... the man has taste.

I would be a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair as it is the perfect blend of art meets Midcentury modern perfection.

I would come back as a giant sized powder puff used exclusively by coloratura sopranos.

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THE CONRAD NEW YORK IS THE BACKDROP FOR SHOWCASING AFRICAN PRINTS IN CONTEMPORARY SILHOUETTES

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ESTHER BOSTON ASSISTED BY POLINA OSHEROV STYLE BY TAMARA RAQUEL JONES MALE GROOMING

BY KOKAYI N’NAMDI MODEL OUMAR O. (CHASE MODELS) RETOUCHING BY WENDY TOWLE DESIGN BY LINDSAY HADLEY

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OVERALL, SEEKER ZEBRA PRINT BOMBER, OS.NYC SILVER BRACELET, MONICA VARELA NECKLACE, VANILE ON THE ROCK SNEAKERS, ZARA

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Begin versprei 'die nuus, Ek is leavin' vandag START SPREADIN’ THE NEWS, I’M LEAVIN’ TODAY

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NEOPRENE HOODED JACKET, 8CLOTHING BY FDL GRAPHIC WHITE SWEATER, SAINT VIVIAN WRATH PANT, THOMAS CHU BOOTS, ZARA BAG, STYLIST’S OWN 2 NECKLACES, VANILE ON THE ROCK

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New York, New York NEW YORK, NEW YORK

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FLORAL PRINT JACKET & OVERALL, OS.NYC MERLOT GRAPHIC SWEATSHIRT W/NECKLINE DETAIL, GYPSY SPORT NECKLACES, VANILE ON THE ROCK SHOES, ZARA

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Hierdie vagabond skoene verlang om te verdwaal THESE VAGABOND SHOES ARE LONGING TO STRAY

YELLOW DOME HAT, CLYDE PANT, SEEKER APRON SHIRT, THOMAS CHU IVORY COAT, SEEKER SHOES, ZARA BRACELETS, STYLIST’S OWN EYEWEAR, RIGARDS

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En vind ek is die koning van die berg, bo-op die hoop AND FIND I’M KING OF THE HILL, TOP OF THE HEAP

YELLOW PONCHO, SOSKEN STUDIOS BLACK WHITE TUXEDO PANT, OS.NYC PRINTED TOPLESS HAT, OS.NYC LEATHER SLIDE SANDALS, ZARA HURITA MAXI RING, MONICA VARELA EYEWEAR, RIGARDS

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As ek dit kan maak, maak ek dit oral IF I CAN MAKE IT THERE, I’LL MAKE IT ANYWHERE

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ORANGE HAT, BROWN HAT SHIRT & JACKET, THOMAS CHU SILVER SATIN EMBROIDERED PANT, OS.NYC BRACELETS, STYLIST’S OWN SHOES, MODEL’S OWN

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WORDS BY PAIGE WASSEL + ILLUSTRATION BY RDH CO. IN THE MIDST OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN 1933, THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago offered millions a hopeful vision of a brighter, easier future—a vision that, at the time, seemed wildly futuristic.

Floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Automated household appliances. An attached garage with a door that opened with the push of a button. Ditto for the door of the attached hangar for the family plane.

Over the fair’s two-year run, more than 1.2 million people paid ten cents apiece to tour the house, and it influenced how we live today. Now the structure sits vacant and dilapidated atop an Indiana sand dune overlooking Lake Michigan.

Indiana Landmarks, a nonprofit preservation group, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation last year declared the House of Tomorrow a National Treasure. The organizations are raising money to restore the groundbreaking landmark, while at the same time making it innovative in the 21st century.

Chicago architect George Fred Keck designed the House of Tomorrow “to entirely upset the conventional idea of home” and increase the popularity of modern residential design. The 12-sided, steel-framed structure employed curtain walls of glass, predating Mies van der Rohe’s renowned 1951 Farnsworth House in Illinois and Philip Johnson’s 1949 Glass House in Connecticut.

The House of Tomorrow also incorporated central air conditioning, an “iceless” refrigerator, the first General Electric dishwasher, and an open floor plan. Many of the 1933 design features (save for the airplane hangar) became standard in the decade after World War II. Media at the time called it “America’s First Glass House.”

So how did such a prescient home end up in the Indiana dunes? When the World’s Fair closed in 1934, Chicago developer Robert Bartlett used barges and trucks to ship the House of Tomorrow and other World’s Fair structures to Beverly Shores, an Indiana town he was developing as a vacation destination for Chicagoans.

Five of the fair houses he sold remained in private hands until the land became part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore after 1966. Very few structures remain in Chicago from the 1933-34 World’s Fair, which makes the five surviving houses in Indiana even more valuable.

The fair houses, listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Century of Progress Historic District, were deteriorated until Indiana Landmarks partnered with the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The preservation group leased four houses from the park, then sub-leased them to tenants who restored them in exchange for long-term residency on the lake.

However, the House of Tomorrow, the most architecturally influential and historically significant of the collection, has been vacant since 1999 and requires restoration estimated to cost $2.5 million. So Indiana Landmarks is tackling the fundraising and restoration of the project. The National Trust, which has experience stewarding such Modernist masterpieces, including the Farnsworth House and the Glass House, is lending its expertise.

Several Chicago-based firms will head up the rehabilitation: bKL Architecture is taking the lead in architecture and interior design with a team led by Charles R. Hasbrouck, FAIA; Bauer Latoza Studio, led by Edward Torrez RA, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is providing historic preservation consulting services; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., is providing structural engineering services with a team led by Senior Associate Michael Ford; Willoughby Engineering, led by Thomas Willoughby, is supplying mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering services; HJKessler Associates, led by Helen Kessler, FAIA, LEED, is providing sustainability consulting services.

Staff from the National Park Service and the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology will ensure the project meets preservation standards, with the design and approval process expected to take about a year.

Keck’s design for the house used a central hub connected to girders that radiated like the spokes of a wheel. A central steel core contained mechanical equipment. The cantilevered girders provide support for the concrete-slab second and third floors, allowing clear spans for open interior spaces. The rehabilitation will peel away deteriorated surfaces to reveal the original wheel-and-spoke steel structure, and will use smart glass and other cutting-edge technologies and products.

More than 80 years after its debut, the House of Tomorrow will embody the best of old and new, inspiring a new generation of visitors.

“We’ll need lots of help to restore the House of Tomorrow, a Chicago landmark that happens to live in Indiana,” says Indiana Landmarks’ President Marsh Davis. ✂ -You can donate and find out more about the project at bit.ly/HouseOfTomorrowIND.

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HOUSE

PREDICTED THE FUTURE

OF TOMORROW

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PROJECT ONE. DESIGN AND FABRICATION. RECENT RELOCATION FROM MUNCIE TO INDIANAPOLIS HAS PROJECT ONE POISED FOR THEIR MOST SUCCESSFUL YEAR YET. WORDS BY RICHARD MCCOY + PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV Adam Buente and Kyle Perry have been working together as Project One from the time they started their graduate degrees in the College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University. Their coauthored thesis work led them to create a company together, and this fall they are moving from Muncie to Central State Village, right next to People for Urban Progress and Ignition Arts.

Richard McCoy: How did you two connect?

Adam Buente: In 2007-8 we were in professor Kevin Klinger’s undergraduate studio that was working on the Indianapolis Museum of Art exhibition called “Manufacturing Material Effects: Rethinking Design and Making in Architecture.” This was part of some groundbreaking work in digital fabrication and really the future of fabrication in the U.S. Kyle Perry: Around this same time, BSU bought a machine that was changing how the profession creates — a Thermwood 3 Axis CNC router. Nobody there really knew how to operate it yet, so they sent me and a few others to the manufacturer to learn how to use it.

RM: New working partnerships, whether on an academic or professional level, can be tricky. How would you describe your working relationship in the beginning?

AB: Rivals, maybe a little bit.

KP: Like during competitions, I was always trying to beat him. We respected each other enough to compete hard against each other.

AB: In fact we both decided to stay at BSU for graduate school because we liked working together and we had access to that CNC machine.

KP: We looked at universities in New York, Michigan, all over the place, but decided to stay in Muncie because we were gaining an expertise for these machines, and were making cool things. Plus, we had a good working relationship.

RM: Is there one person that leads on fabrication, and one that leads on design?

KP: We share all of it, basically.

client meeting, the other person is good to just pick up wherever things were left off.

AB: Really, though, it’s not super clear how it works; it just kind of does. It’s all work that we want to be doing, so it’s never like we’re forced into a particular role.

Sometimes if I’m feeling like I’m doing too much of this one type of thing, I’m like, “You need to take on some of that,” and we’ll just start shifting some stuff around. So, there’s never a chance to get really burned out on doing something over and over again.

KP: Through school we became friends, but we made sure that the business side of it stayed kind of separate from the friend side. We can have arguments about work, and then see each other later on for drinks and leave work behind.

AB: But it’s not like we still don’t get in fights, you know?

RM: Is one of you a bigger risk taker than the other?

KP: I think I’m a bigger risk taker. Adam is a lot more methodical in his thought process.

RM: Did that experience change the way you saw making?

KP: Yeah, I was starting to get into CNC technology, and Klinger was pushing that. We were starting to figure out how we could utilize some of the software and equipment to start making new things.

AB: It wasn’t just that one project. That IMA project led into a couple other projects, and an independent study ideas that we took on. We developed all of this into our thesis, which then became our company. We first called it PROJECTiONE, but we just rebranded as Project One Studio.

AB: A lot of it’s also dependent on our workload, and what’s happening at the shop. We take turns on everything. It’s not something we prescribe. It’s just a natural flow.

KP: Sometimes I’m busy doing design development and working on prototyping for a current project, and Adam is busy fabricating on the project that has a different schedule. We’re both skilled in all aspects. This way we can just work with each other on a lot of the processes, but also know if either one of us needs to go to a

AB: Absolutely, yeah.

KP: I mean, this is what triggers arguments, but ultimately I think it leads to better products because one person’s on one end, and one person’s on the other.

RM: Is your design and fabrication process today more structured than it was when you started?

KP: We still do a lot of things like we did originally, which is come up with an idea, test that idea physically.

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AB: We test as soon as we can.

is going to be a game changer for us.

KP: We can prototype an idea and say,”Yes, it’s going to be good, or no, it’s not.” That depends also on what phase we’re talking about with design. We’ve learned and evolved to not spend that time doing a lot of up front work, because if these projects fall through, we’ve wasted all this time on something that won’t see the light of day.

RM: Did anybody from the City of Muncie or BSU ask you to stay in town?

RM: So, after school and seven years in Muncie, why are you moving?

KP: There are multiple reasons. A lot of our current and future work is coming out of Indianapolis. Also, the kind of culture that is emerging here at Central State is exciting.

AB: This is really a perfect situation for us, because we’re in a place where we’re surrounded by all these like-minded people. We want to be somewhere that’s energetic, and fosters what we’re trying to do. Back in Muncie we were quite isolated — just off in a little corner by the train tracks.

Nobody really knew about us or saw us, and there wasn’t a whole lot really we could do about that there. This move

THE PUBLIC COLLECTION INSTALLATION, ALEXANDER HOTEL PHOTOGRAPH BY HADLEY ‘TAD’ FRUITS

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KP: Absolutely. The mayor called me immediately when he found out. He wanted us to have a meeting, and I could tell from his voice that he was disappointed.

AB: We decided to stay in Muncie after grad school because it was a very affordable place to grow organically. We were operating for probably two or three years before anybody in Muncie really even knew we existed or what we did.

KP: Eventually the city and the mayor found out about us, and the whole maker movement started being a buzzword for Muncie. We kind of became the stars for that there.

RM: What’s a project you’re proud of, that you’ve recently completed?

KP: We just finished an installation for The Public

Collection, which is a very successful public art and literacy project with artist-designed book-share stations. For this project we wanted to create a space or environment, rather than an art piece. We wanted to explore how a book acts, what a book is, what it does.

AB: It’s a space where the volume is a representation of what a book is and does. The exterior is solid and rectangular, and once you’re inside, you find a space to explore — often this is knowledge, and so we represented learning and imagination in three dimensions and color.

KP: It’s installed in the plaza on the southside of the Alexander Hotel. This is our first exterior public piece of work in Indianapolis. We are also finishing contracting for a large public art piece that’s going in at the City-County Building plaza. It’s called “Alloy,” and we’ll soon release some renderings. We’re excited because it’s our next big public art piece that’s going in Indianapolis.

RM: What’s your dream commission right now?

