indianapolis architecture tour

Walk the historic neighborhoods of Indianapolis

The neighborhoods of Indianapolis provide a unique glimpse into the first 200 years of our Capital city's history. Indiana Landmarks recognized this years ago and developed guided walking tours in partnership with local historians and neighborhood residents. I'm happy to see that HUNI has taken this carefully crafted work to engage a much broader audience through this website and the accompanying Pocket Sights tours.

Our thanks to Project Organizer Lorraine Vavul, Digitization Editor Kara Chinn, Webmaster Jay van Santen, HUNI Tours Coordinator Garry Chilluffo, HUNI President Glenn Blackwood, HUNI volunteers, and fundraising groups -- Indiana Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, Central Indiana Community Foundation, and Indiana Landmarks, and the PocketSights platform -- which made this possible. We are honored that this initiative has been endorsed by the Indianapolis Bicentennial Commission as an official Bicentennial Community Project. ~Marsh Davis, President, Indiana Landmarks

Download PocketSights Tour Guide

Our tours have been developed using the PocketSights Tour Guide app, which will guide you from one point of interest to the next. The tour stops may be browsed via the web, but the PocketSights app will offer the best experience.

Indianapolis Tours

Fort benjamin harrison biking.

In Lawrence Township, when the Base Realignment and Closure Commission closed the Fort in 1991, about 1,700 acres were conveyed to the State of Indiana for the Fort Harrison State Park and Golf Course. A significant portion of that land was given to the City of Lawrence for parks and recreational uses. Once the maneuvers area and firing range for the fort; now, this 1,700-acre park features walking and jogging trails, road and mountain biking trails, picnic sites, and fishing access to Fall Creek.

There are period themed combat displays, a warfare library, and other items related to Indiana’s involvement in our nation’s military history. This is the Museum of 20th Century Warfare, operated by volunteers and open to the public and free with admission to the park.

The biking tour has its base in the sites of the walking tour, but encompasses a much broader geography of the former base.

Take the Fort Benjamin Harrison Biking tour

Fort Benjamin Harrison Walking

To the northeast of the city, in Lawrence township, the area of Fort Ben has seen many changes. Before the first settlers arrived to farm, Delaware and Miami Indians lived along Fall Creek. In the wake of the Spanish American War, in 1904, Fort Harrison was included Fort Harrison among facilities designed to maintain an expanded national army, named in honor of the Indianapolis native and President who had passed in 1901. Centrally located nationally, it served as a training ground for troops and support specialists during World War I.

The U.S. Army Finance Center became the most recognizable landmark at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Completed in October, 1953, the huge complex – second in size of military buildings only to the Pentagon – centralized all of the Army's related pay and disbursing activities. The walking tour takes in housing and major facilities.  Colonial revival architecture – nearly the exclusive style of the official residences -- presents an appropriate clean and organized environment.

Take the Fort Benjamin Harrison Walking tour

Garfield Park

This park and neighborhood is located due south southeast of downtown south of Raymond, nestled between Meridian Avenue and 1-65 on the West and East respectively. The city purchased a failed horseracing track as its first municipal park, Southern Park, soon renamed to honor President James Garfield.

Nationally-known landscape architect George Kessler was hired to design the park. He was deeply concerned with the environment and the health and happiness of people in urban settings. The system of drives and walks he designed revealed “the real beauty spots of the city” giving access to striking views and open space.

Between 1915 and 1918 the city annexed much of the former Yoke farmstead while surrounding land remained small truck farming until the 1950s. Housing ranges to 20th-century bungalows & duplexes, The continuing presence of storefront businesses lends a small-town atmosphere.

Take the Garfield Park tour

Herron-Morton Place

North of the original Mile City boundaries at 16th Street, the area remained undeveloped woods until 1859 when purchased for the State Fairgrounds. In the Civil War Governor  Oliver Morton used the site for training, then as a prison camp. When the Fairgrounds moved in 1890. entrepreneurs bought the land, renamed it Morton Place, and sold upscale residential lots.

Between 1900 and 1930, Henon-Morton Place was home to some of the city’s leading citizens: Governor Samuel Ralston lived here, as well as retailers Frederic Ayres and William H. Block, and Dr. William N. Wishard. The Herron School of Art – a bequest of real estate developer John Herron – a fine Italian Renaissance Revival building, designed by Vonnegut & Bohn was built in the area in 1907.

