Tag Archive for: Space Planning

A Word from Our Owners – Damien Center

Alan Witchey is president and CEO of the Damien Center, Indiana’s oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organization. Alan began working with the Damien Center as a volunteer in the 1990s and later became a full-time employee. He has more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit management, previously serving as executive director of the Coalition […]

The Heart of the Placemaking Process

Every place evokes feelings for people. A great place feels welcoming, exciting, curious, comforting—and maybe even inspiring. Your designated place always has the opportunity to evoke vastly different feelings than it does now. In downtown places, reinvestment from all parties is evident and necessary—and generates a lot of interest and excitement. A Placemaking Plan does […]

Does Your School Really Need New Construction?

Schools serve as a fixture within their communities, stirring up nostalgic moments for past students. Like for the college student driving past their old elementary school on their way through town during their first break away from school, remembering those days on the playground during recess. Or for the parents of high school students, strolling through […]

Philosophy of Space Planning and Design

In order to produce a strong space plan and design, Schmidt Associates believes a proven process must be followed. In simplest form, the process can be defined as having five main components:   Mission and Goals A “Core Group” comprised of key decision-makers will help define the objectives, desired culture, and vision. By creating common […]

Elevate Your Expectations for Downtown Development, Part II

In my Indianapolis Business Journal column listing 10 things Indianapolis could do to make our already thriving downtown an even better place to live, the second item was: Have the guts (and the money) to build more than five stories. Downtown Indianapolis has a few notable existing and planned high-rise places to live, but many […]

What Makes a Hotel Easily Accessible?

There are plenty of rules and guidelines when it comes to designing accessible spaces—but there are things that still do not make it EASY for people to use. When working with The Arc of Indiana to design their new Training Institute and Teaching Hotel, we had the opportunity to sit down with a group from […]

Elevate Your Expectations for Downtown Development, Part I

A couple of months ago I was honored to write a column for the Indianapolis Business Journal about 10 things Indianapolis could do to make our already thriving downtown an even better place to live. Number one on my list is investing in more parks as an amenity to keep young urban dwellers downtown after […]

50 Letters From Architects: Our Contribution

This is part of a series of blog postings of Schmidt Associates architects’ responses to the American Institute of Architects (AIA)-Indianapolis invitation to write letters to Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. Architects submitted big or small ideas to improve the urban built environment for Indianapolis and were on display at The Hall during June and July […]

Elevate the Expectations

The following editorial was featured in the October 17, 2014, issue of the Indianapolis Business Journal. Each month, a post will be made further describing each of my 10 ideas for elevating the expectations for downtown. Check back for more information and share your thoughts with me. Elevate the Expectations By Wayne Schmidt It’s easy […]

Higher Education Alphabet Soup

In mid-September, Schmidt Associates posted an online quiz called “Higher Education Archibabble – Knowledgeable or Naïve.” As part of the quiz, there were several acronyms (a.k.a. alphabet soup) which described higher education trends, teaching methodologies, etc. Since then, we’ve been asked to elaborate on the acronyms, as well as to share how these concepts are […]