KP: We can’t talk about it yet, but it’s going to be the one that sets this move up even bigger and better. ✂

SHE BE JEWEL ED PHOTOGRAPHY BY STACY ABLE

STYLE, HAIR AND MAKEUP BY ANDREW ELLIOT

MODELED BY SARAH ARVIN + JESSE WININGS (INDEPENDENT)

DESIGN BY LINDSAY HADLEY

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GLO HE BE-JEWELED, AND ALL A-

A FEW YEARS AGO, I SPENT A MONTH WITH MY GRANDFATHER IN OHIO, HELPING HIM GO THROUGH SOME THINGS AFTER MY GRANDMOTHER PASSED AWAY. AMONG THESE BELONGINGS WAS MY GRANDMOTHER’S COLLECTION OF COSTUME JEWELRY, WHICH I DECIDED TO KEEP. I WEAR SOME OF THE PIECES NOW AND THEN, TO REMIND MYSELF TO BE KIND AND PATIENT LIKE SHE WAS. I’VE BEEN WANTING TO USE SOME OF HER JEWELRY IN AN EDITORIAL AND DECIDED IT WOULD BE FUN TO BLEND HER PIECES WITH SOME OF MY OWN. HOPEFULLY, SHE ISN’T ROLLING OVER IN HER GRAVE. —ANDREW ELLIOT

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BASK ING IN THE GLOW GRANDMA’S COSTUME JEWELRY

BLENDED WITH MODERN PIECES

REMINDS HIM TO BE PATIENT AND KIND

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THE GIRL IS ALL WRITE

Time and distance can't keep two good friends apart, Ashley C. Ford and Spencer McNeely O'Hara pick up right where they left off.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSE WINTER

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“ We cannot emulate the journeys of men to the detriment of our own character, and the denial of transgressive ways to deal with conflict. We are socialized differently from men, and we should always be questioning our tendency to think of strength and leadership as masculine ideals. We don’t have to be more like men to be just as good as them. We already are.

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Ashley C. Ford is a writer whose work addresses social issues like race, gender, and sexuality.

Some of her clients include Slate, BuzzFeed, ELLE, and others. She attended Ball State and worked as a writer at Pivot Marketing before relocating to Brooklyn. She is currently co-editing an anthology with fellow writer, Roxane Gay, titled Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture, and working on a memoir about growing up with an incarcerated parent.

The shining success that is Ashley Cassandra Ford has been my good friend since we met as undergraduate students.Together we’ve navigated the realms of art, identity, and culture with defiant optimism. Her career as a writer took her to New York, where she has since blossomed into her thirties as an up-and-coming woman to watch and one from whom we all can learn a great deal.

taking a good photo, but the other part of that is that in the past few years, I’ve purposefully exposed myself to art I wouldn’t be naturally inclined to love. I’ve always loved a soft edge, a roundness, in watercolor, or in form. I found a lot of art that appeared more angular to be too severe or steady. Over time, I learned to love art I wasn’t necessarily naturally drawn to, just by exposing myself to it, and opening my mind. Japan has a very linear beauty about it, and for the first time, in my friend’s photos, I could see it. I could really see how beautiful this country was because I could appreciate the lines.

I think shifting from an exclusive standard in beauty will go much the same way. As we see designers, creative directors, and photographers push outside of their own boxes and concepts, and we see those who are truly fashion-forward embrace a more inclusive aesthetic, we will see the change we’re looking for. The way things are presented now is unsustainable to the art-making of fashion. It must evolve. Those who refuse, will watch their brands become socially and culturally irrelevant.

SMO: With the groundbreaking release of Wonder Woman, it is a blossoming time to be a woman who writes our stories. It’s not such a secret anymore that you’re a die-hard comic book fan, but I’m interested in what you think is now possible given Wonder Woman’s release. Is it possible to finally expand our understanding of stories beyond The Hero’s Journey and forge an entirely new female narrative that authentically explores what it means to be a woman?

Spencer McNeely O’Hara: You and I were essentially brought together by style and fashion. So, together again to talk of these subjects for PATTERN Magazine is nothing short of serendipitous. We both might have ended up in the fashion industry if we weren’t so disheartened by it. Regardless, we know that the silhouette of fashion remains the same: tall, thin, and white. How do you think we can we shift from this exclusive standard and make room for more silhouettes?

AF: I’m not sure if this starts with Wonder Woman. I would argue that it began online a long time before this particular iteration of this character. Personally, I loved Wonder Woman, but... that’s a narrative with dollars behind it. I’ve seen more subversive storytelling (and drawing!) for free on Tumblr. A woman I met at a writing residency named Dara Marks wrote a book about what ‘The Hero’s Journey’ looks like when there is a woman at its center. What I remember most about it was the idea that women must play to our strengths. We cannot emulate the journeys of men to the detriment of our own character, and the denial of transgressive ways to deal with conflict. We are socialized differently from men, and we should always be questioning our tendency to think of strength and leadership as masculine ideals. We don’t have to be more like men to be just as good as them. We already are.

Ashley Ford: You know, I was recently talking to a good friend and former coworker about the expansion of my perception of what made something beautiful. He had just come back from a trip to Japan, and while he was there I salivated over his photos. Part of that is his knack for

SMO: I’ve noticed as you’ve entered your thirties, you have a different attitude and integration of social media in your life.

I feel like there is a growing population of young people who aren’t social media haters by any means, but are instead reevaluating its possibilities. Where do you see social media headed?

Recently, she chatted with me over the phone to share with PATTERN Magazine readers just what makes her tick and what she’s up to next.

AF: I really don’t know. Sometimes, I think social media is just a thing we do now, and it will be for the duration of our lifetimes. Other times I think there will be a great backlash, and we’ll all eschew our social media profiles in favor of in-person get-togethers, parties, or rallies. I don’t really root for either future. I’m just interested to see what happens.

You know, one thing about turning thirty is realizing you’re not the target market anymore. When people talk about America’s Future, they’re no longer really talking about you. They’re talking about actual kids, teens, and younger college students. The future of social media is going to be defined by them. I have no idea what they’re going to do.

But I am very curious to see.

SMO: Seven years ago, you and I lived together in a nearly century-old house without heat or air-conditioning. We had little and we dreamed big. Remember when you said you would die if you were ever offered a job in New York? You’ve surpassed many dreams you thought would never come true.

What do your dreams look like these days?

AF: That I will get to be as successful as I want to be in my writing, and live on a farm in the middle of the nowhere.

SMO: We’ve been friends for almost a decade. You’re black.

I’m white. You live in New York now. I still live in Indiana.

You’re Frankie. I’m Grace. We actually have common pitfalls that can potentially cause discord within a friendship, but ours doesn’t. In fact, it’s done the opposite. It persists and even flourishes in many ways. Why is that?

AF: I think it comes down to the fact that neither of us fears a marginalized identity. In fact, it’s something we both find a lot of beauty in. The first time I saw you walking around campus in heels and a skirt, all I saw was how beautiful you were. It wasn’t like, “Wouldn’t it be cool to be friends with a person who presents male but wears women’s clothes?”

No, I saw you, and my breath was literally taken away. I had to tell you what I saw. You’re the same way. When we see beauty, it fills us up like light, and we have to share. We have to let people know how much beauty we see in them, and in the world. We can’t help it. And so, naturally, we became the kind of friends who learned to really see each other, warts and all, and see the beauty in that. What we have is gorgeous. What we have is honest and real. If people want a relationship with a friend like that, they should be prepared for the intensity of connection. I cry when you’re sad, and I’m more excited for the potential of your life than you are sometimes. I know the same is true for you when it comes to me. We’ve made ourselves vulnerable to each other, and that’s why we can thrive in the midst of what makes us different. We still see the beauty in it. We still allow ourselves to be seen and affected. ✂

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CHRIS MERRITT. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. SPATIAL THINKING FOR PUBLIC WONDER. WORDS BY MICHAEL KAUFMANN + PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV Originally from Greenwood, Chris Merritt graduated from Purdue University, working as a landscape architect. He then went on to earn his masters from Harvard Graduate School of Design. And now he and his partner Nina Chase are returning to Indiana to launch a new firm — Merritt Chase. It will be part of the newly launched City State residency housed at the Central State Mansion.

Michael Kaufmann: Since you’ve been away from Indiana for a while, what new perspectives have you gained on Indy and the Midwest in general? And what are some of the challenges and opportunities you see here?

Chris Merritt: We discuss progress in our revitalized Midwest cities using words like livable, affordable, walkable, creative, and innovative. Indianapolis is doing well, but needs to work at furthering its identity. I think the Midwest is outgrowing the clichés, and should lose the inferiority complex. We need to build the physical infrastructure that attracts and retains top talent. Part of that infrastructure is a city’s public spaces, and it doesn’t go unnoticed.

An appetite and desire for design quality exists in the Midwest. The potential for a Midwest renaissance shaped from investment in an improved public realm is being successfully tested in many cities. Indianapolis is an attractive place to live and work, it has good bones, but there is plenty of work left to do.

MK: What are your thoughts on creative placemaking as it applies to Indy? If programming public space is relatively easy and inexpensive (as illustrated by tactical urbanism, movable chairs and bocce ball), why do we need landscape architects?

CM: Creative Placemaking can be a powerful tool for

approaching change to our public realm. It allows quick and cheap testing of ideas as a first phase. I think it is most useful as a method for community engagement.

It can provide an opportunity for feedback and makes legible what is often hidden and mystifying behind closed doors. Our public spaces should be unique to their context, and reflect the communities that inhabit them. When done wrong, creative placemaking can overlook this with the deployment of its usual elements.

This city-making movement is backed-up with studies proving its success, often related to transportation.

With advances in technology, our cities are constantly being measured for metrics to quantify how successful, efficient, sustainable, safe etc. a change may be.

Technological innovation is a good thing; however, we risk losing the imperceptible, nuanced, and subjective qualities we need in our public realm. Borrowing from Michael Kimmelman, “the perfect square, it turns out, is also a state of mind.” We should aspire to create this ineffable quality in our public spaces.

working in both places. We are breaking ground soon at Bow Market, a project in Somerville, Massachusetts, that is transforming an old storage warehouse into a vibrant food, art, and retail market centered on a public courtyard in the heart of Union Square. In Indianapolis we are kicking off two projects. The Pecar Farm at an Eskenazi Health Center will utilize urban agriculture on a large scale to provide food for the surrounding community, and The Grove, a collaboration with People for Urban Progress that will position an existing mature stand of trees and open space as the center of a developing community at Central Greens.

MK: If sky was the limit, what investment of radical infrastructure would you love to see come to Indy?

MK: What projects are you currently working on both locally and internationally?

CM: We have been working with CICF [Central Indiana Community Foundation] and the city on a vision for investment in expanded connectivity and mobility projects across Indianapolis that build upon the legacy of the Cultural Trail. The Cultural Trail has set a national precedent, and it feels like Indy is due for another major transformation. Indianapolis recently came in at the very bottom of a list ranking the park systems of the 100 largest U.S. cities. We can do better. I would love to see a major investment that transforms our network of streets, plazas, and parks into the types of beloved public spaces we see in other cities. We should look to the remnant post-industrial landscapes, parking lots, and dated infrastructure for opportunities to create new public spaces in the city. Much of the potential is largely untapped, and we are likely to see exciting new opportunities in the years to come. We have to advocate for design quality with these opportunities. ✂

CM: My partner Nina Chase and I met in Boston and share Midwestern roots, so we are excited to be

For more info about City State and Merritt Chase’s work in Indy visit city-state.us.

With a background in the arts and sciences, landscape architects are fluent in both the quantitative and qualitative approaches to design. We apply spatial and systems thinking to the design of our cities, providing places for people to experience joy, bewilderment, and respite. We understand the value of economic development with the power and beauty of expressive form and landscape material that position the public realm as a foundational building block in our communities.

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I am a 6th Generation Hoosier and proud Indy resident.

Joe Shoemaker photographed above Mass Ave., overlooking his beloved

I am an Architecture and Design enthusiast.

city. From the urban core to the suburbs, and from historic cottages to

I am an avid supporter of our local restaurant scene.

Mid-Century Modern masterpieces, Joe knows Indianapolis.

I am a Dedicated Real Estate Professional.

I am Encore Sotheby’s International Realty.

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated. • Photo by Esther Boston Photography

joe.shoemaker@encoresir.com | 317.413.8501

In conversation with Indy’s built environment CHAMPIONS and INNOVATORS. 43

CRAIG McCORMICK

“Our goal as architects is to make a better city, a better community, and create walkable, livable places.”

ARCHITECT Words by THERESA PROCOPIO + Photograph by ELESE BALES + Design by ANTHONY CARRANZA

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ROB GERBITZ

DEVELOPER Words by CHARLES LETBETTER + Photograph by POLINA OSHEROV

“I think quality is really what matters … I was hired to do work that we can be proud of.”

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KRISTIN OKELEY “ To do things differently … and bring more of a lifestyle concept to design.”