Some examples of earlier Italianate homes built in the 1870s mix with the more predominant grand Queen Anne homes and slightly later, simpler, Princess Annes, along with a variety of American Tudor, Gothic Revival and American Foursquare.

Take the Herron-Morton Place tour

Historic Meridian Park

In Indianapolis’ Near North Gateway, across Meridian Street from The Children’s Museum, the neighborhood was farmland until platted in the late 19th century. Neighborhood development awaited a better accessover Fall Creek in the early 20th century. The Arts and Crafts movement encompassed broad concerns from architecture to the  homeowner’s daily lifestyle. Therefore, unlike the large Victorian homes of the Old Northside, Arts and Crafts style homes are more functional than formal.

Meridian Park is known for more than just its substantial, architect-designed Arts & Crafts houses. Fashionable examples of Tudor Revival, American Four-Square, Colonial Revival and other exotic influences are well represented here, giving Meridian Park a rich variety rarely seen in other neighborhoods.  Meridian Park provided homes for the city’s prominent citizens Architect Arthur Boehn, partner of Vonnegut, built his home and lived here, and the  Anton Vonnegut family. The neighborhood has been recognized on the National Register of Historic Places since 1990.

Take the Historic Meridian Park tour

Holy Cross Neighborhood

Immediately east of downtown, this area was one of the first in the city to be settled. Even before statehood, George Pogue built a cabin on a creek – now bearing his name – about 1819 – at Michigan Street. Governor Noah Noble built a home on Market Street after 1832 on a land grant, farming much of the rest bequeathed to the Davidsons who named this Highland Home.

By the 1880s, many of the city’s Irish immigrants had settled long the area's westem edges near Irish Hill. To meet the religious needs of this community, the Diocese built Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in 1886. The initial congregation of 300 tripled in a year. The housing stock consists largely of two-story, early 20th century frame structures which gave home to a largely working class population.

After the WWII exodus out of the area, the community has seen a renaissance through the work of community organizations such as NESCO, the NFL, commercial groups such as Angie’s List. Today, a broad range of young couples live alongside long term residents.

Take the Holy Cross Neighborhood tour

Irvington Biking

The bike tour takes in a broader range of scenes in the large Irvington neighborhood. Around the turn of the century, the foundation laid 25 years earlier began to flower. A commercial center emerged in the late 19th century around the Perm Central Railroad depot on South Audubon Road.

In 1900, the Indianapolis & Greenfield Rapid Transit Company laid tracks down the center of Washington Street giving Irvington efficient light rail service. Businesses began moving to Washington Street near Emerson Avenue, as well as a public library, theater, Masonic lodge, and fire station. Irvington was annexed by Indianapolis in 1902. Developers filled empty lots with new houses during the first decades of the twentieth century and essentially completed the built environment. So, from the Victorian-era core, later building represents styles more typical of the Arts and Crafts and related styles.  

The neighborhood continues to have an active community life and carries on its heritage as a center of arts and education.

Take the Irvington Biking tour

Irvington Walking

Irvington was founded as the first planned suburb of Indianapolis, 5 miles due East of the Downtown Circle. Developers in 1870 purchased/contributed a total of nearly 400 acres of farmed land alongside the National Road for a community of "refinement and culture" named for author Washington Irving. They platted the town with 109 randomly sized lots situated along meandering curved streets, in the spirit of the Cincinnati suburb Glendale with its romantic Victorian plan. In the year of its incorporation, 1873, a grant from the town brought North Western Christian University, renamed Butler University in honor of its founder. Admitting students regardless of race or gender reflected the Quaker abolisionist background of the founders of school and community. Faculty members, the Irvington Group all contributed to the cultural life of the city.

Irvington Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.  Architecture in the district displays distinctive examples of late 19th and early 20th century styles. 

Take the Irvington Walking tour

Lockerbie Square

Lockerbie Square is a quiet residential area that abuts the eastern edge of the “Mile Square,” Indianapolis’ downtown business core. With beginnings in the 1860’s, it is rich in history and charm, with tree-lined streets, a mixture of charming homes from small cottages to Victorian mansions.

