In the Fall of 1987, The SWA Group was commissioned to renovate a public park featuring a major fountain in Indianapolis, Indiana. The benefactor for the project, the Lilly Endowment, sought a firm with proven skill at handling public space and creating a strong statement with unforgettable imagery. The project that attracted Lilly to The SWA Group was Williams Square at Las Colinas, Dallas, Texas, where SWA sited a dramatic grouping of galloping mustangs (created by sculptor Rob Glenn) across a granite prairie. That striking image led to the selection of The SWA group as the project designers in association with local architects Kennedy, Brown & McQuiston. Capitol Commons, like Williams Square, has a large and imposing centrally located element, in this case, a fountain. The Lilly Endowment also wanted to create a garden-like setting that included an emphasis on plantings as a major component of the design solution.

Many of the open spaces of Indianapolis are characterized by pavements and memorials; green space was desired at Capitol Commons. Yet, this new Commons was actually planned over a subterranean parking structure. Although the pedestrian enters the Common by ascending three steps or a gentle ramp, the entire park is over a structure. Not only was SWA selected for its reputation as a bold design firm, but also for its extensive experience developing gardens on top of structures and buildings.

The Commons is dominated by a 90-foot diameter fountain with four 16-foot tall sculpted granite blades. This major feature dominates the site. Yet, up a few steps from the fountain area, through perennial plantings and curving hedges of thuja, one discovers the “Governors Walk” which links the Convention Center with the State House. This axis is strengthened by a 300-foot long redwood trellis supported by brick columns and planted with many species of vines. The walk and trellis reinforce the connection between the State House and Convention Center, and also incorporate two stair towers to the garage below and provide the desired separation from the Westin Hotel.

Directly across the Commons, a second trellis, also running the length of the park, separates the busy traffic of Capitol Avenue from the tranquility of the Commons. Here, the trellis again provides a location for teak benches (with backs) from which to view the perennial gardens and powerful fountain The trellis on this eastern side visually provides a backdrop to the park, and an edge against Capitol Avenue, as well as an intermediate scale element in relation to the imposing mass of the Hyatt Hotel.

The gardens are curvilinear in design with thuja ledges defining the perennial borders and four special gardens: the white garden, the herb garden, the rose garden and the winter garden. One enters through hedges of fragrant viburnum, or under a vine clad trellis. Approximately 24,000 square feet of total area (nearly half an acre) is planted in perennials. Every square foot is planted and, in the case of the 2,000-plus iris planting, several bulbs per square foot. Perennial plantings were planted with #2 containers whenever possible to get an immediate effect. Lavender was used extensively as an annual and the color palette of the borders was designed to be subtle, without strong contrasts. Beyond the “Governors Walk,” in between the park and the Westin Hotel, is an orchard of flowering ornamental pears (“Aristocrat”); these pears provide an incredible mass of flowers in the spring, as well as a subtle and friendly screen between that which is civic (the Commons) and that which is private (the hotel). The lawns provide space for casual play, sunning, public gatherings and an open setting for the fountain. The fountain attempts one impossibility and one expressive possibility: first, the magic of massive horizontal streams of water (the impossibility) and second, a huge explosion of water (the expressive possibility). Out of four fountain “blades,” made of sculpted granite resembling Victorian moulding cross-sections or abstractions of birds in flight, horizontal streams of water 4 inches in diameter are thrown 15 feet to collide in a crash of water, air, foam and mist. The sound is not unlike that of a waterfall and the fountain, like a waterfall, causes some wonder and delight.

Capitol Commons is a park design that responds to its specific urban context. It’s a park design that creates memorable and original forms. It’s a park design that provides the amenities of nature, shady places to sit, and wondrous waterworks as the focal point to a renovated and revitalized City Center.