DESIGNER Words by ABBY GARDNER + Photograph by ESTHER BOSTON

DESIGNER Written by Theresa Procopio + Photograph by Tad ‘Hadley’ Fruits

MICAH HILL Local builder Micah J. Hill has always loved design, construction, and building. From a young age, he would notice housing structures and knew he would forge a career in building construction. Armed with a business degree from Taylor University, he enhanced his skill set by interning and working for larger firms, learning everything from framing to landscaping. Today, Hill is a founding member and principal of Compendium Group LLC. “I’ve been building downtown since 2000 – well before it became cool,” he says. “It’s been really interesting and fulfilling to see downtown change from the community it once was. It used to be urban pioneers moving downtown, and you rarely saw families. Now I have clients with kids who are making the choice they want to be in the city.”

Hill and his wife, Tatum, and daughter, Cora, reside in the house that he built in the Windsor Park Neighborhood, on the Near East Side. It’s a short distance to the city’s parks, trails, and cultural districts that the family enjoys. Compendium Group focuses its construction endeavors solely

in the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods; specializing in residential, commercial, healthy homes, and historic projects.

The firm recently completed a rehab of the oldest house in Fletcher Place. It was built in the 1870s. The neighborhood was not going to allow it to be destroyed. While challenging – the house had rocked and twisted, and its walls had been shored up with braces - the end result was rewarding for Hill. Compendium Group is now involved in redevelopment of the land surrounding the old Indiana Central State Hospital.

“Central State is gaining a lot of momentum right now,” Hill says. “It went from a place that for so long had a 6-foot-tall fence and barbed wire around it. Now that’s all gone, and I’m really happy to be a part of it.”

Hill sees the city’s IT boom factoring into local trends and influencing the build environment in downtown Indianapolis.

Companies are attracting employees from larger cities, such as San Francisco and Boston, and many transplants want to live downtown. He sees the impact on the local build scene.

“The purist form of architecture when you look back in history, was how people incorporated the materials they had around them. From the timber-framed cabins to the stone cottages that were built around shipping lanes, architecture responded with the natural environment and resources that were available,” he explains. “Today, Indy’s strong IT presence is dictating housing in a similar way, from style to technology. If they can get it on their phone, they want it in their house.”

The Greenwood native wasn’t initially sold on staying in Indianapolis, but began to feel more settled about ten years ago, as the city continued to evolve.

“It’s about all the connections. There’s about two to three degrees of separation from people. It’s being a part of the growth of a cool and vibrant city,” he says. “I eventually stopped looking outside of Indianapolis and said this is where I’m putting my roots down.”

BUILDER Words by THERESA PROCOPIO + Photograph by POLINA OSHEROV

BRIAN BURTCH

ARCHITECT Words by CHARLES LETBETTER + Photograph by ELESE BALES

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JANICE SHIMIZU & JOSHUA COGGESHALL

ARCHITECTS Words by RICHARD MCCOY + Photograph by CHRISTOPHER WHONSETLER

WIL MARQUEZ “I’m a designer, a creator; I’m curious and an agitator.”

PLACEMAKER Words by JAMI STALL + Photograph by ESTHER BOSTON

TOM GALLAGHER

Words by SHELBY Q. WALTON + Photograph by CHRISTOPHER WHONSETLER

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

“ Beauty is important … I’m an interpreter as much as I am an artist.”

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HOPE PACE

“ There are no rules! The key is keeping things cohesive.”

DESIGNER Words by JAMI STALL + Photograph by ESTHER BOSTON

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POPS OF GEOMETRIC COLOR MAKE THESE FRESH-FACED FACADES ANYTHING, BUT PLAIN.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ESTHER BOSTON ASSISTED BY MIKE NEON

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MAKEUP BY LULU AZRAN

MODEL JADA LYNN (ANOMALY MODEL MANAGEMENT)

RETOUCHED BY WENDY TOWLE

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HAIR BY PHILIP SALMON

DESIGN BY JON & STACEY MCCLURE

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INDY’S RICH ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY

INDIA N0W POLIS CAN INDY’S PAST INSPIRE ITS FUTURE?

INDIANA’S CAPITAL IS LUCKY TO STILL HAVE A HANDFUL OF CAPTIVATING BUILDINGS FROM ERAS PAST. THINK: IRT’S INDIANA THEATER, UNION STATION, OR COCA COLA BUILDINGS. A FEW SHORT DECADES AGO, MOST OF INDY’S ARCHITECTURE WAS GAWK-WORTHY. THIS “NO MEAN CITY” BRIMMED WITH NOTEWORTHY GEMS ON NEARLY EVERY BLOCK. FROM GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS OFFICES, RETAIL TO HOTELS, ENTERTAINMENT VENUES TO TRANSIT HUBS, THE ARCHITECTURE DAZZLED. HARD TO BELIEVE SOME OF THESE COULD BE TORN DOWN, BUT “PROGRESS” WAS THE OVERUSED WRECKING BALL IN AN ERA LACKING THE VISION OF REUSE SO PREVALENT TODAY. AS YOU PONDER WHAT THE CITY’S FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE, CHECK OUT A FEW SNAPSHOTS OF WHERE IT’S BEEN. — TIFFANY BENEDICT BROWNE

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“... though not so large, a finer house than the Grand Opera House in Paris.”

ENGLISH’S HOTEL AND OPERA HOUSE

NATIONAL SURGICAL INSTITUE

120 MONUMENT CIRCLE Built in two phases, 1880 and 1897 Architect: 1880: J. B. McElfatrick & Son; 1887: Oscar D. Bohlen Architectural style: Victorian Demolished in 1948 to make way for the J.C. Penney.

The manager of a world-traveling actor who performed here pronounced English’s theater “though not so large, a finer house than the Grand Opera House in Paris.”

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE AND OTHER DOWNTOWN LANDMARKS LONG GONE OR STILL STANDING, CHECK OUT HISTORICINDIANAPOLIS.COM.

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1893

1880

ENGLISH’S HOTEL AND OPERA HOUSE

NATIONAL SURGICAL INSTITUTE

200 W. OHIO ST. Architect: Hellgren & Minturn Architectural style: Queen Anne Victorian Demolished in 1958 after a fire.

Patients could see the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the Circle from here when it was built.

TRACTION TERMINAL BUILDING AND TRAIN SHED

56 W. MARKET ST.

Architect: Daniel H. Burnham Architectural style: Romanesque Revival Razed in 1972 by Blue Cross Blue Shield with undetermined plans.

Burnham is regarded to this day as one of the greatest U.S. architects; he also designed the Flatiron Building in NYC and Union Stations in both Chicago and Washington, D. C.

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KNIGHT OF PYTHIAS GRAND LODGE 210-222 MASS. AVE. AND 211-223 NORTH PENNSYLVANIA ST.

Grand Lodge for K of P and nonrelated business offices.

Built in: 1906-1907 Architect: J. F. Alexander & Son Architectural style: Romanesque Revival Demolished in 1967 to make way for Regions Tower.

Architects from 14 different cities submitted designs in a “blind competition,” where anonymous drawings were evaluated. The winning firm hailed from Lafayette, Indiana.

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HOOSIER HISTORY

PAINT THE MUTHA PINK HOW MTV MADE INDIANA THE HOME OF THE WORLD’S FIRST “ROCK ’N’ ROLL ESTATE”

WORDS BY ENRIQUE RAMIREZ + COLLAGE BY SIVAVIS IN 1984 MTV WANTED VIEWERS TO TAKE OUT A MORTGAGE ON A LITTLE SLICE OF Bloomington. John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses” was a huge hit, and to capitalize on the song’s popularity, MTV promoted its “Paint the Mutha Pink” contest.

The premise seemed simple enough. MTV was giving away a house in Bloomington. The winner would arrive with twenty-five friends and, literally, paint it pink. There was also a huge house party hosted by Mellencamp himself.

As the appointed “Barbecue Chairman,” his responsibility was to grill burgers and hot dogs, and then reward the sated contest participants with a raucous set. There were other prizes, too: a pink Jeep, an endless supply of Hawaiian Punch fruit drink, a Pioneer stereo system, and even a screening of Walter Hill’s hilariously bad Streets of Fire.

Going to Indiana seemed a bit of a hard sell, especially considering how another MTV contest from that year, the “Lost Weekend with Van Halen,” was shrouded in tantalizing mystery. The winner may not have known where the “Lost Weekend” would occur, but this did not matter. Van Halen’s lead singer, David Lee Roth, promised nothing short of a weekend filled with booze, private jets, all-around debauchery, and a private screening of Footloose.

On the other hand, the “Paint the Mutha Pink” contest seemed downright quaint. Still, there seemed to be a lot at stake. MTV claimed that the pink house, which they branded as the “MTV Party House,” would be “the world’s first Rock ’n’ Roll estate.” This is a serious claim about architecture. Move over, Graceland.

Indiana boasts many significant architectural offerings. For example, Frank Lloyd Wright’s John D. Haynes House in Fort Wayne is a typical example of the architect’s midcentury “Usonian” style that proliferated in the Midwest. Michael Graves’ Hanselman House, also in Fort Wayne, is a bold design that shows the Indiana-born designer playing with the kind of cube-like compositions typically associated with Bauhaus designs or Le Corbusier’s and Mies vas der Rohe’s villas.

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And there are other midcentury modernist homes by architects that are just as vital to the history of architecture. The work of Carmel-born Avriel Shull comes to mind. She taught herself design, and hers in Indianapolis are as innovative and expressive as Marcel Breuer’s butterfly-roof homes.

So why look at this “Pink House” in Bloomington?

Houses have stories, and midcentury modernist homes typically have the best ones to tell. For example, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, is celebrated for its abstract purity and relationship to nature. It was, however, born of a fleeting affair between the architect and Dr. Edith Farnsworth. But if difficult relationships make for great architecture, then perhaps adding the MTV Party House to this lineage is wrongheaded.

This house should be loved because of its difficult history alone. In fact, there were two MTV Party Houses. The first one was purchased on the cheap, but then it was found to be sited too closely to a hazardous waste site. So MTV purchased a second one, which they gave away to contest winner, Susan Miles from Bellevue, Washington. But she only used the house for the party and did not actually live there.

When considering this quirky history, the “Rock ’n’ Roll estate” in Bloomington is arguably modern because of how it changed so rapidly. Think about it. Here’s a tiny house, sold to MTV, then sold to a cable television subscriber lucky enough to win a contest. The house is then painted pink, becomes the site of a massive party, and then is abandoned.

This “Pink House” in Bloomington is an ordinary house made extraordinary because it was televised and made popular through mass media—even if for an all-too-brief amount of time. The MTV Party House is, therefore, all too contemporary. People knew about it by watching MTV, and because of this, it became a surrogate for the “little Pink Houses” that Mellencamp celebrated in his song. ✂

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HHH

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FEATURING THE WORK OF CHICAGO-BASED ARTIST CARLOS ROLÓN/DZINE, AND BOXERS FROM INDY BOXING AND GRAPPLING DESIGNED BY LINDSAY HADLEY NINE KNOCKOUT ROUNDS PHOTOGRAPHED BY POLINA OSHEROV

ONE OF THE FIRST SPORTS CREATED BY MANKIND, BOXING HAS INSPIRED VISUAL ARTISTS, FILM-MAKERS, WRITERS AND FASHION THROUGHOUT TIME. THE PAGENTRY, THE FOOTWORK, THE PERSONALITIES OF THE BOXERS COALESCE, ENSURING BOXING WILL CONTINUE TO SHAPE POPULAR CULTURE ALL OVER THE WORLD.

H ROUND SKYLAR LARY

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H ROUND BETSY PAUL

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H ROUND JERED MYSLINSKI

H ROUND TIM BROWN JR.

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H ROUND YORMAN GUERRERO

H ROUND JAVAR JONES

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H ROUND FRANK MARTIN

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H ROUND IKE BOYD JR.

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H ROUND ANDREW HOLBROOK

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EVENT HIGHLIGHT

EXHIBIT COLUMBUS

CELEBRATING THE LEGACY OF ARCHITECTURE IN COLUMBUS, INDIANA WORDS BY DONNA SINK IS ARCHITECTURE A HUMBLE PRACTICE? Most likely this statement brings a wry smile to your face. Architects endure the myth of the hero artist renowned for being egotistical, visionary, and difficult. Most great works of architecture throughout history famously have been the products of great men (almost exclusively men).

They were visionaries who fought fearlessly against small ideas and mediocrity.

Certainly during the mid-twentieth century, the United States was shaped by visionary thinkers. Their contributions included the moon landing, the interstate highway system, and other bold projects that changed daily life for millions. Great minds are capable of effecting great changes, by all accounts, there is no question that J. Irwin Miller was indeed a great man, not only in business success with the Cummins Corporation, but even more so in his desire to use that success in service to communities.

This is evident in Miller’s own community

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IKD_CONVERSATION PLINTH

of Columbus, Indiana, where most of its residents possess abundant architectural knowledge. Like a virtual museum of modern architecture, the city is replete with rich designs, stunning public art, and residents who appreciate it.

Every design event or lecture, which if hosted in a bigger city would draw audiences of black-clad, scarf-wearing designers, is attended here by an unpretentious population of regular folks living in this medium-size, southern Indiana town.