After laying out the city’s center, in 1821, excess land was sold to developers for residential neighborhoods. Lockerbie Square became the first of such neighborhoods.  After the Civil War, craftsman desiring proximity to work purchased smaller lots and built cottages, near wealthier families’ grander residences, one the home of James Whitcomb Riley. Religious organizations, such as the original St. Vincent Hospital, established themselves.

The late 1800s and early 1900s saw a peak of neighborhood vitality, prior to industrialization and migration from the urban center. Revitalization of the neighborhood led to the formation of local historic preservation groupls in the 1960s. Lockerbie was a placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. 

Take the Lockerbie Square tour

Old Northside

Today’s “Old Northside” began as two communities North of the downtown: the original campus of North Western Christian University for which Ovid Butler provided farmland near 13th and College beginning in 1855. A small town known as College Corner served the university until its move to Irvington in 1875. The second neighborhood was an outgrowth of the affluent residential development north of the city's center.

The wealthy built their mansions in the wooded and rural setting. After the Civil War, the Northside saw substantial development. From that time to the early 20th century, the area was the most fashionable place to live.

Historic designation in 1978 began a period of revitalization, in which most of the historic buildings have been renovated and historically sympathetic in-fill housing  has been built, making The Old Northside one of the premier historic districts in the midwest.

Take the Old Northside tour

Old Speedway City

The Town of Speedway, 7 miles Northwest of Monument Circle west on 10th Street, was inspired by a bumpy, maintenance-filled, autombile trip, in autumn 1908, that Carl Fisher and realtor friend Lem Trotter took from Indianapolis to Dayton. Fisher insisted that his proposed track would help improve the then-low-quality tires and automobiles. in 1909, that vision was realized with the building of the Speedway. In 1912, Trotter purchased 350 nearby acres, and platted the town of Speedway. His clients, including James Allison, envisioned an attractive "horseless city" of automotive industries and workers' homes adjacent to the racetrack. Trotter designed an expansive Main Street with a commercial district on the west side and industrial facilities on the east side. Managers resided in larger houses on 15th & 14th Streets, and workers in smaller houses on 11th - 13th Streets, closer to the factory on 10th St.

From 1950 to 1970, the population nearly tripled, housed in apartments and single-family limestone and brick ranches. The Speedway Redevelopment Commission, 2005, continues the development.

Take the Old Speedway City tour

Ransom Place

Following Indiana Avenue northwest about a mile away from Monument Circle, Ransom Place is nestled between the Madame Walker Theatre and  Crispus Attucks – and the city’s historically black high school. The community is one of the oldest surviving districts associated with African Americans in the State of Indiana.

The neighborhood is recognized locally and nationally for its vernacular Queen Anne, Four Square and Shotgun homes built on small narrow lots between 1875 and the early 1900s. The neighborhood’s namesake, Freeman Bailey Ransom served as General Manager of Madame C.J. Walker’s cosmetics business—a model for black-owned businesses nationally. By 1925 the neighborhood was a prestigious community of prominent and well-established black residents, including physicians, a city councilman, and several attorneys.  Historic Ransom Place was the first black neighborhood in the State of Indiana placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Take the Ransom Place tour

Riverside is a west-side community straddling the White River between 18th and 38th Streets. Early in the 1900’s, real estate developers and local landowners saw the opportunity to create a community that would be accessible by the newly expanded downtown transportation system. The “streetcar suburb” would feature landscaped traffic circles, generous front yard set-backs, wide boulevards, and glacier boulder retaining walls. A George Kessler designed park, Indianapolis’ first zoo, and the now-demolished Riverside amusement park, followed the success of the planned community.

Today, Riverside enjoys a wide array of amenities and boasts a diverse and active neighborhood community, including an amphitheater, family center, golf courses, gardens, etc. Additionally, there is connecting linkage to nature trails: White River, canal towpath, and Fall Creek. Future projects include The Riverside Heritage Promenade and The Nature and Adventure Park for Indianapolis.

Take the Riverside tour

The St. Joseph Area is a significant multi-use district, immediately north  of the original Mile Square perimeter whose architectural resources reflect the city's development during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Its composite of structures (residential, commercial, and industrial) constitute a significant and distinguishable entity that yields a clear impression of the city's development during a time of great change and substantial growth. St. Joseph residential architecture spans virtually the entire history of Indianapolis since the 1860's with good examples of Italianate, Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, Tudor Revival, Nineteenth Century Commercial, Renaissance Revival, and Carpenter-builder.

