These buildings popped up pretty quickly.
This is on 65th Street:
This is on Westfield next to the Monon Coffee Company:
What say ye? Personally, I like the Westfield one better if only because it’s not fronted by a parking lot.
2 new buildings in Broad Ripple
Both add density to a part of Indianapolis that can support it.
The one on 65th has a New Orleans look and feel to it and stands out as something different.
The proportion, massing, and materials of the building on Westfield appear to fit with its neighbors (Chelsea’s and Bungalow). It does have some suburban touches (split-faced block water table and Hardiplank siding).
You know, I’d better drive by on Westfield. What first appeared to be split-faced block might be actual stone.
I think the one on 65th has been there for a couple of years, but I could be dreaming that up. I like the look of it, and the “parking lot” in front is really just a single row, so it’s not that offensive.
Your photo is the first I’ve seen of the new one on Westfield, and I think it’s ugly. It looks like they were too cheap to use brick all the way around, so they stuck that siding on there. It does add a good bit of density though.
I do beleive the stone is real.
Dave’s right…that building on 65th isn’t brand new. I hadn’t really taken a close look at it before, though. I like how both buildings have first floor retail.
The siding on the Westfield building is bad, I’ll say that.
That building on 65th was an ugly and ignored empty steel frame for many years (since around 2000-01, I think) which is why it might not seem “new”. It was to be the home of some business that never materialized.
James Hardie makes a sheet fiber-cement product that looks like troweled exterior plaster. It can be used in a batten-board or split-timber style and I think that would look a ton better than residential lap siding on a building like the Westfield one in a commercial district.
thunder,
It is interesting that you consider split-faced block suburban. In Chicago, I’d say a good 75% of the new neighborhood scaled condo buildings in the city are built with split-faced block with a brick facade only.
Anyone else realize that the one on Westfield on the Back of it is missing the decks and balconies for the two doors that lead nowhere? Hopefully they aren’t done with it.
Maybe they’re deciding between a real deck and one of those mini-cast-iron balconies (like on the front).