Impressive architecture abounds here at nearly every turn.

And though it was a great man who made this environment possible by bringing great architects to Columbus, the buildings themselves are not necessarily elite.

The post offices, fire stations, schools and libraries of Columbus are world-class structures that beautifully serve their Midwestern citizens.

Which brings us to Exhibit Columbus, featuring installation projects proposed by the Miller Prize winners. During the inaugural symposium of Exhibit Columbus, “Foundations and Futures,” Co-Chair Michelangelo Sabatino said that architecture in Columbus “…is about the symphony, not the solo performer.” The contemporary practitioners of the Miller Prize competition

PLAN B ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM_ ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE WOODS

STUDIO:INDIGENOUS_WIIKIAAMI

are typical of many of today’s new critical architectural practices. They are not “heroes,” but are skilled practitioners working with other skilled artisans.

OYLER WU_THE EXCHANGE

As fabrication, including building construction, becomes more technologically based, architects are collaborating with fabricators to try new methods. Material efficiency is a common goal — both IKD’s Conversation Plinth and Aranda/Lasch’s Another Circle allow what would have been cast off to be repurposed as useful construction materials. The Conversation Plinth CLT technology uses small pieces of low-grade Indiana hardwood and makes them into bigger, stronger pieces of construction material. Another Circle not only finds value in leftover limestone, but it dispenses with typical blueprints entirely, giving contractors direction on stone placement purely through a set of GPS markers on a phone-based map app.

fabricators. This is but one example of how the Miller Prize projects are in the spirit of J. Irwin Miller and Cummins Inc. Technological innovation springs from working with experts, in asking smart questions informed by the work, and in keeping a larger civic responsibility in mind through the effort. The Miller Prize winners use technology that spans from GPS in smartphones all the way back to Stonehenge. In their collaboration with the people who make the work, and who also make the community, the projects become part of the city’s symphony. ✂

studio:indigenous’ Wiikiaami brings to Exhibit Columbus a remembrance of history, of the original indigenous Myaamia people living in what is now Columbus. In contrast, its skin of perforated copper is being fabricated by Ignition Arts – one the world’s most cutting-edge global metal

ARANDA\LASCH_ANOTHER CIRCLE

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comotion.studio

Design & Branding Studio

Great brands rise to the top with the right amount of agitation.

Let’s shake things up.

A OSHE

IN

BY POL

stein Lichten nd Gary artnership Meier a p Richard their creative discuss

RAPHY

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PHOTO BY GALIT OLSNER

Polina Osherov: How did you both end up with adjacent studios at Mana Contemporary?

Richard Meier: You have to begin with the fact that we knew one another (we’d worked together since 2010) and, as I remember, Gary found this space and brought me here -- to Mana Contemporary in Jersey City -- to see it. The minute I walked in, I knew that it would be great for me, because I had all of my architectural models housed in a building in Long Island City (which, coincidentally, I had to vacate). The landlord had given me incredibly short notice so, when Gary suggested Mana, I was immediately interested. Upon closer inspection, I also realized that it would be a terrific showroom alternative for my daughter, Ana, a furniture designer. Relocating The Richard Meier Model Museum and Gary Lichtenstein Editions enabled all of us to think about working more extensively together…and I was absolutely ready to expand the body of work I was developing.

Up until now, we’ve stuck with a certain size because it is manageable, but also malleable.

We can approach an encaustic board as a single piece, or we can assemble a group of them. It’s a great way to combine different ideas that we’re working on.

GL: The process of encaustic embraces collage. We have incorporated multiple collage elements created or collected by Richard — from ticket stubs and business cards to pieces of propaganda posters. We’re also including silkscreen within many of the pieces.

PO: What do you disagree on?

RM: The only thing we disagree on is what time to start in the morning.

GL: Or what time to finish in the evening.

Gary Lichtenstein: When Richard and I started working together, I had a studio in a converted horse barn in Ridgefield, Connecticut. I was commuting to Richard’s office with silkscreens in various stages, and Richard would reserve one of the conference rooms so we could spend at least a couple of hours working together. Outside of these review sessions, Richard never brought his artistic career into his architectural office. He worked on his original collages at home and also during the course of his travels (i.e., on airplanes). Neighboring studios at Mana Contemporary allowed for a completely different experience. Richard set up a working studio within his Model Museum and, for the first time, he worked by my side in the silkscreen studio. We started to experiment – with imagery and with the scale of the work we were producing. We ventured into larger territory, and last year we produced three 10-by-10-foot canvas works that incorporate silkscreen, collage, and hand painting. Mana’s 18-foot ceilings allow for this kind of freedom. It’s amazing.

PO: Tell me about your newest collaborations using the method of encaustic.

GL: Well, since being introduced to encaustic, I can safely say that Richard has not gotten up from the bench.

RM: Gary has a long table in his studio, and we sit there side by side, and Gary might say, “Let’s try this” and I might say, “OK, we’ll see if it works out.” Or I might suggest we move in a different direction. Gary is adept in noticing when it’s time to venture beyond the current boundaries…and so, ours is a collaborative dialogue…it is a partnership in every right. When we’re working together, Gary will say, “Let’s change what we’re doing. Instead of doing images, let’s draw and make something that we create inside the encaustic.”

Gary mixes up the encaustic ink and coats the boards, and then hands them to me. Even if I protest (because frequently I like the way the boards look when they’re blank) he’ll push me to explore. It’s a back and forth process. Action and reaction. It’s an important part of the way we work.

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RM: Or what time to have lunch. Sometimes Melissa has to corral us.

PO: Tell me about these huge installations I’m looking at on the walls of the Richard Meier Model Museum.

GL: We started with individual encaustic works. Then we began to experiment and started putting certain pieces together. Multiple pieces turned into multiple rows, and soon we had filled an entire wall at my studio. Richard decided he wanted to see an installation within The Model Museum, so the next phase began and we mapped out the design and the layout. Richard would sit quietly in his chair while I’d climb up and down the ladder. It took weeks. The first installation, entitled “Hobbiko,” is the one that incorporates a lot of color — the one behind Richard’s huge sculpture. It’s constructed tightly. Richard wanted to make use of every inch of wall space. The second installation, which is just as large, is instead composed of multiple black and white pieces. This installation gives each piece a lot more breathing room. It was a different realization of what works for different pieces.

Two others….and then a third have since been added. Each tells a different story. One, for instance, consists entirely of transfers of photos of artists who have been friends of Richard’s over the years.

RM: The one problem we have is space. We have filled four walls. Each one is very different.

Each wall is, in fact, its own collage composed of multiple pieces of work. Sadly, we’ve run out of wall space in the Museum. We might have one more, but then we’ve filled up the space. We may be able to move one or two things around, but each wall has become its own piece… its own work of art…made up of 30 or 40 separate elements. We’ll keep working, but we’re going to have to start taking over Gary’s walls in his studio.

GL: I will not protest. ✂

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RETR-OH! GUNNAR DEATHERAGE TAKES ON THE ‘70S IN HIS NEW COLLECTION. PHOTOGRAPHY CLAY COOK HAIR + MAKEUP BY ISIDRO VALENCIA ASSISTED BY ASHLEY ROBERTS RE-TOUCHING BY JORDAN HARTLEY MODEL SOFIE ROVENSTINE (AMAX) DESIGN BY AUBREY SMITH

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strive to do probably their whole life as a designer.”

WORDS BY MONICA SALLAY

Though commentary from the judges seems short and snappy on TV, Deatherage explained that it’s much more thorough than it appears. “Each of us that are at the top or the bottom get about an hour with the judges while you’re standing up there. They elaborate on your look and talk about your process. It’s a lot more constructive than what they show, and I think that’s great because we know, at the end of the day, they had positive and negative things to say about everybody, even the top.”

Nostalgic, colorful, multi-textural—these are just some of the core descriptors for The Bird Lady collection by fashion designer, Gunnar Deatherage, shown in this spread. An artist in the midst of an image rework, Deatherage is a Hoosier transplant now residing in Louisville. He differentiates himself from other in his field with his bold confidence, drive for success, and desire to serve all people: male or female, wealthy or wallet-conscious, those of high style or low maintenance.

His return on Project Runway All Stars was an entirely new experience. “[It was] less like a competition, because in regular Project Runway, they kind of desensitize you to the outside world,” Deatherage explains.

“You have no access to anything culturally that’s happening. You were in that bubble; you were in that competition. In All Stars, it felt like it was a job; like going to work and competing and doing our best.”

His affinity for fashion stemmed from his time in beauty school, when he threw caution to the wind and created costumes without previous experience in clothing design. “It was just one of those make-it-work moments where I had to figure out how to make clothing overnight,” he says. “I think that my biting off more than I could chew really helped me in the end. It made my brain start to think about how to deconstruct the idea of clothing, and make it attainable to me.”

Deatherage’s appearance on Lifetime’s Project Runway launched his career. He shined bright in Season 10, where his outspoken attitude and chic designs propelled him all the way to showing at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.

“Fashion Week was crazy because I created this collection in three weeks, and here I was, presenting on one of the largest platforms in the fashion world—what people

During their downtime, contestants had the opportunity to get to know each other better and hang out together., which Deatherage says was great.

Fashion photographer, Clay Cook, approached Deatherage to style this seventies-set photo shoot for PATTERN. Of Deatherage, Cook raves, “I’ve known Gunnar for a long time and, over the years he’s come up with a lot of different pieces and a lot of creative, cool lines... I love everything that Gunnar does. It’s always very dramatic... It feels free, almost.”

The two work together shaping Louisville’s fashion and cultural scene through their creative work for The VoiceTribune, formerly Nfocus.

To match the groovy aesthetic of the shoot, Deatherage pulled his Wes Anderson-inspired pieces from previous seasons. However, his colorful and retro aesthetic is STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 95

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touches on topics such as remaining original in a world that’s so saturated with all types of art and design.

turning a corner toward something more fitting to his own personal style.

In terms of his latest collection: “It’s completely monotone. It’s a lot of black,” he says. ”I think, going forward, I’m going to be operating this way.”

This makes perfect sense, since his favorite designers and brands include the likes of Rick Owens and Vetements. “This is the most ‘me’ I’ve ever designed. I wear on the daily everything I have in my collection, and I think that’s to make sure that it fits right, it works, it’s functional, and it walks as well as it wears.”

Deatherage is progressing toward making pieces that span a wider audience. His new brand, Circle of Salt, will have almost everything under $50. The androgynous line aims to cater to the alternative fashion client, which Deatherage labels as himself, also.

“If I can look like an art teacher and a witch at the same time, that’s my goal.” He is a strong advocate for genderless clothing. “I don’t want to design with gender in mind,” Deatherage says. “I think that really bothers me. That’s always bothered me. I shop in the women’s section, and I feel judgement when I’m in the women’s section, which is bullshit.”

Deatherage broadcasts his opinions about culture, fashion, and his artistic self through social media. He

“We’re so overstimulated via social media, specifically, where the ideas that you’re creating are kind of based off of other things. I’m not saying no idea is original, but I’m going to tell you, for the most part, the things I want to do are based on things that I’ve seen before, unfortunately. And the things that I want to create and make original, I can’t make a living with. You have to kind of be unoriginal to make a living, so that you can support your original ideas... It’s a weird dichotomy.”

As for the future of the fashion industry, Deatherage has a surprising, though understandable, opinion. “I know this is going to sound awful, but I kind of want a market crash with fashion, and I think it should have to rebuild itself,” he says. “Brands like Forever 21 and H&M have destroyed us, and it’s impossible to compete with them.”

He hopes people begin shopping small and supporting the talent in their community.

“I would love to see fashion go small again, or at least go to the actual designer, because that’s what’s happening,” Deatherage says. “These stores are destroying us, and then the only jobs we can get are with these big fashion companies that are stealing our designs.”

This fall of fast-fashion is already in the works. “These companies will go under. We saw it with American Apparel.

Forever 21 is backing out of stores [malls] right now. It’s happening. The mall system is not working anymore.”

Where does Deatherage see himself going in the next few years? “I want to have a base of fans and customers that feel like I ‘get them.’ I just want to be making clothing,” he says. “I think in five years, that’s all you can really ask for in this society, and the way the world has gone. I want to be able to make my art, pay my bills with it, and be happy doing that.” ✂ gunnardeatherage.com | Instagram @gunnardeatherage

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JARED INGOLD. VARDAGEN.

ONE OF INDY’S FAVORITE STREETWEAR BRANDS LOOKS TO NEW MARKETS FOR CONTINUED GROWTH. WORDS BY ERIC REES + PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV Indianapolis-based streetwear brand, Vardagen, has been slinging original, hand-drawn designs on t-shirts since 2006. The brand has come a long way in a decade, reaching a global audience and currently popping up in Venice, California. Jared Ingold, Vardagen’s CEO looks back at how the brand got started.