Current interest in downtown living has encouraged renewed infill, with a contemporary twist on traditional design themes and a hospitable environment for modern row house design. St. Joseph received local historic designation in 1991.

Take the St. Joseph tour

Watson Park

On the near northside, across 38th street from the State Fairgrounds, this tour offers a glimpse of settler-era Indianapolis with the 4 acre Watson Park Bird Preserve anchoring the northeast end of the neighborhood. This hilly area maintains native Indiana flora and fauna.

Among the first settlers  – Oliver Johnson’s (b. 1822) grandfather having farmed here.  With growth of the city, the land was platted for suburban style development in 1872. But, only more robust bridges, better roads in the late 1900s through early 1900s, and the Fairgrounds relocation in 1892, stimulated the neighborhood’s building – largely between 1915 and 1930.

The topography, with diverse features from flat to hilly, offers a variety of landscaping and homes of the period – Colonial, Tudor Revival, and Art Moderne among others. Watson Park received historic designation in 2012.

Take the Watson Park tour

Woodruff Place

This original suburb of Indianapolis, located just a mile East of the downtown, south of 10th Street, features a gracious, park-like setting with examples of grand homes, esplanades with fountains and statuary. An eclectic mix of architectural styles — in the transitional time between the peak of its growth from 1898 to 1910 — constitute the housing stock—Victorian, Queen Anne, Eastlake, Edwardian, and Arts and Crafts, among others. The town was incorporated in 1876 and remained independent until annexed by the City of Indianapolis in 1963.

After migration away from the urban center of the city following World War II, a new generation reclaimed the community and its grand homes in the 1960s. It was added to the National Register in 1972, and received local designation in 2001.

Take the Woodruff Place tour

Thanks to our Sponsors

Indiana humanities.

Indiana Humanities is a statewide nonprofit dedicated to promoting the public humanities. We’re a grant-maker, a neutral convener, a facilitator, a program partner, and much more.

In short, Indiana Humanities encourages Hoosiers to think, read and talk. How? By creating its own programs, such as Quantum Leap, Next Indiana Campfires, INconversation, Novel Conversations, Chew on This and more; by providing grants for humanities programs throughout the state; and by providing a space—physically and digitally—for people to connect and converse.

Indiana Landmarks

Indiana Landmarks saves the places that matter to Hoosiers—houses, barns, bridges, churches, schools, downtown districts, vintage neighborhoods. By restoring and repurposing historic buildings, we reconnect people to heritage and revitalize communities.

We save buildings because they stir us. They’re inspiring examples of Hoosier art and spirit, ingenuity and craft. They heighten our sense of place and connect us through the generations. They help us remember what’s important in our lives.

Indiana Modern

Highlighting the designs that were ahead of their time.

Are you mad for Mid-Century? Love all things Modern? Then you’ll want to join our Indiana Modern affinity group, celebrating and saving twentieth-century landmarks.

Indiana Modern Affinity Group Offers Opportunity to Connect and Explore

Mid-Century Modernist structures expressed a crisp, urgent, exploratory, forward-looking new view. Across the many approaches encompassed under the Modernist umbrella—International, Brutalist, Bauhaus, Expressionist—it’s amazing how many still look fresh and “new” today. Too many of these places, many too young to qualify for landmark status, are disappearing from the landscape or suffering alterations that destroy their Modernist character.

Indiana Modern, an Indiana Landmarks affinity group, works to identify, promote, and preserve the best examples of mid-century architectural and landscape design—the machine-age structures and environments that exploited new materials and new engineering in simple forms, sans ornamentation, set in harmonious relationships with nature.

Under Indiana Landmarks’ umbrella, the Indiana Modern affinity group annually offers a lecture, pop-up tours, and the Back to the Future home tour, which alternates between Indianapolis and other Hoosier cities. The group also shares news of interest to all who love Modernist structures and landscapes.

If you’re a fan of Mid-Century Modern, we invite you to join our Indiana Modern affinity group .

