Indy CC Details Revealed
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 7/9/2007
Last November, the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority announced preliminary plans for a $275 million expansion of Indianapolis' Indiana Convention Center. In June, it filled in the details on the project that will begin with the demolition of the RCA Dome next summer and be completed in 2010.
According to Ratio Architects, design elements will include a new three-story glass entryway lit with seasonal colors and a sloping roof that extends well out over the sidewalk. The entryway design plays off Indiana's flat landscape and symbolizes a welcoming hand of friendship, said Ratio Architects President William Browne Jr.
The glass-and-brick facade of the expansion includes green roof-lines that mimic the greenish tinge on the nearby Indiana Statehouse dome. A climate-controlled skywalk will connect the expanded center to the new Lucas Oil Stadium (to open in 2008), with a portion becoming a tunnel under the street into the new stadium.
The tunnel will be equipped with escalators and elevators. Other enclosed passageways will lead to nearby hotels. Most of the new exhibit space will be column-free.
Chris Gahl, a spokeman for the Indianapolis Convention & Vistors Authority, said, as design plans were being discussed, word came that JW Marriot's planned anchor convention center hotel would also be ready to open in 2010.
The convention center expansion and the new stadium will increase the complex's exhibit, meeting room and pre-function space from about 725,000 square feet to more than 1.2 million sq. ft. That includes the additional 254,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and 63,000 sq. ft. of meeting space in the convention center.
The entire complex will have 747,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, 129,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, 67,000 sq. ft. of ballroom space and 296,000 sq. ft. of pre-function space.
The new $325 million hotel will have 1,568 rooms and 110,000 sq. ft. of meeting and event space, including a 45,000 sq. ft. grand ballroom.
According to Indianapolis CVA President Bob Bedell, the convention center was at capacity immediately after it expanded in 2001, so another expansion was needed to retain current business and attract larger events. A 2004 PricewaterhouseCoopers study indicated that during the preceding five years Indianapolis had to pass on bidding for 127 conventions because of lack of space, available dates or hotel availability.