Eric Rees: How did Vardagen happen?

Jared Ingold: My brother-in-law, Dusty Groves was really interested in screen printing. I didn’t know anything about it, but we began doing some research and decided to take a leap of faith together—Dusty, my friend Danny Benson and myself. We bought some equipment learned everything the hard way.

ER: So what did that first set-up look like?

JI: It was just a manual screen printing machine that we put in my garage. We started hanging out there all the time. We weren’t really thinking about creating a brand, it was just for fun. We’d blast music and design stuff and print stuff and pull all-nighters. That’s where everything started, and eventually other friends got involved and we just kept working on our craft and learning things and growing from there.

ER: How did you make the leap from three guys hanging out in a garage to a full-blown business?

JI: What moved us forward was when my wife and I hosted an ugly Christmas sweater party. This was in 2007, and by that time, Danny was off to college and Dusty had just moved away as well. My wife suggested that we make some shirts for the party so I ended up designing the first ugly Christmas sweater t-shirt after she went to bed. We printed them for the party and

everyone loved the design and said, “We want to buy these for our friends!” And they did! About 150 of them!

attention to the brand after that.

ER: You’re in California right now. What are you guys up to?

ER: Dang! Those are some good friends.

JI: Yeah, that was an “aha!” moment. So we printed more shirts and put them up on our website and a New York based blogger (swiss-miss.com) ordered some for her Christmas party and blogged about it. After that, we ended up selling them around the world, shipping to 55 different countries that Christmas, printing around the clock, and just going nuts with that particular shirt.

ER: When did you know it was time to open a physical retail location?

JI: From 2008-2012, we were doing a lot of custom work and printing for other people, and the Vardagen brand was in limbo as I had very little time to work on it, but we were getting a lot of experience printing for so many different people. I really owe it to D. Jeffrey, our designer, who slowly started taking over the design side of things around 2009. Then around 2012 I felt like we were putting out some really strong work, but no one around Indianapolis really knew we existed. So I thought that a brick and mortar location would help us get some local support and exposure. And, also that visually having all of our stuff in one place would be great for the brand.

The building in Fishers, Indiana, that we’re currently in, was really one of the only buildings in the area that had character and the right vibe so we went for it.

ER: Is there a point where things really started taking off? I remember the “Deflategate” shirt got a lot of attention.

JI: Oh yeah, that design was super well received especially here in Indy. People really started paying

JI: Last summer, I visited California and I felt like it would be a great place to showcase the brand outside of Indiana. When you do this for long enough you start to wonder, “Does this thing have legs? Can it make it in places where you don’t have the home field advantage?” Then in June of this year, I decided to take a chance and do a pop-up store in Venice, CA. So we signed the deal, and came out here ten days later.

ER: Wow, that’s a quick turnaround!

JI: Yeah, once we signed, I had to pack up my four kids and my wife and the trailer and make the thirty-two hour drive out here. The pop-up has been doing really well so far, even better than we hoped. We extended the shop’s lease and now we’re thinking of staying even longer. In the first thirty days we sold to 36 different countries out of this one location as well as making some really great connections. We’re getting some great feedback, so it’s been an incredibly valuable experience. People are really surprised that we’re from Indiana and think that we fit in really well on the West Coast.

ER: Is a California retail outpost in your future?

JI: Not sure yet about California, but it’s something that we are considering. As far as the brand overall, we just want to keep doing what we love to do, first and foremost, but, also continue working on being sustainable and growing our fans and customers. It’s fun being able to look back at those days in the garage, and wonder what the next ten years will bring. ✂

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EDUCATION

TRAINING TOMORROW’S ARCHITECTS INDIANA UNIVERSITY BRINGS MASTER’S PROGRAM IN ARCHITECTURE TO COLUMBUS, INDIANA

WORDS BY ELEANOR RUST + PHOTOGRAPH BY HADLEY ‘TAD’ FRUITS INDIANA UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF ART, ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN HOPES TO revolutionize architecture and design education in Indiana. This spring it announced a new undergraduate degree in Comprehensive Design and a new Master’s of Architecture program. Kelly Wilson heads the program, as director of IU Center for Art + Design (IUCA+D) in downtown Columbus, Indiana.

An hour’s drive from both Indianapolis and IU’s main campus in Bloomington, Columbus might seem an unlikely spot for a major design program. When Wilson initially considered becoming the first director of IUCA+D in 2011, even he had doubts. Educated at Auburn University in Alabama and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Wilson had built a career as an architect and artist, teaching in prestigious architecture programs on the East Coast.

During a campus visit, Wilson was awed by the built environment of Columbus. “I was shocked by the architecture; I felt the the astonishment everyone feels, because this sophisticated form of modern architecture sits cheek-by-jowl to the traditional, modest architecture of the Midwest.”

He was impressed by the dedication of John Burnett and Jack Hess, the leaders of the Community Education Coalition of Columbus who partnered with IU to found IUCA+D. They did so to establish design education opportunities there for IU students and to create a hub for arts and design in the community. Intrigued by Columbus’s potential, Wilson made the move.

Wilson identifies four key advantages for architecture and design students in Columbus.

First, of course, is the city’s exceptional modern architecture. For Wilson, living among buildings by Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche, and Harry Weese provides the repeated exposure needed to unpack the complex ideas that make them great.

Secondly, he says students will benefit from Columbus’s strong backbone of fabrication and engineering fostered by Cummins Inc., the diesel engine maker headquartered there.

Then there’s the Columbus way, as its residents call it. Most modern masterpieces sprouted there because of public-private partnerships, not private patronage or government fiat.

And finally, Wilson sees it as a “scalable city” — a living urban laboratory. “Columbus is large enough to have all the institutions, aspirations, and conflicts of big city, but it’s small enough to be knowable in the time a student is here,” Wilson says, “And you can

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take that understanding to a bigger city. In Boston, I was never able to understand the whole shooting match. Here you can.”

Wilson relishes the challenges of building a new program from the ground up. “There’s no pre-existing structure to prevent outsized thinking and ambition,” he says. “It allows me to ask ‘What would be the most compelling way to put together the education of an architect? What is the architect?’ Our answer is that you’re an artist first, an architect second.” Wilson is dissatisfied with the “Visual Studies” element to most architectural programs. “Its purpose is often to teach the body of representational language that we use to explain, describe, and measure architecture. It’s analytical drawing, it’s essentially rational.”

Wilson emphasizes drawing as a fundamental practice that continues throughout an architect’s career. As a student at Harvard GSD, drawing —not merely architectural draughting— transformed his practice. “I talked my way into an undergraduate drawing class taught by painter Flora Natapoff.” After intensive drawing sessions, “I walked back to architecture school, and out of my sleeve would tumble all these solutions that I knew didn’t come by the process I’d been taught as an architect; that was Flora’ influence.

This is the core of Wilson’s vision, which give artistic and architectural training equal weight in the curriculum. “But we will write no pedagogy to link them together; we will let synthesis exist in the student, not in the curriculum. Then people will forge their own links and in so doing, they will find their voice,” he says. By this process, architecture students will become truly creative professionals rather than imitators of their teachers.

Wilson sees a flourishing arts community as essential to his plans. As director of IUCA+D, he has been laying groundwork with exhibitions featuring artists from his East Coast network, salon talks with local artists, and symposia, including a weekend-long workshop studying Harry Weese’s Midwestern modernism.

This fall, undergraduates can seek Comprehensive Design degrees, and the first cohort of 20 to 30 students will enter the Master’s of Architecture program in the fall of 2018.

Marleen Newman, an architect who has taught design at IU for years, is already on board as associate director of IUCA+D. Columbus-based architect Louis Joyner, who has also taught at IU, is also on the team. Additional faculty positions will be added this year.

Wilson hopes to see the program grow large enough to have a self-sustaining studio culture. But the foundations he is laying are ambitious, he acknowledges, “It’s the folks coming after me in one or two generations that will be famed for having done something big. Recognizing my fate and making my peace with that, I need to build something that can grow, so that 20 years from now there might be 500 students.” ✂

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Shadow of an Unknown Bird combines the advanced techniques of late 20th and early 21st century materials and processes such as 3D printing, digital metrology, water-jet and plasma cutting. Come and see Shadow of an Unknown Bird along with 18 other exciting site-responsive installations as part of Exhibit Columbus!

Gallery hours: Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.

SHAD OW O F A N U N K N OW N BIR D A COLLABORAT ION WITH CUMMINS INC., IUCA+D AND INDIANA U N IVE RS ITY

A Large Scale 3-D Printed Sculpture Project

Open to the public from August 24th through November 30th IUCA+D Indiana University Center For Art + Design / 310 Jackson Street / Columbus, IN 47201

DESIGN TEAM: Architect Jee Yea Kim, Artist Jennifer Riley, Architect T. Kelly Wilson, Engineer John Repp, Engineer Phil Shelton DRAFTSMAN + ASSEMBLY: Drew Calbert, John Allman, Carl Jackson, Levi Fischer, Roger England, Harvey Bailey, Tony Vasquez INTERN: Elise Dean-Wolf C O L L A B O R AT I V E PA R T N E R S :

S U P P O R T I N G PA R T N E R S H I P S :

COAT, DEATH TO TENNIS T-SHIRT, SBOUR

POLINA OSHEROV STYLING BY D2, CHICAGO HAIR BY MILIAN BONILLO (10MGMT) MAKEUP by GOSIA GORNIAK (10MGMT) MODELS SKYE DARU & BLAKE MCDONALD (WILHELMINA) SPECIAL FX BY THIRST PHOTOGRAPHY BY

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HOODIE, REALITY WORLDWIDE DRESS, KIRA SCERBIN EINE PINOT GRIGIO, BITTE, STERNBERG PRESS

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CAP AND JACKETS, PAA TANK, KIRA SCERBIN SHIRT, DEATH TO TENNIS

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JACKET AND PANTS, SAPPHO FINNEGAN

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SHIRT, YOHJI YAMAMOTO BAG, RECESS SKIRT, KIRA SCERBIN

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HAT, PAA SHIRT, FEAR SAFE LIAM GILLICK: ALL BOOKS, STERNBERG PRESS

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COAT AND SHORTS, DEATH TO TENNIS SHIRT, PAA

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JACKET, DEATH TO TENNIS SKIRT, KIRA SCERBIN JACKET AND PANTS, 1010HAHA

TROUSERS, DEATH TO TENNIS

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DR AW I NG DR E A M H OM ES Architectural designer Gary Nance has always been a possilbity thinker WORDS BY CRYSTAL HAMMON + PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV

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“ I had tough years when I would think, ‘Gosh, what is wrong with me?’ ...But I just kept pushing.

Prolific Indianapolis designer of resort homes and commercial buildings, Gary Nance doodled drawings of houses at an age when most kids strive to scrawl stick figures. “I couldn’t sit still to watch TV,” he says of his pre-K days. “I would have a little notepad in front of me, constantly sketching little houses and designing different things.” By the time he reached grade school, Nance was studying home plans sold in dime stores and pharmacies, making little tweaks to improve them.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Indianapolis, Nance attended Arlington High School, where he excelled in hockey, made average grades in math, and struggled with dyslexia. A high school guidance counselor tried to steer him toward vocational training, but Nance ignored the advice and forged ahead. He studied architecture at Ball State University and later transferred to Chicago’s Harrington College of Design, graduating with a degree in commercial design.

From high school through college, Nance worked summers for his high school hockey coach, an Indianapolis home builder. Gradually, Nance spent more time drawing homes than digging fence holes, and the job helped pay for college.

The week after college graduation, Nance went to work in the design center of Helmut Jahn & Associates, a major, international architectural firm. From an office overlooking Michigan Avenue, he spent his days doing the concept drawings architects use to ignite interest and win projects.

Despite a lifetime of preparation and an unmistakable gift, Nance was incredulous that his dream had come true. “There I was, the dyslexic kid up in the design center,” he says. He was starting his career in one of the most interesting and coveted roles in architecture — a triumph of perseverance he would never quite forget.

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RIFFING ON OPTIMISM A decade after joining Helmut Jahn & Associates, Nance returned to Indianapolis and started Gary Nance Design. Known for its unique lakefront properties, his firm remains in Indiana, even though he conducts 40 percent of his business outside the state.

If you’re in a position to hire Nance, you might see him draw your dream home in real time.

He sketches every home by hand. Each design is then converted and checked in CAD later. “I’m a design-concept guy,” he says. “I’ve got to keep moving.” He credits much of his success to a genuine passion that his clients easily sense.

Even during lean years for builders and home designers, Nance stays busy doing resort homes.

“That money never dries up,” he says. Neither does Nance’s exuberance for life, it seems.

A few years ago, a series of events made him aware that his fast-paced, unhealthy lifestyle could separate him from everything he loved — his family and his work. He started working with a personal trainer at a gym in Fishers, changed his diet, and lost 90 pounds.

“I still can’t believe I pulled it off,” he says. “I’m in better shape than I was in high school.