Questions? Call Indiana Landmarks, 317-639-4534 or 800-450-4534.

Scottish Rite Cathedral

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Athenaeum Building Tour

Category: Event Calendar

Dates and Times for this Past Event

• Sunday, Nov 6, 2022    1:45pm - 3pm
• Sunday, Oct 2, 2022    1:45pm - 3pm
• Sunday, Sep 25, 2022    1:45pm - 3pm
• Sunday, Aug 14, 2022    1:45pm - 3pm
• Sunday, Jul 17, 2022    1:45pm - 3pm
• Sunday, Jun 26, 2022    1:45pm - 3pm

The Athenaeum Foundation, Inc. 401 East Michigan Street

visit website

Visit The Athenaeum on Sunday, June 26 for a historic walking tour in partnership with Indiana Landmarks.

Learn about the Athenaeum's German-inspired architecture, evolution into a modern gathering space and more! Visitors also get access to special spaces including upper floors and the theatre's stage.

Tickets must be purchased at least 72 hours in advance of the tour. Contact Indiana Landmarks at 317-639-4534 or  [email protected]  to secure yours.

• St. Benno Fest
• Das GartenGrillFest
• Christkindlmarkt
• MOKB Presents
• Cereal Cinema
• Spirits at the Athenaeum
• First Friday
• Athenaeum Building Tours
• The Basile Theatre
• Our History
• Building Tours
• For Educators
• Code of Conduct
• Athenaeum: Then & Now – Virtual Tour
• Staff and Board
• The Dispatch
• Donors List

Standing the test of time.

The Athenaeum is an excellent example of Germanic architectural influence in the Midwest during the latter part of the 19th century. It is also a monument to the fortitude of Americans of German descent in the United States who dedicated themselves to cultural and physical development in their new country.

The Indianapolis firm of Vonnegut and Bohn was responsible for both phases of the structure. The entire building is in the German Renaissance Revival style — a popular style in Germany during the Second Reich (1871-1918). It revived the architecture of Renaissance Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Athenaeum is listed three times in the National Register of Historic Places: (1) for architecture and historical significance; (2) as part of the Massachusetts Avenue Commercial District; and (3) within the Lockerbie Square Historic District, specifically for the location and historical theme of the Germantown area.

Look for these key features when you visit:

• Two elaborate gables (the vertical triangular end of a building from cornice or eaves to ridge) that rise above the roof line in two places
• Three-story brick tower with a conical slate roof
• Semi-circular limestone arched entrance with two free-standing Roman Doric columns
• Dark red brick walls in common bond (the systematic lapping of brick in a wall)
• Limestone belt course to define the second-floor line
• Rock-faced stone foundation laid up on an ashlar (hewn or squared stone) coursing
• Arched upper windows
• Bulls-eye gymnasium windows
• West wing facade in the German Renaissance Revival style, incorporating German architecture with Renaissance elements focusing on a highly decorated gable (1897-1898)
• Steeply pitched, massive hipped roof
• Decorative stepped gable façade in stone and terra cotta rising into a baroque pediment above the cornice
• Sculptured panels above the middle gable
• Arched and stained-glass windows, bulls-eye and transom windows
• Alternating horizontal bands of stone
• Three-story brick tower with gently curving mansard roof and spire
• Small hooded copper-domed dormers with dwarf spires
• Small eyebrow louvers near the ridgeline
• Copper-covered cupolas with dwarf spires at each end of the main roof
• Semi-circular stone arched doorway
• Projected faces of the alternating stone voussoirs (one of the wedge-shaped pieces forming an arch or vault)
• Stone columns with Doric caps flanking the arched doorway
• Terra cotta grotesques figures of Athena in the top arch, figures and shields on west wall
• Stone lions and shields with lyres

Our Mission

The Athenaeum Foundation preserves a treasured historic landmark that welcomes all to nurture a sound mind and a sound body through arts & culture, wellness and community.

The Athenaeum Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization.

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Indy’s Iconic Architecture: A History

The newly processed D.A. Bohlen Architectural Firm Records span four generations of the Bohlen family – 111 years from 1867 to 1978. The phrase, “A Bohlen on every block,” referring to their popularity in Indianapolis, is reflected in the sheer scope of this collection, which covers roughly 175 separate buildings and multibuilding campus projects. It is now available to view at the William H. Smith Memorial Library.

