Monday, March 15, 2010

Photo: Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Photo 24

The North Corridor of the Cultural Trail will feature new traffic lights at the intersections of Walnut St. with Senate Ave., Capitol Ave, and Illinois St. These intersections were previously all free flowing for the streets crossing Walnut St. New street light masts have been installed at all these intersections, though the lights have not yet been installed. Here is one of the masts at Walnut St. and Senate Ave.:

Looking northeast at the intersection of Walnut St. and Senate Ave.

6 comments:

cdc guy said...

What??? They aren't just hanging the traffic signals from a wire?

Gee...poles out of the sidewalk, signals on masts...crossing respite zones...pretty fancy stuff.

[Remove tongue from cheek]

It's really nice to see it done right. Props to Brian and Gayle Payne and their whole Cultural Trail crew. They're building our city something to be proud of.

Curt said...

Is that building totally vacant in the picture? Looks like a prime area for redevelopment.

The trail is coming along nicely!

CorrND said...

Hehe, nice.

Speaking of traffic signals hanging from wire, I'm a little disappointed that the Cultural Trail designers weren't able to get the wires replaced by masts at St. Clair and DMLK. Otherwise, I'm quite impressed with the North Corridor design (despite the incredibly long closure of St. Clair at the canal).

CorrND said...

Curt -- that building has been vacant for a VERY long time. I inquired about it to a local architectural historian and it was once the Colored Knights of Pythias building, hence the crosses along the peak.

Given how long it has been vacant along with it's proximity to the canal, my guess is that it's probably not salvageable. I really hope I'm wrong about that, but if it were suitable for rehab, someone probably would have snapped it up by now.

Indy Rock said...

Is it me or does this entire three block stretch of Walnut Street & the "walk of fame" along it have the potential to be a hidden commercial node with new development and shops? Given it's proximity to the Central Library and the canal it may be a good idea. :)

cdc guy said...

I think you're right. There's a lot of underutilized and vacant land and buildings in that area that could be converted to residential and mixed-use. There is significant potential for creating a mini-village roughly between Cosmopolitan and 10th from Canal to Meridian. Cosmo and its neighbor on Senate, Sarojo Commons on Capitol, and Meridian Arch on Meridian are all good starts.