People ask me how I’ve balanced my workouts with work, but, believe it or not, I’ve been more efficient in my work because I have to schedule myself.”

His trainer was so proud that he urged Nance to enter a few bodybuilding contests. Last spring Nance won second place in a competition for his age group. His path to better health inspired many of his Baby Boomer friends and colleagues to improve their own health.

Nance grooves on a sunny vibe that all things are possible through hard work. It’s a creed he loves to share with people who feel obstructed. For the past three summers, he has spoken at a summer camp designed to encourage kids who are learning to cope with

dyslexia. The goal is to introduce them to adults who share the language-based learning disability. He wants parents to know that, with perseverance and the right support, their child can still succeed.

Nance remembers the feeling of “being different” from other kids. “I had tough years when I would think, ‘Gosh, what is wrong with me?’” Nance says. “But I just kept pushing.

I thought, ‘This is the only thing I know and the only thing I love. I’m going to make this thing happen.’”

THE RULES OF REINVENTION To keep himself fresh, Nance pores over design books and devours a Friday section of the Wall Street Journal about design and housing. At 63, the designer is at the top of his game, with so little free time that his relevancy has never been a legitimate question.

Houzz, the online platform for design, architecture, and remodeling, recently picked Gary Nance Design and a handful of other firms to help predict the future of design. Delta Faucet chose him to be part of a team that designed the next generation of luxury Brizo faucets and bath fixtures.

A history of designing and fabricating hard-to-find embellishments and hardware for his projects spawned his latest enterprise—the Gary Nance Collection, American-made hardware for designers and builders. “There are so many things you can do in this business,” he says. “That’s why it’s so fun.” Nance relies on his 26-year-old daughter, Taylor, to help keep him organized. “Honestly, I couldn’t do this without her,” he says.

People who appreciate attention to detail are often drawn to Nance’s zeal for making a home as functional as it is beautiful. “I’m also a big advocate of line of sight — what you see when you walk into a home, and unique features that make a house special,” he says. One of his trademarks is the creation of interior design booklets, which unify each project’s design concepts by showing precise details, from the location of the electrical outlets and thermostat, to how the kitchen looks.

For high-end clients who can afford to offload the bother of building a luxury home, Nance offers turnkey services. He just completed one such project, a home on Walloon Lake in northern Michigan for a homeowner who lives in Jacksonville, Florida. The interior design firm was in Chicago, and the builder was in Michigan. Nance’s coordination of all the players required him to be in Michigan four days a month during construction. “When the owners moved in, they didn’t even have to carry in a toothbrush,” he says. “We had the beds made, toothbrushes in their containers, favorite liquors and snacks — everything ready to go when they walked in.”

The cottage lake house look may be an emblem of past work, but Nance loves the diversity of today’s hybrid design trends and enjoys pushing himself to evolve. One recently finished resort home, for example, combines 100-year-old barn siding on the exterior, with black steel windows, a metal roof and wood floors. “It is kind of updated RestorationHardware-marries-Pottery-Barn look—very sophisticated and clean.”

East coast aesthetics merge with low-country style in a contemporary Nance home at The Ford Plantation, a residential community near Savannah, Georgia. At Jackson’s Grant, a development at 116th and Springmill Road in Indianapolis, Nance is preparing to start 42 townhouses. “They aren’t the typical townhouse you see around here, but more like Lincoln Park or Beekman Place townhouses with that old-time look,” he says.

Nance is excited to see so many new residential developments in Indianapolis, a market he considers ripe for innovation. In a city pulsing with energetic people who are working in the technology sector, it’s time for designers and builders to stop mimicking each other and start looking up and out for inspiration, according to Nance.

“Now that these young men and women are making money and buying houses, they are expecting their home designers to bring the same energy that they give,” he says. “They don’t want something that builders have been doing for the past twenty years.” If past is prologue, count on Nance to keep leading the way forward, pushing the outer limits on out-of-the-box design and unconventional thinking in the Circle City. ✂

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R F E E The Art of

O FR M Amy Kirchner

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UNTITLED BLACK

Amy Kirchner’s artwork evokes quiet calm.

WORDS BY RYAN MILLBERN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ESTHER BOSTON DESIGN BY JOHN ILANG-ILANG

It’s hot in Amy Kirchner’s studio at the Stutz Building in downtown

“I don’t paint a thing, or a personality, or a concept,” she says. “I’m

Indianapolis, even at six in the morning. It’s muggy and quiet and still,

searching for a feeling and trying to capture it. If I were painting a figure,

and in this stillness there seems to live infinite possibilities.

I would know how to paint the figure. There would be all these external

Kirchner, barely five foot three, stands in front of a five-by-six-foot

visual cues that would tell me whether or not I’m on the right path. But

canvas, a painting she’s been working on for nine weeks. She remains

I’m not even talking figure. I’m talking nothing. There is nothing in this

quiet. Looking. Waiting.

piece that should ever resemble anything.”

“Getting to a place where my mind is looser, more open, more receptive

THE BEAUTY OF THE IMPERFECT GESTURE

and allowing of mistakes and experiments—to get to the place of not

Kirchner welcomes the freedom that abstraction affords her. Decades

worrying about perfection or if somebody is going to like it or dislike it,

of graphic design work have trained her eye but neglected her hand,

that’s the goal,” Kirchner says. “To create this kind of painting, I have

creating an imbalance that she finds key to understanding her paintings.

to be free enough to get out of the way.”

“Graphic design uses a different type of artistry,” she says. “My

For the last six years, she has been standing in this studio in the pre-

discerning eye and imperfect hand are a product of twenty years of

dawn light, working in silence, the only sound is the whisk of brush

working with a computer. When I start to paint, my hand is less perfect

on canvas and the wavelike drone of early-morning commuters on

than my eye, and it’s the imperfect gestures and moments that give

the corner of Capitol Avenue and 10th Street, three stories below. The

the work its life.”

stillness has come to define Kirchner’s work, where a single brushstroke

Kirchner struggled with her painting and became frustrated by her lack

or drip of paint—a single gesture or flourish—can carry weight.

of progress as an artist, until a couple of years ago when one project

Most of her pieces are comprised of many layers of thinned acrylic

turned it all around. She described a painting she’d made that was

paint. She uses large expanses of white and heavy areas of black,

mostly white but with a lot of color underneath it. Rod Collier and John

which combined with her fluid sense of balance, form compositions

Strachan (of Rottmann Collier Architects, Inc.) visited her studio and

that live and breathe.

liked the painting’s ethereal quality.

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I LOOK AT A L O T O F A R T.

“Most of the time I’m sitting alone and painting, and I have no idea if it’s considered strong or weak, good or bad, correct or incorrect,” Kirchner says. “It was lovely to hear that it resonated with people who care so deeply about art.”

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“

AND THIS WA S A N EXPERIENCE. - Rhonda Long-Sharp

AND THEN, SUDDENLY, EVERYTHING CHANGED. In the past year, her work has resonated with art buyers throughout Indianapolis, across the United States and around the world. In September of 2016, Constance Edwards Scopelitis, a friend and fellow Stutz artist, recommended Kirchner’s work to Rhonda Long-Sharp, the owner and curator of the LongSharp Gallery, recently named one of the “Top 500 Art Galleries in the World” by Blouin Art Info.

“My mind cleared from the bustle of the day after only a few seconds in front of Amy’s work,” Long-Sharp says. “Time stopped. When I tried to explain this experience to gallery staff, the only words that came out of my mouth were that the paintings were like a visual massage. I look at a lot of art.

This was an extraordinary experience.”

TITLE: BLUE RECTANGLE

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Long-Sharp invited Amy to be part of Forms | Shapes, a nine-artist

They envisioned my work large-scale and asked if I would be interested

exhibit at the Conrad hotel featuring work from Victor Vasarely and

in painting two five-by-six-foot pieces for their downtown home. Had

Robert Indiana, among others. The exhibit was scheduled to run from

they not asked, I’m not sure I would have had this breakthrough. That

November 2016 to March 2017, with a special celebration slated for

was the turning point for me.”

Friday, February 3rd.

While many artists struggle with painting larger, it liberated Amy to fully

That night in February, Amy’s life changed forever. She sold all five

explore the boundaries of her art. “I had no idea that the work could

of her paintings, becoming the first living Long-Sharp artist to sell

expand like this. I didn’t realize how painting smaller was confining me.

out an exhibition. One of the paintings she sold that night, Vessel,

I didn’t even feel the confinement until I branched out.”

was purchased by the Conrad and currently hangs at the top of the

GREAT ART DESERVES A CHAMPION. KIRCHNER HAS TWO.

Indianapolis hotel’s main staircase.

In March, Amy became the only American artist exclusively represented by the Long-Sharp Gallery. “Regrettably, great art doesn’t magically float to the top,” Long-Sharp says. “Galleries and art institutions serve as a bridge to make artwork known to the public. Quality gallery representation requires an enormous commitment to the artist and the artwork. We are thrilled to serve as that bridge for Amy and those collectors who, like me, are impacted by it.”

In April, as part of her first show as a Long-Sharp-represented artist, Kirchner exhibited eight new paintings in the gallery, this time alongside Indiana-based artists Mary Pat Wallen and David Michael Slonim, as well as British artist Russell Young, in a show aptly titled Contemplate.

In May, her work traveled to Art New York, where it found its first international buyer.

Kirchner says she has made a conscious effort not to dwell on the commercial and critical success her work has garnered in the last year,

Kirchner credits the Long-Sharp Gallery’s work on her behalf as a major component of her success. “I’m grateful to Rhonda for recognizing me and giving me the opportunity,” she says. “When she entered my life, everything changed.”

Kirchner’s husband, John, a woodworker with studio space on the second floor of the Stutz Building, has also played a significant role in the way the public sees her work. “John builds the structures and frames all of the paintings,” she says. “I could not paint large if it weren’t for him.”

With the Long-Sharp Gallery handling the sales and promotion of her work and her husband ensuring that her paintings are built and framed in the best possible light, all she has to do is focus on the painting.

“Life as an artist has taught me patience,” she told niceniche.com in January. “I have learned that I need to detach from my own idea of an outcome—or painting toward something—and let the image emerge.”

THE IMAGE EMERGES

but one moment has stayed with her. She recalls standing in the room

Kirchner steps away from the canvas and surveys her work. Many of

at the Forms | Shapes opening and looking around at all the collectors,

these early-morning sessions over the past nine weeks have been

designers and other artists—people who really understand this type of

spent reducing this painting to its essence—a process of simplifying and

painting—and they were telling her, ‘This is really hard to do and really

stripping away, of reduction and removal. “For me, painting is learning

hard to do well.’

what to allow and what to let go of,” she says.

The sun is up over the Indianapolis skyline now, the studio flooded with orange light. She rinses out her paintbrushes in the corner sink, pulling the paint out of the bristles and into the water. The paint collects, swirls, disappears. She’s spent the last two hours with the ghosts of shapes and fleeting forms, reducing the world to color and light, trying to capture how it feels for the rest of us.

This quiet calm is the feeling that Kirchner’s work evokes, a feeling that many of us are chasing—those of us scrolling through our feeds, drowning in information, over-stimulated and over-scheduled, sleepdeprived and red-eyed; those of us exhausted from chasing fortunes and raising families and fighting apathy; those of us struggling under the weight of what it means to be human right now.

We are starving for moments like those that Kirchner’s paintings provide: an opening in the fabric of our lives that we can step through, if only briefly—into a space where we can catch our breath and remember what it feels like to be free. ✂

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“

FOR ME, PA I N T I N G I S LEARNING W H AT T O A L L OW A N D W H AT T O L E T G O O F. - Amy Kirchner 123

GAME CHANGER

GATE’S WAY

DEPLOYING ART TO ADDRESS SOCIAL ISSUES, THEASTER GATES IS CHANGING THE WORLD ONE COMMUNITY AT A TIME.

WORDS BY SHAUTA MARSH + PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV THEASTER GATES IS MAKING MORE THAN ART. HE’S CREATING A MASSIVE CHANGE in the way people around the world see art and its role in society. We meet to talk at a Chicago bar near Millennium Park. He orders a Negroni, shaken and on the rocks. Gates is a sharp dresser with tailored suits and leather shoes. His handshake is firm, and he looks you in the eye as he speaks.

Though he doesn’t subscribe to the labels, Gates is generally considered a social-practice artist and a creative place maker. These are artists who make things happen socially, often in public spaces, instead of making objects in a private studio.

In some ways, the label fits. Gates is an artist interested in utopias. His degrees are in urban planning, setting him apart from most other social-practice artists. “The reason I chose urban planning had to do with feeling I had no control over [for] the city I lived in,” he says. “It should have offered me answers for the city. All it offered was that black people were the problem. So that created a little bit of self-hatred for a few years, and a desire to prove my professors wrong.”