German-born Diedrich August “D.A.” Bohlen, the firm’s founder, joined Francis Costigan’s Indianapolis-based architectural firm before establishing his own firm in 1853. His son, Oscar “O.D.”, joined the firm in 1882 after completing a degree in architecture from MIT. The firm was renamed O.D. Bohlen & Son in 1909 with the addition of D.A.’s grandson, August C. Bohlen. In 1946, the fourth generation, Robert L. Bohlen, joined the firm, resulting in another name change to A.C. Bohlen & Son. From 1961 to 1970, the firm went by the name of Bohlen & Burns. In 1971, it was renamed Bohlen, Meyer, Gibson and Associates. Schneider Engineering purchased the firm in 1990.

The collection provides valuable information on specific buildings – planning, construction, alterations and additions – the nuts-and-bolts details that architectural historians, building owners, architects and engineers may not otherwise be able to ascertain. It includes 56 manuscript boxes of building specifications, correspondence, reports and notes, as well as more than 1,400 architectural drawings, ranging from 12 inches by 12 inches up to 36 inches by 48 inches. Known for designing such iconic Indianapolis buildings such as the City Market

(1886), the Majestic Building (1896), and the Murat Temple (1910), the firm also designed many educational, religious and residential structures throughout the state and in Michigan and Illinois. The collection contains comprehensive information about the Sisters of St. Francis Campus, the Indianapolis Gas Company, Indiana National Bank branches, French Lick Springs Hotel, Manual Training High School, Indiana Methodist Hospital, the Marion County Jail and many more.

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East Bay home tours feature architects from Berkeley and Oakland

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The houses on this year’s home tours sponsored by the American Institute of Architect’s East Bay chapter have one thing in common: home offices. Some of the homes even have two.

“Five or six years ago, nobody cared about the home office in the same way,” said Mike Wilson, the chapter’s executive director for the past four years. The pandemic changed that, as home-based workers turned an empty nook, an extra bedroom or a guest room into a full-time home office. 

“That’s our new normal,” Wilson said. “Everybody’s working from home a couple of days a week.”

That’s just one of the characteristics shared by the five homes on this year’s tour, which will take place on Saturday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Out of more than a dozen submissions, five houses made the cut because they fit this year’s theme, “Lifestyle-Centric Living: Designing Homes to Suit Unique Needs,” and had enough street parking for visitors. 

Four out of the five houses are what Wilson called “radical remodels” that practically rebuilt the entire home. Three houses are in the hills — in Berkeley and Oakland — and were redesigned to make the most of their views.

What distinguishes East Bay’s tour from other architectural tours is that both the architects and the homeowners will be on hand, so visitors can have their questions answered or inquire about particular approaches or the use of materials. 

Tickets for the tour are $125 ($85 for AIA East Bay members; $25 for students) and can be purchased online in advance or on the day of the tour at any of the homes on the tour.  

Here are highlights from this year’s offerings:

16 Gravatt Drive, Berkeley

Architect: WA design , Berkeley

When it was built in 1937, this was one of the first homes in the then sparsely populated hills above the Claremont Hotel and was rumored to have incredibly expansive views of the San Francisco Bay.

A 1969 renovation made the building’s street view more modern, but also created “a jumble of rooflines and walls,” said architect David S. Wilson, principal of WA Design. 

“We came in and really contemporized it,” he said, “opening the plan up entirely on the main floor and simplifying the roof lines to give it a little bit of architectural clarity.”

A 27-foot-wide series of sliding doors that open onto a wooden deck now afford expansive views. Natural light floods the entire space and filters down into the lower floor via a stairway with a glass railing.

1492 Posen Ave., Albany

 Architect: Mikiten Architecture , Berkeley

Architect Erick Mikiten has traveled the world, advising his peers on making work and living spaces more accessible to all, a concept known as universal design. Mikiten, who uses a wheelchair due to osteogenesis imperfecta, known as brittle bone disease, understands the needs of those who often can’t access certain spaces due to their design. 

“If you don’t have the ability to get out to enjoy the yard without needing assistance, you end up being excluded,” he said. 

