Sampling

Try the music and all the colors it conveys. 

Maybe you'll find something you like.

Natural A/C

I noticed the man sitting at his open window to smoke a cigarette and read his newspaper. Then I noticed all the rectangles creating the pattern and the tenuous  balance of the window and granite cornerstone. What's not to like, except the sight of an otherwise nice-looking man sucking little bits of fiery embers into his lungs.

.

Here's another fixer-upper available to a prospective owner wanting a potential income-producing property. Trouble is, for as much work as this building needs, I'm in love with the rubbed turquoise finish on the bay windows.

Bassoonist and Mummies

These paintings were done to relieve the usual wooden monotony of boarded over storefront windows. I think they were done by students and have been in place for several years. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has offices nearby (the concert hall is a restored theatre on the opposite side of this building's back wall) and it looks as though they may have sponsored the project.

I think the paintings are colorful and charming and I hope very much they aren't destroyed when restoration work begins on the building.

And just because everyone else includes videos in their blogs, I wanted to do it, too. So here is "Single Entendre" by Here Come the Mummies.

Tain't the ISO but it sure does party!  

Qwacked Up

Yesterday I strolled away from my usual path to explore the renovations being done to buildings along Washington Street. When I moved to the city in 1978, the Indianapolis downtown area was, if not exactly dead, comatose, bedraggled and drab. Over the years, huge progress has been made to develop and to restore the downtown area to make it more attractive to shoppers, visitors, investors, et cetera.

A large part of this effort has involved saving the older buildings and restoring them for use. In some cases this was not possible, but the buildings' facades were rescued then incorporated into new construction. Among these buildings are the Circle Centre Mall and the Emmis Communications offices on Monument Circle. The result has been eye-pleasing facades that appear to provide a rhythm and texture to what would otherwise be drab walls.

McQuat Building during its restoration in 2010,
 looking like it's wearing a puffy ski jacket

The McQuat Building interests me because it was, in turn, a McDonald's then a Burger Chef when I first was working downtown. For years, it's been vacant, the black metal exoskeleton that covered it becoming increasingly unsightly as the years passed. Recently, it was purchased and restoration efforts have given it a new and beautiful lease on life. Originally built in 1901 by brothers Andrew and William McQuat to house their furnace and tinware business, the new owners plan for the building to be used for retail on the first two floors, with residential apartments in the remaining space. Look at the old girl now! With it's exoskeleton and "puffy jacket" removed, the beautiful lines of its cast-iron facade are once again revealed.

The restored exterior of the McQuat Building
reveals the lines of its original cast-iron facade

The building's simpler lines provide excellent company and counterbalance to its neighbor at 22 East Washington Street, which houses Red's Classic Barber Shop. All around the neighborhood, facades that have long hidden beautiful buildings with ugly attempts to "update" them, are being stripped away. About the only good thing about these coverings is the notion that they may have saved the original surfaces from some of the ravages of smog and chemical pollution.

When the weather cools a bit, I will make another effort to take additional pictures of some of the other buildings. In the mean time ...

Oh, my! They are pretty!

Detail of the building at 22 East Washington Street,
which houses Red's Classic Barber Shop

Oh, yeah, before I forget, the first photo is of the shattered glass in the door of another restoration in process. Could this be a visual interpretation of having "the scales fall from one's eyes?" Once gone, that door will not be missed.

Too Hot To Trot

The temperature hit 100 degrees F. in Indy for the first time since 1988. Surprisingly, there seemed to be a lot of people out at lunch time, but there wasn't the usual bustle to get somewhere NOW! Like me, they seemed to stick to the shady bits as much as possible. I saw one poor worker climb out of a manhole, then head directly for the cool environs of his truck cab.


One happy crew seemed to be the window cleaners who were taking a people-watching break. They were washing the windows on the south side of the Chase Bank Building on what has turned out to be the hottest day of the year. I don't think it should be any surprise to see that none of the men seems to be over thirty.


The buildings shown below are, from left to right, the Sheraton Hotel, Christ Church Cathedral, the Columbia Club, and the former American Fletcher Bank building which is now Chase (the building behind it is the Chase Tower).

I particularly liked the decorations on the Columbia Club, especially a unique pair of frogs, both of which seem to share an appropriately pissy attitude.

Paving the Way

It's about eight in the morning and, as a breeze still wends its way through the area, crews are busy all around downtown, trying to get as much as possible done before the heat of the day smothers any urge to work. The men in these pictures are working to repair and replace brick pavers that have become loose or broken in the streets and sidewalks around Monument Circle.


The photo above shows an air hammer being used to chip away the underlying cement and base, not only to improve the foundation for new bricks, but to prepare it for new curbing. It's a fairly selective annihilation; even as the workers pull up the existing bricks, they're trying to save as many of the pavers as possible. Not only will this cut down on the expense for replacements, it also helps to maintain a kind of patina from daily use, which the new pavers would not have. The piles of bricks below will be blended together as they are laid in order to avoid too much contrast between old and new.

The man below is taking a few moments to verify his calculations for the number of pavers needed to complete the project. As the project manager, he's hoping he won't need to order very many more of them, if at all. Lying on his foot he has a working drawing of the area and in his hands a little contractors' reference manual used to look up formulas for various calculations. 

He's got a bit of figurin' to do because the bricks are not only being replaced as needed, their numbers are being increased with changes in the layout of the streets and sidewalks. The following photo shows the markings made at the northwest corner of the intersection of Washington and Meridian Streets; it appears Washington Street is being narrowed with the sidewalks to become wider to provide a more friendly, boulevard atmosphere for pedestrians. The white marks indicate the cut lines for the workers who'll remove the pavement, but the writing indicates "Do Not Cut Bricks." Earlier I'd seen an older layer of bricks beneath the existing pavers. Perhaps they plan on using some of the them, as well, if they can be salvaged.

There aren't any letters to give a clue to the meanings of the orange and red hash marks, but that's a question for another day. These markings extend from the pavement on into the sand and gravel base of the new work. The ones shown above lie to my left as as I looked west on Washington Street to take this picture.

Yeah, Riiiight

Actually, I could have made this picture look worse. 

This homeowner is in the process of cutting out old hedges 

and laying brick for a walkway.

I think he put the sign on the pile himself.