And he began to deploy an artist’s approach to planning issues. “Once I started practicing, it was like, ‘Oh these problems actually require a creative deployment of this vocation. Not just a person who’s ready to do whatever for a large development or whatever for governance,’” he says. “It actually requires that you combine urban planning with a consciousness and some style.”

Dorchester Projects, one of his better-known works, is a cluster of formerly abandoned buildings on the south side of Chicago. When starting this work in 2009, Gates grasped and respected the history, the stories, and the memories — invisible to so many others — that lived in the brick and wood, metal and cement. With Dorchester, he’s worked with partners and collaborators to offer a library, a slide archive, and soul food kitchen.

Another project, Stony Island Arts Bank — housed in what was once a crumbling structure a bit farther south in Chicago — now features a hybrid gallery, media archive, library, and community center. And it intentionally offers hints of its past — both glimpses of former opulence and decay.

Repeatedly throughout his work you see his reverence for our forgotten places, neighborhoods, and people. Gates calls it Real Estate Art. “People told me over and over again with Stony Island Art Bank, ‘tear it down.

You could build the same amount of square footage for half the price.’ Who said this had anything to do with square footage? It has to do with having an adequate host,” Gates explains. “When I was restoring it, people from the nation of Islam came to me and said, ‘We used to own this bank. We remember when the nation was surrounding this building, when Louis Farrakhan would do his talks, we cashed our checks here.’

A reconstructed version doesn’t honor the nation of Islam. When the host becomes invisible, man, you start to forget other parts.”

Gates was able to see the resting potential in forgotten places — and people.

And he began to think about and make art. “I grew my aesthetic interests as a way of trying to articulate that it wasn’t about money. That people had class. That it wasn’t

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about money people had. It was about dignity. It was about a set of values that one cultivated. And that cultivated values even with a broke person is really sexy,” he says.

“Like ‘I don’t have anything else but I have amazing roses.’ Those roses didn’t require money. They required time, knowledge, and an awareness of the seasons. I think I got here because I had a deep interest in how things run and when they run, how beautiful they might be.”

His appreciation for craft goes back to his childhood. Made of roofing materials and an Ebony Magazine, his piece “Ain’t I A Man” was part of his exhibit “My Labor Is My Protest.” This references his father’s alternative form of protest: tarring roofs, during the 1968 Chicago riots.

Within the large-scale works that are buildings, Gates also creates objects, paintings, and sculptures that sell in high-end galleries such as White Cube in London. He uses the sale of these objects, in large part, to finance his building projects.

Gates has a strong interest in vessels, as demonstrated with his study of ceramics.

His piece, “Soul Manufacturing Corporation,” is a combination of functional and nonfunctional ceramic objects with a nod to masters such as Shoji Hamada. Even when they are turned into commodities, there are several layers of meaning in his work.

“My thoughts are symbols. There’s a set of images that live in my head, that don’t have a host. In some way the making is the ability to recall both things I remember and recall things that should be remembered,” he says. “In different ways, I have access to those things that have been seen by others, but because they don’t have material form, or because the material form is obscure or forgotten about, there’s an opportunity to reintroduce the host,” he says.

He goes on to explain: “When I use the word ‘host,’ I mean I need a glass for my water. That glass functions as a host, and the glass allows me to have this other encounter with water that I couldn’t if it weren’t for that host.”

His pieces serve as a host of a history and ambition. Gates uses his tools to reinvent spaces and materials, reminding us of the soul we gave them — by being our best and worst selves.

“In art it’s kind of like, ‘what’s the right host for the right set of images I want to pull from the world?’ I want to pull from my memory, pull from my daddy’s memory, pull from a kind of DNA history, pull from a traditional African religious history,” he says.

“There’s always reconciling between the content that lives in my imagination and then how best to materialize that thing. Unfortunately, journalism might only call that a recycled object. But that dumbs down the thing I am after. The thing is that wood was a participant in the creation of a host structure that allowed people to catch the Holy Ghost over and over again for 42 years at this church. The wood is part of a material membership that enabled great things to happen that were invisible.”

In essence, Gates is a more than an artist, he’s a resurrectionist, a provider of second chances. Since so much of the African-American history has been ignored, destroyed, and uncollected, his resurrections are essential to understanding what it means not only to be African-American, but also human. ✂ For more information see: https://rebuild-foundation.org/sites/

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BRIAN PRESNELL. URBAN LUMBERJACK. TURNING FALLEN TREES INTO BEAUTIFUL HOUSEWARES. WORDS BY COLIN DULLAGHAN + PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELESE BALES Is there an afterlife for trees? If Brian Presnell has anything to do with it, there certainly is. This Indy native, artist, and craftsman seems determined to save as many trees as he can from the damnation of the mulcher, the fire pit, or – worst of all – the landfill.

Trailing his trusty Wood-Mizer LT30 portable sawmill wherever it’s needed, Brian salvages fallen and diseased urban trees in the community. He uses some of the lumber to craft distinctive wood furniture, and you can see examples of his work on his website (brianpresnell.com). But he also donates a good portion of the milled wood to his alma mater, Herron School of Art, to help emerging art students learn woodworking.

Brian currently works out of his studio at the storied and sprawling Circle City Industrial Complex at the corner of Mass Ave and 10th Street on Indianapolis’ Near Eastside. We spoke with Brian after he’d already spent a long day milling logs at a property here in Indy, but his enthusiasm was as intense as ever.

Colin Dullaghan: When you come out to a site to mill, to the property owner it must seem like the end for that tree. But to you, it’s the beginning of something new. Do you ever feel like you meet trees in the middle of their lives?

Brian Presnell: I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Like, the heaven and hell of it. Like, the hell part of it to me is the dump and fire pit. Like, you’re burning, dying. Heaven is… you come to me. We care for you, we prepare you.

We dry you in a nice little sauna, you’re almost at the spa. And you become a beautiful table. Or a mirror. It’s

poetic, if you look at it. People talk about the farm to table movement… we’re yard to table.

One of the American Craftsman kings, George Nakashima, wrote a book, “The Soul of a Tree.” You should look it up; you’d like it. Note: We did look it up; and in it Nakashima states his ultimate goal: “to create an object of utility to man and, if nature smiles, an object of lasting beauty.” …Which sounds about like something Brian would say.

CD: The Emerald Ash Borer was first detected in Marion County in 2006. Is dealing with these beetles’ damage a big part of what you do?

BP: I’ve cried at several properties, man—just gotten tears in my eyes. Because these people own these properties, they bought these beautiful homes with all these big trees… and it’s all dead.

All this ash is coming down, and getting thrown away, and … that’s great lumber! I mean, Jesus – Louisville slugger baseball bats are made out of ash. It’s a hard, durable wood. It’s great. It’s super-light, low-moisture content… it’s an amazing material. You don’t just throw that away.

CD: What does it feel like, once the tree is down and nothing more can be done except to make use of it, when you’re on site and you make that first cut into the log?

BP: That part’s exciting. It’s like watching somebody paint, like Pollock or something. Like, you open up a tree, and

you don’t know what the hell the grain is going to do. You could open a maple log up and it could be curly. Or you could open up one and it could be quilted. And you’re like, oh my god – stop. This should be veneer. Let’s take this to the veneer mill. This can be something really beautiful.

CD: What is your background? Did you always want to be an artist? Or a lumberjack, for that matter?

BP: I’ve always been an artist, but I grew up in Haughville, with a single parent, no money, coming out of the west side at a pretty wild time. I was lucky to get to college. The profs at Herron helped me a lot, along with a lot of other people. I want to give back.

I’m doing this because I want us to do better as a community. And now I’m getting great support from the Wood-Mizer people, and local residents, and our team is working together to make this thing happen. It makes for some long days, but it’s exciting. Trying to be Brian the Miller and Brian the Maker is wow, hard.

CD: Urban milling is growing, with active groups like NYCitySlab and Wood from the Hood in Minnesota. How do you feel about helping to expand the movement here?

BP: I’m very excited for our community, to be honest.

Because I think we deserve this. There are a lot of different things we all have to deal with socially around here that just seem really wacko. Why not get a good, feel-good story like recycling in the mix? What you usually hear is just about football and stuff. It’s about time, you know? ✂ 127

INDUSTRY INSIDER

HOSPITALITY IN THE HOUSE THAT COKE BUILT WEST ELM TO OPEN ONE OF ITS FIRST FIVE BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN INDY. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?

WORDS BY RYAN MILLBERN + SUBMITTED RENDERING BY HENDRICKS DEVELOPMENT

locally for each guest room, as well as for the common areas in each hotel.

AT THE CORNER OF MASSACHUSETTS AND COLLEGE AVENUES, NESTLED IN THE THRIVING “By adapting the framework design of each hotel to reflect the mood and identity of its heart of one of our city’s most vibrant cultural districts, rests the old Coca-Cola Bottling host city, we will continue to engage the adventurous spirit of our customers as they Plant, an 11-acre, art-deco behemoth. Almost 90 years after it was built, its stark white, terra follow us to our next level of hospitality,” says Jim Brett, president of West Elm. cotta exterior and brass doors still compel passersby to stop and admire its ornate artistry.

“There is a growing desire among modern travelers to immerse themselves in the place Erected in 1931, the building served as one of the largest bottling plants in the country for they are visiting,” says David Bowd, principal of West Elm Hotels and cofounder of DDK, more than three decades, until Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman pura hospitality management company partnering with West Elm. “Indianapolis is a truly chased the Coca-Cola franchise and moved the bottling operation to its current Speedway unique hotel given it is a historic renovation, and so much of the character is already location. Hulman used the sprawling facility on Mass Ave as storage for his vintage car defined by this incredible building. When we approach a building like this it is much more collection for four years before selling the plant to Indianapolis Public Schools in 1968. about what we can add to make it more functional and interesting for our guests. I think the meeting rooms in this hotel will be different from anything in the city, as many of them For the past fifty years, IPS has stored buses in the garages that once housed Cocawere the original boardrooms for the Coca Cola executives located on site.”

Cola delivery trucks; made school lunches where employees once loaded palettes with bottles of Coke. In 2018, the space will undergo yet another dramatic transformation, as NO MEAN CITY Hendricks Commercial Properties converts a Depression-era architectural marvel into Bottleworks — a mixed-use space of the future.

In order to discover the distinctive mood and identity of Indianapolis, West Elm associates set out on foot. “We spent quite a bit of time in Indianapolis walking the streets, going to its bars, restaurants, and museums, talking to folks that actually live in the neighborhood, Anchoring this $260 million renovation — which will feature everything from commercial suites and apartments to an office building, open-air market, and movie theater — will be to understand firsthand what makes the city tick,” says Peter Fowler, vice president of a 136-room West Elm Hotel, one of only five in the country.

Hospitality + Workspace at West Elm. WEST ELM EXPANDS ITS BRAND IN INDIANAPOLIS West Elm Indianapolis opened its doors in November 2012 at The Fashion Mall at Keystone.

Three years later, they launched the LOCAL makers program, which features handpicked products from local businesses to sell in their retail stores. The West Elm LOCAL program has grown to include seven Indy makers, including District 31, Hoosier Sister, Howl & Hide Supply Co., Imaginary Animal, No. 18 Paper Co., The Chic-N-Coop, and the Onyx Exchange, LLC. The company’s strong connection to the Indianapolis community was one of many factors that prompted the West Elm to explore Indy as a possible hotel market. For its expansion into hotels, it intentionally targeted mid-size cities with rich histories and vibrant communities in which the boutique hotel experience is currently underrepresented. Indianapolis checked all of those boxes, as did Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Savannah, Georgia; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Each West Elm hotel will feature local design elements that reflect traditional décor, handicraft, cuisine, and culture from the region. Artwork will be commissioned and curated 128

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“While we’re still in the early phases of hotel design, there are certainly some unique characteristics that really resonated,” adds Fowler. “For example, the Hoosier pride and casual, approachable demeanor of people’s style in Indy is very distinct. We loved the open discussion and diversity of ‘No Mean City.’ As the city has grown, its friendly nature hasn’t gotten lost in the mix, which is really special. As we bring these themes back to the hotel, it’s important that we create public spaces and find the right local partners to develop community programs that bring people together, from hotel guests to community neighbors.”

West Elm plans to develop programming that forges a strong connection to the community—from dinners and local maker evenings to local charity outreach and support. The hotel “innkeeper” will have a hand in creating much of the programming, and engaging with the surrounding community.

“When walking down Massachusetts Avenue, there is a palpable sense of community that brings together locals and tourists of different generations and cultural backgrounds,” says Bowd. “West Elm Hotels is excited about celebrating and actively participating in the vibrant Massachusetts Avenue community.” ✂

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I’ve been obsessed with hand-painted signage since art school, when I spent summers following the fairground carnivals around Britain. The handpainted carousels, haunted ghost houses, bumper cars, cotton candy, and cheap prizes fascinated me, and I started to photograph them. Traveling the country chasing the renegade carnies had a certain ‘run away to the circus’ thrill.

