To celebrate the hard work and civic pride that has been taking place around Indianapolis in preparation for Super Bowl 2012, Ball State University Libraries’ Drawings and Documents Archive and Indy’s
Blackline Studios have partnered to present the exhibit Edward Pierre: Civic Pride Begins in Your Backyard. The exhibit opens at the Blackline Studio in Fountain Square’s Murphy Building, Friday, February 3, 2012, from 6-10 p.m.
The Edward Pierre exhibit is co-curated by Carol A. Street, University Libraries’ Archivist for Architectural Records, and Mr. Vessel von Ruhtenberg, architectural historian. The exhibit highlights Pierre’s Modernist work throughout Indianapolis with large photographs and renderings from the Drawings and Documents Archive’s collection. Blackline Studios, where the exhibit will be held, is comprised of architects Craig Von Deylen, Scott Perkins, and Craig McCormick, all graduates from Ball State University’s College of Architecture and Planning. The exhibit was produced with help from CAP graduate assistants Julie Edwards, Seth Elder, and Chris Allen.
Architect Edward Dienhart Pierre, FAIA, could be called the man who built Indianapolis due to his lifelong career shaping its environment and overwhelming dedication to make the city shine as brightly as possible. The exhibit seeks to honor Pierre at a time when the city is shining brightly, thanks in part to the Super Bowl coming to town. Much in the vein of today’s extraordinary Cultural Trail and the projects to beautify the city’s near east side, Pierre felt that good design should engage the public and he pursued this through a wide array of buildings and civic events that we continue to enjoy today.
If you’ve ever seen Monument Circle lit up at Christmas, shopped in the Sears and Roebuck building on Massachusetts Avenue, eaten at Yats on College, visited the State Library, experienced a game at Bush Stadium, or driven around Meridian Kessler, Meridian Hills, and Butler Tarkington neighborhoods, then you have experienced the benefits of having an architect like Edward Pierre in Indianapolis.
He co-designed, along with architect George Caleb Wright from 1925-1944, and had his own practice from 1945-1960s. Examples of his works are the Old Trails Building, Oxford Gables Apartments, numerous schools (including Indianapolis Public School 78, which is currently being repurposed into an Indianapolis Police Department building), fire stations, and many jewel-like modest houses as well as expansive mansions throughout the city.
Of course, not all Pierre buildings are still standing or in use as originally intended. Bush Stadium is undergoing renovation and will be turned into condominiums, the Art Moderne-style Fire Station No. 18 on Washington Street stands vacant, and we just lost the small yet well-designed Tarkington Park Tennis Shelter to the wrecking ball in October 2011.
The exhibit will highlight numerous Pierre designs, buildings both lost and loved, and invites visitors to consider a little civic pride for Indiana’s architecture, as well as a thank you for all the hard work everyone has accomplished lately to make the city shine. The exhibit will run through March 1, 2012.
The interested viewer can find thousands of drawings from the Pierre & Wright Architectural Records online in Ball State University Libraries’
Digital Media Repository.
For more information, contact
Carol A. Street, University Libraries’ Archivist for Architectural Records. ◙