Commuter-Centered to Dorm-Driven
The infrastructure of the University of Indianapolis has undergone many changes throughout the years. The green lawns, concrete steps and canal of Smith Mall were at one time a primary parking lot for UIndy.
The conversion of the lot to the current green, open space, completed in the early 90s, marked the beginning of a rapid campus expansion through new buildings and renovations.
Chair of the History and Political Science Department Lawrence Sondhaus, a professor at UIndy since 1987, remembered a very different campus image when the university was more geared toward commuters.
“I remember walking from building to building across that big parking lot and seeing students sitting in their cars, studying or sitting in their cars eating lunch, and that was kind of the image of the school at the time,” Sondhaus said.
Prior to the new construction in the 90s, a Marsh grocery store was located directly behind the library. In order to build the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, the property was demolished to make room.
According to Sondhaus, the design of Christel DeHaan was a big step for the university, as it features unique design elements that create an aesthetically pleasing and functional interior and exterior.
When UIndy was ready to begin construction of the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center in 1991, they hired Ken Piepenbrink to lead the construction phase. Since Piepenbrink became a part of the UIndy staff, he has had a key role in every building constructed or renovated on campus.
The identity of the campus has changed drastically, moving from a small commuter campus to having a consistently high student presence in the dorms.
“The turning point was probably in 1993 or 1994 when we did the campus site improvement. When we built Smith Mall, we built a lot of new parking lots and pushed a lot of the parking to the perimeter of campus and tried to make it more pedestrian,” Piepenbrink said. “From being here, that was a very visible point of the campus changing, even during construction.”
The construction has continued at a steady pace since then, punctuated by multiple renovations of the Schwitzer Student Center, the renovation of Warren Hall and the construction of East Hall, to name a few. Even with the recent additions of these dormitories, the campus still experiences overcrowding in the parking lots and in the living spaces.
Two additional lots near Warren Hall were quickly constructed and opened on Sept. 7.
“We were lucky in being able to expand some parking… we have a lot of parking but everybody is so used to having convenient parking that having to walk one lot away or from one side of campus to the other is more of an issue than having no parking at all,” Piepenbrink said. “We’re not bussing people in; we’re not having to park at an auxiliary lot four or five blocks like a lot of campuses do.”
This year’s start had its difficulties, but Piepenbrink feels things are better than they could be.
“[New students] are coming in and they don’t know the history. They only see what they see when they get here and want that improved, which I think we do a good job of,” Piepenbrink said. “We’ve actually done a lot, every year, to try and make things better.”
