Indianapolis wants to turn a traffic circle into a park. It’s a brilliant idea

As the geographic center of Indianapolis, Monument Circle is in many ways the heart of the city. The 284-foot Soldiers and Sailors Monument towering in the middle is a beloved local landmark, and the plaza and fountain around its base has been a gathering place since it opened in 1902.

But the way most people experience it is through the window of a car. Monument Circle is technically a traffic circle, which means the center of the city is little more than a place for cars to drive. The past couple of years, however, have shown another possibility. Since 2023, from June through November, part of the traffic circle has been closed to cars and converted into Spark on the Circle, a pop-up park that has activated the space and brought tens of thousands of pedestrians downtown.

Created by the nonprofit art and design organization Big Car Collaborative in partnership with several local agencies, Spark on the Circle turns a quarter of the circle into an activated public space, with Astroturf covering the roadway, shade structures, games, vendors, and stages for performances.

Now the landscape architects who designed the park are working on a plan that could make the pop-up permanent. Merritt Chase, a firm based in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, has been involved in shaping Monument Circle for several years through its work on the downtown resiliency strategy launched by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett in 2022. One plan arising from the strategy calls for a renewed focus on improving walkability downtown and creating more public space for an emerging residential population. Spark on the Circle, and Merritt Chase’s design for it, was created to turn Monument Circle into a destination rather than something most people simply drive past.

“There’s been so much history there, protests and demonstrations, parades, festivals, and just the everyday life of the city that passed through that space. There have always been questions around the identity of the circle, the use of the circle, the future potential of the circle,” says Chris Merritt, cofounder of Merritt Chase. “Over the last couple of years, the temporary park we’ve put out there has definitely been a successful case study of new ways to reimagine and use the circle. So we’re building on that to continue to think about what a future permanent plan might be for the circle.”

Merritt Chase has just been awarded an 18-month fellowship to further explore ideas for redesigning or reusing Monument Circle. The firm is one of 10 fellows supported by Emerson Collective, a philanthropy started by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple’s Steve Jobs. The 2025 cohort of fellows, announced this week, is focused on local leadership and community-centered place-based work, according to Patrick D’Arcy, senior director of fellowships at Emerson Collective.

“We really respect [Merritt Chase’s] community-centered approach. They believe that successful public projects require more than just really beautiful design; they also require community trust and collaboration and relationship building,” says D’Arcy. “Their vision for a more utilized and joyful Monument Circle is really inspiring.”

A circle for the city

Preparations for this summer’s iteration of Spark on the Circle are still underway, but it’s expected to open in June. Megan Vukusich is director of the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development, and though she says there is currently no funding or official plan in place to make the pop-up park a permanent one, the visitation numbers suggest strong community interest. According to a report from Big Car Collective, the 2024 iteration of the park saw more than 71,000 visitors, with more than 400 on an average day. More than 80% of visitors spent 30 minutes or more at the park, and 30% went to a restaurant or did shopping downtown after leaving.

“We don’t want people to come and snap a quick photo. We’d like them to stay, maybe check out some of the local shops. These metrics are showing us that it is having an impact on the larger community,” Vukusich says. “Having activations such as Spark gives us a little bit more insight into what the community is looking for.”

It’s also a reflection of the changing shape of downtown Indianapolis. Like many city centers, it was deeply affected by the pandemic, with many companies shuttering offices or allowing employees to work remotely. But downtown development is coming back, and officials estimate more than $9 billion worth of projects are in the pipeline, including a convention center expansion and a new 40-story hotel tower. This is happening as downtown’s residential population has grown to more than 29,000, more than a 46% increase since 2010.

Merritt Chase has two other ongoing projects that feed into this growth. One is a pedestrian conversion of three blocks leading up to the convention center; the other will add a new park to the site of a historic downtown food hall, with construction beginning this summer.

Spark on the Circle is the pop-up version of these larger projects. “This is a way of leveraging a lot of that private investment and connecting it all across the city to create better everyday livable experiences,” Merritt says. “Projects like these and the way they connect will give more of a reason to not just visit but hopefully encourage more people to live downtown.” Though some local commenters have bemoaned any street closures, downtown Indianapolis has a very tight downtown grid with city blocks that are smaller than those in other big cities. The closure of part of the circle, or even the entire circle, would require only a short driving detour.

Merritt Chase will use its 18-month Emerson Collective fellowship to expand its community outreach, research, and planning for the future of downtown centered around Monument Circle, using Spark on the Circle as one of the primary use cases. Chase Merritt cofounder Nina Chase says the 2024 visitation numbers show there’s a big appetite for this kind of unconventional public space in the city.

“That’s been really lovely to see,” she says. “We as landscape architects, we think yes that’s what you should do, but sometimes you never know. So it’s good to see it in action.” Merritt says turning the pop-up park into something more permanent is one option, but it’s not the predetermined goal of the plan Merritt Chase will produce. They’re more interested in finding out how people in the city want to use the space and then designing around that. “Whether it’s parklike and still open for cars or completely closed to cars, I think that’s still to be determined through lots of conversations with folks downtown and residents.”