Client: Indianapolis Airport Authority, Indianapolis, Indiana
The new Indianapolis International Airport will become a preeminent land-
mark in metropolitan Indianapolis and in the State of Indiana. The term-
inal’s signature architecture and landscape design make a perfect host
for the well integrated Public Art Program. Art seamlessly blends into the
architecture and makes this transportation facility’s volumetric spaces
humanly scaled and aesthetically stimulating for the public to experience.
The new airport’s entry portal off of Interstate 70 is a 7-acre triangular site
that aspires to symbolize the many dimensions of the State of Indiana
throughout space and time: from indigenous Cahokian and Mississippian
Indians to Indianapolis’ modern skyline. Atop a round Indian mound---
rendered as a sculpture---sits IND, the terminal’s international transport-
ation designation. The IND acronym alternates between positive and
negative---skyline and pure space...the physicality of place and air---the
medium of flight. The sculpture’s cladding is crisply defined in contemp-
orary man-made materials like that of an airplane: light, tough and animat-
ed. The southwest elevation employs diffused glass to filter colored light.
The contrasting northeast elevations are slotted cardInal red screens
symbolic of the Indiana state bird. At night the red screens portray a mod-
ern lighted cityscape of gleaming commercial towers. The sculpture’s in-
terior digital core is rendered in animated LED’s. Electric colors change
with Indianapolis’ seasons and significant events of the day: always new.
The overall design for the airport’s entryway is a harmonious and integrat-
ed homemade quilt: patches of old familiar organic shapes and patterns
and new abstract geometries creating fresh and exciting textures and
colors. This newly formed quilt speaks of Indiana’s counties, people and
geographical regions. This project is for and about Indiana: its historical
past; its thriving present and its optimistic future
The new Indianapolis International Airport will become a preeminent land-
mark in metropolitan Indianapolis and in the State of Indiana. The term-
inal’s signature architecture and landscape design make a perfect host
for the well integrated Public Art Program. Art seamlessly blends into the
architecture and makes this transportation facility’s volumetric spaces
humanly scaled and aesthetically stimulating for the public to experience.
The new airport’s entry portal off of Interstate 70 is a 7-acre triangular site
that aspires to symbolize the many dimensions of the State of Indiana
throughout space and time: from indigenous Cahokian and Mississippian
Indians to Indianapolis’ modern skyline. Atop a round Indian mound---
rendered as a sculpture---sits IND, the terminal’s international transport-
ation designation. The IND acronym alternates between positive and
negative---skyline and pure space...the physicality of place and air---the
medium of flight. The sculpture’s cladding is crisply defined in contemp-
orary man-made materials like that of an airplane: light, tough and animat-
ed. The southwest elevation employs diffused glass to filter colored light.
The contrasting northeast elevations are slotted cardInal red screens
symbolic of the Indiana state bird. At night the red screens portray a mod-
ern lighted cityscape of gleaming commercial towers. The sculpture’s in-
terior digital core is rendered in animated LED’s. Electric colors change
with Indianapolis’ seasons and significant events of the day: always new.
The overall design for the airport’s entryway is a harmonious and integrat-
ed homemade quilt: patches of old familiar organic shapes and patterns
and new abstract geometries creating fresh and exciting textures and
colors. This newly formed quilt speaks of Indiana’s counties, people and
geographical regions. This project is for and about Indiana: its historical
past; its thriving present and its optimistic future
n i c h o l s o n I N D