Coming to New York in the early ’80s, I knew one of my first destinations had to be Coney Island.

Coney Island is one of the last places you can find handdrawn signs by those unheralded fine artists and sign painters here in New York City. When you exit the Coney Island Stillwell subway station, you are immediately overwhelmed by signs promising excitement, danger, thrills, and fun – signs that appeal to your emotions and taste buds.

Look to the right, where primary-colored signs advertising candy apples, ice cream, cotton candy clams, fries, and hot dogs sway in the wind, and American flags create cravings for Nathan’s Hot Dogs with side orders of fries.

Look to the left to see artist Marie Roberts’ beautiful paintings adorning the Coney Island USA building.

Hers promise unheard-of excitement: The Fire Eater, The Human Blockhead (a gentleman about to hammer a nail into his nostril), ‘Snakeology Alive & Deadly’ (a lady wrapped in a huge snake) and ‘The Positively Shocking Electra.’

Roberts is the artist in residence for Coney Island USA. She’s also a professor of fine art at Farleigh Dickenson University. She grew up ‘carney.’ Her uncle Lester Roberts was the smooth “Talker” for the Dreamland Circus Sideshow that had its heyday in the 1920s. Uncle Lester’s friends were the sideshow “freaks” Roberts paints on the banners that adorn the historic landmark’s USA building.

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“I fell into it. I ran away from my family’s sideshow lore to be a painter,” she says. But in 1997 Dick Zigun, who started Coney Island USA, needed banners painted for the Surf Avenue building. So Marie painted 27 banners and never stopped. She views her art in a classical tradition. “In a funny way, I think I am painting in the tradition of Italian quattrocento painters like Giotto and Maso di Banco,” Roberts says.

Artists have long been attracted to Coney Island.

ESPO, aka artist Stephen Powers says “Coney Island signage is “art and commerce coming together.” Powers’ love of the art of sign-writing inspired him to start a program with Creative Time called “The Dreamland Artist Club,” after seeing signs in Coney Island fading and being replaced with cheap vinyl iterations.

He worked with artists and the local businesses and attractions to repaint the signs, murals, and rides.

In 2015 he created an installation of paintings and signs “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull)” at the Brooklyn Museum honoring Coney Island’s rich history of sign painting.

Powers says: “For us, the best signs are painted one letter at a time, without really any forethought.

Just in the moment.”

The Famous Nathan’s Hot Dog logo and signage was designed and painted by an uncredited artist.

What artist hand-painted the sign at Pete’s seafood stand: “Eat Clams make BABIES. Eat Oysters and Make TWINS”? Who painted the “BUMP YOUR ASS OFF” one for the bumper cars? Or the scary spooks at “Spook-A-Rama,” and the “Ghost House” even? Ever wonder who designed the type for the legendary “Cyclone,” and the “Wonder Wheel”?

And how about the snarling painted faces of horses on the carousel? Whoever these unsung artists are, they created art that is for everyone.

It is all “Fun Games Excitement & Thrills.”

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ESPO AKA STEPHEN POWERS

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JEREMY EFROYMSON Indianapolis-based philanthropist and artist searches for the mythical small town experience.

WORDS BY SHAUTA MARSH + PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV

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“ Art is important. Theater is important.

Literature is important...all these things teach people how to be creative and how to solve problems.

After the death of his father in 1999, Jeremy Efroymson shifted his focus to art and culture when he saw a real need in his home city and state. He stopped practicing law and began to work as an artist, writing, shooting photography, and discovering sculpture. He even spent a year as Editor-In-Chief of Arts Indiana. That’s when he traveled throughout the state meeting artists. And he learned about the challenges they faced.

“It’s important to support creative people, because art always intertwines with architecture, design, and a whole bunch of other things,” Efroymson explains. “Even if you’re in a downtime economically, you can’t give up on culture.

Once people have food shelter, and clothing, then they want to go do something — maybe that’s a movie or music or art. Art is important. Theater is important. Literature is important…all these things teach people how to be creative annd how to solve problems.”

It was at that turning point in his life he realized he wanted to do something creative and support culture and creativity in Indianapolis. “All of the artists were being booted out of the Faris building [south of downtown],” he says. “I thought there was a vacuum, that there weren’t enough studio spaces. That’s how I got the idea for the Harrison Center.”

He found the perfect spot in the 70,000-square-foot church campus at 16th and Delaware streets. There stood a dilapidated complex, just a shadow of its former self. It was built in 1902 in honor of President Benjamin Harrison, who had lived down the street. It featured a sanctuary, gym, and an adjoining building, which had been classrooms and administrative offices. And though most of the structure was in a state of disrepair, Efroymson looked beyond its neglect to see its potential.

Artist William Rasdale, who remains at the Harrison Center for the Arts, was one of the first artists to take one of the twenty-four studios at the Harrison. In addition to the studios and gallery, the building featured an office located in the former locker rooms. Efroymson used this as his work space.

Also around that time, he purchased a building in Fountain Square with artist Jeffrey Martin. They opened a gallery and started hosting exhibitions there as well. “All the young people reading this won’t believe there was virtually nothing going on in Fountain Square,” Efroymson says. “We were literally ten years ahead of the curve. They always told us the neighborhood was going to develop in the next year or two, and it didn’t.”

After a year and investing a lot of time and effort in the renovation of the Harrison Center, Efroymson sold the building to Redeemer Presbyterian Church. And the nonprofit Harrison Center for the Arts formed, with Joanna Taft at the helm.

She began running the artist studios and galleries that remain there today.

Through all this, Efroymson experienced firsthand the joys and struggles of artists. He also saw a need for more contemporary art. So he became interested when Stephen Schaf formed the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA). It became a passion project for Efroymson.

“There was no one else who could run iMOCA, because we didn’t have the money to pay a full-time executive director.

So I took over,” he says. “A lot of these art things are hard because you’re always year-to-year or grant-to-grant, and you never know what’s going to happen next.”

“When I went into the sanctuary there was huge 8-footwide hole in the ceiling, and water just pouring in. It smelled so bad I couldn’t stay for even a minute,” he recalls.

It started out as a museum without walls. Efroymson spent the next three years at iMOCA, organizing art exhibits around Indianapolis and stabilizing the organization. In 2004 he and his family also started the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship to help support artists.

Through personal investment, Efroymson repaired the roof, fixed the plumbing, HVAC, and electrical problems. He then started filling the space with artists and art shows, hosting six exhibitions in 2000.

“We were trying to get money to artists without it being filtered,” he explains. “Many times with a project, you start out with $100,000. They’ll pay the architect, the engineer and construction people. And, by the time, you get to the

artist, they get $500 or $1,000 — such a small percentage.

I wanted to flip that around.”

Eventually iMOCA landed in the Katz and Korin building [current home of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library].

The museum then hired an executive director and curator.

Efroymson then began to focus on his own artwork, and he exhibited at various venues across the state, while still supporting a number of organizations — many of them working in the arts. And his started expanding from local to more regional.

“I see a larger picture. Also it’s kind of a younger person’s game, at least locally,” Efroymson says. “There came this point where I had seen every single artist in town. I understand there’s a new generation of artists coming up. But I felt, at some point, I had done everything locally I could do.”

Though Efroymson still supports the local arts, now his generosity extends beyond the Hoosier stateline .

“In my philanthropy and life, I’m thinking more regionally than locally,” he says. “I go down to New Harmony. I’ll go to Chicago.

I’ll go wherever just to get a different perspective on things.”

Efroymson continues to create art and supports local and regional arts initiatives. Most recently, he’s worked with Richard McCoy on Exhibit Columbus, in Columbus, Indiana.

And he’s focused on New Harmony, a small southern Indiana town with a Utopian history. He curated Hinterlands, an exhibit focused on faraway places and loneliness, with artists Lori Miles, Christos Koutsouras, Judy Natal, and Allyson Comstock. It runs now through Oct. 29 at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art. “In America there’s always that mythical small town experience, movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, Gilmore Girls. I studied that in my undergrad film class, with these certain kinds of people and certain type of community,” he says. “But we’ve entered a different phase of zombies and dystopia and violence. With all these movies, there was this pleasant and mythic small town. And maybe in my mind, since that’s my reference point, that’s what I’m always trying to re-create.” ✂

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VOLUME 11 LAUNCH PARTY OUR EXPLORE ISSUE LAUNCH PARTY WAS SO MUCH FUN! WE LOVED SHARING OUR 11TH VOLUME CELEBRATION WITH SO MANY GREAT PEOPLE! A BIG THANK YOU TO:

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OP-ED

THE TIME IS NOW INDIANAPOLIS CONTINUES TO BE RECOGNIZED POSITIVELY IN NUMEROUS national polls and surveys as a city that is cool, livable, a tech hub, a sports center, a successful event host, and most recently a foodie destination. Unfortunately, we have yet to be known as a design-centered place. Our urban design, public art, landscape planning, interior design, and architecture all need greater emphasis to achieve excellence, so they too can be recognized nationally.

HOW DO WE ACCOMPLISH THIS? ONE NEED ONLY LOOK TO CHICAGO or Columbus, Indiana, to understand two key ingredients to achieve this success: It requires patrons with vision, coupled with talented designers. Designers certainly lead the creative process, but in the world of design, particularly in the built environment, their creativity cannot be accomplished without clients who value, embrace, and champion it.

THE GREAT CITIES OF THE WORLD HAVE INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS THAT ARE COMMITTED to the importance of design. Those clients demonstrate their understanding by providing desirable urban plazas and park spaces, commissioning iconic art, hiring designer to create pleasing interiors.

DYNAMIC ARCHITECTURE WILL ATTRACT THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST TALENT TO THEIR BUSINESSES, while improving the overall quality of their community. Commitment means taking risks with design. Although Indy may be perceived as conservative with its design today, it certainly wasn’t in the past. How risky was it to place a street grid in the middle of a swamp and suggest a large circle at its center? What a bold notion to sponsor a design competition years later to erect a monumental memorial in the city’s epicenter. That decision resulted in Indy having one of the finest urban spaces in the nation.

EVEN GRANDER IN SCALE AND COMMITMENT, WHAT DID IT TAKE TO ENVISION A LINER PARK THAT required relocating four religious congregations and demolishing numerous buildings, so that the American Legion Mall and the War Memorial could be constructed? Although the removal of these buildings was decried by many at the time, and certainly would be today — myself included — this was a bold urban design plan that ultimately created a park space with monumental architecture that defines downtown.

A RECENT SIGNIFICANT URBAN INTERVENTION IS THE INDIANAPOLIS CULTURAL TRAIL.VIEWED INITIALLY as an idea too grandiose and complicated to be realized, visionary patron Brian Payne, president of Central Indiana Community Foundation, stayed the course, identified a donor, and found a way to get it done. It is now the focal point of much real estate development throughout downtown, and its extension is desired by many.

SIMILARLY, CUMMINS CHOSE TO LOCATE ITS DISTRIBUTION HEADQUARTERS IN DOWNTOWN INDIANAPOLIS. Continuing its modernist architectural tradition formulated in Columbus, Indiana, the company has made an important design statement with its new building and its landscape. In both cases, the clients were committed to their vision, allowed their designers the freedom to create, yielding important contributions to our city.

INDY DOES NOT HAVE THE LUXURY OF MISSING OUT ON DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES TO PUSH DESIGN. Chicago is large enough that it can strike out once or twice without impacting its overall design presence. We are not.

There are only so many times that our city will define itself with new architecture and its urban plan.

WE ARE IN AN ECONOMIC TIME OF SIGNIFICANT GROWTH DOWNTOWN AND IN THE SUBURBS. WE should not settle for what is easy, but instead strive for excellence in design. Indy has the design talent. It just needs to be unleashed. We need our local governments, corporations, developers, and institutions to take advantage of this economic exuberance to create visions that demand design that will put Indy on the map. Other cities have accomplished this and so can we.

AS THE SAYING GOES, “THE RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS.” LET’S RAISE THE FOCUS ON DESIGN IN Indy so that it is on par with the other outstanding attributes of our city.

BILL A. BROWNE, JR., FAIA BILL IS THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF RATIO ARCHITECTS. HE IS PASSIONATE ABOUT IMPROVING DOWNTOWN INDY THROUGH BETTER DESIGN AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION. FOLLOW BILL ON INSTAGRAM @SAABBILL AND RATIO @RATIO_DESIGN.

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PATTERN VOL NO. 12

GARYNANCEDESIGN.COM @GARYNANCEDESIGN

@GARYNANCEDESIGN

More than 28 million people visit Indy annually. As an influential resident, you’re also a top ambassador. Invite your friends and family to our city. Rest assured that the #1 airport in America (according to CondÊ Nast Traveler) will make a dramatic first impression. Take them on walking or biking tour and show them the beauty of your city. Post about it. Tweet about it.

Share the love. Turn your friends into visitors, because a thriving city benefits us all.

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