The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System

Welcome to a preview of this proposed addition to the Indy Parks web site, prepared by a Purdue University, Computer Graphics Technology advanced class as a group project.  The project was structured as a real-world exercise on behalf of Indy Parks and mentored by Storrow Kinsella Associates (who prepared the National  Register nomination).  Many thanks to the developers of this web: YinYin Guo, Andrea Sneed, Kristi Snellenbarger, and Joe Werner. 

 

The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System, known informally as the Kessler Plan, serves as the foundation of the Indianapolis Parks system.  The legacy resulted from a combination of early park planning efforts (1873-1907), the visionary planning and leadership of landscape architect George Kessler from 1908 to 1923, and after Kessler's death in 1923, others, notably Lawrence Sheridan, who built on Kessler's legacy with continued implementation and informed expansion of the plan to the Marion County limits. 

Recognition and development of the Kessler Plan will be a legacy for the City of Indianapolis and its parks system. It’s successful listing on the National Register of Historic Places in March 2003 has spurred the City to build on the foundation that George Kessler provided the city nearly 100 years ago. The City is working to celebrate and build on this legacy to enhance it’s beauty for residents and visitors, and to attract and retain business and industry.

 

The National Register listing of the Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System complements the city’s vision of becoming a more vibrant, livable and walkable city with a high quality of life. It strengthens efforts to expand the visibility and presence of the city's parks and open spaces by recapturing existing, but “lost", green space along the extensive parkways and boulevards that thread through the city.

The historic district has also become the framework for the nationally acclaimed Indianapolis Greenways system which has masterfully utilized the open space created by George Kessler to thread a network of trails throughout the city, linking parks and open space with neighborhoods and commercial centers. In turn, the greenway system and the historic park and boulevard system are forming the backbone of a developing comprehensive regional pedestrian plan and its downtown pedestrian and bicycle hub, the proposed Cultural Trail.

 

We appreciate and value your feedback and invite you to write to us with your suggestions, comments or concerns. Just email Storrow Kinsella Associates and they will forward your comments on to the Parks Department.

 

Thanks and welcome to HISTORIC Indy Parks!