Mikiten is the architect of a new home in Albany built for a family of four who had to abandon their Berkeley Hills home after their daughter was diagnosed at age 5 with a degenerative brain disease. Though they loved the lushness of their previous home, “it was not going to work and couldn’t be modified,” Mikiten said. 

The new home reflects the hallmarks of universal design: no thresholds between rooms and an openness of spaces to accommodate wheelchairs; and flexible spaces that can be adapted as needs change or homeowners wish to age in place. The family now uses three bedrooms on the main floor, but an upstairs room accessible by stairs could become a bedroom for a caregiver in the future. 

 “This is the house of their dreams,” Mikiten said. “They’re going to stay here for a long time.”

To recreate a lush landscape for the family, Mikiten turned a steep hill behind the house into a bucolic backdrop for a Zen-like garden. The common spaces are arranged around an atrium courtyard that opens up to the garden.

“Even if you don’t get outside, you feel very strongly connected to the landscape,” Mikiten said.

1060 Evelyn Ave., Albany

Architect: Eisenmann Architecture , Berkeley

The classic California bungalow often proves too small for the needs of 21st-century families. Many have been expanded, usually by adding another flat-roofed, stucco story to the original home.

This expansion by architect Stacy Eisenmann deviates from the norm. She designed the second-story addition with two peaked roof sections, one of which boasts dark wood siding, contrasting with the white stucco. Another noticeable change from the curb was her choice of a metal roof over the entrance instead of the traditional terracotta, adding a more contemporary look. 

A large portion of the existing house was gutted and reorganized. Most significantly, the main floor layout was completely rearranged. Breaking from the bungalow’s traditional layout, Eisenmann placed the kitchen between the living and dining areas, which “creates a compression that naturally organizes the different spaces,” Eisenmann wrote in a project description. A lower level was also created, creating additional public spaces.

15 Marr Ave., Oakland

Architect: Ogle Design & Architecture , Berkeley

“Most people buy houses because they are dying to live in them,” Karen Hartwig said in a n interview about her Montclair home remodel. “I was dying to tear it apart and bring our dream house to reality.” 

Hartwig, an Oakland-based general contractor, purchased the mid-century home with her partner in 2019. The previous owners had lived in the house for 60 years. 

“The goal of the remodel was to expand the size of the house, create a more harmonious flow, and feature the pretty incredible views — one of the best I’ve seen,” said architect William Ogle, the principal of the firm. 

The project’s crowning achievement was to almost double the size of the house (to around 4,000 square feet) without increasing its footprint. That was achieved by carving out spaces downstairs that Hartwig called “pretty useless:” a long narrow room from one end of the house to the other that included an area without finished floors and one with a mound of dirt. 

Additional square footage was also gained after the chimney for the fireplace was removed from the lower level, requiring a massive beam to hold up the rest of the fireplace, which remains in the living room above. When combined, the freed-up space created a media room, a gaming room, two home offices, a guest room and a bar. 

5774 Scarborough Drive, Oakland

Architect: Design Draw Build , Oakland

At this Oakland Hills home, the owner, Tyler Kobick, is also the architect, who took a hands-on approach to the redesign. Kobick apprenticed as a stone mason in his youth, started his own construction company at 16 and ran it while getting his architectural degrees. The house reflects his dual background, which is echoed in his firm’s makeup. Half of his staff are architects; the other half are makers.

On a site with a two-bridge view, the house was built in 1949 for jazz musician Virgil Muhler. Kobick gutted the home, updated its systems, and moved the kitchen from its dark, back-of-the-house location into the central space, which he opened to the view. He added a living room with a 13-foot ceiling and a main bedroom, increasing the 1,250-square-foot home by 700 square feet. 

For the exterior, Kobick discovered copper flashing from a former World War II airplane hangar in Alameda on Craig’s List. “When I saw it, it blew my mind,” he said. 

His staff turned the former roofing material into siding, which Kobick helped install.

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Joanne Furio

Joanne Furio is a longtime journalist and writer of creative nonfiction. Originally from New York, she has been a staff writer, an editor and a freelance magazine writer. More recently, she was a contributing... More by Joanne Furio

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Self-Guided Audio Tours of Indianapolis Architecture and Landmarks

Union station, 123 w. louisiana st..

Union Stations are called that because they were built to serve as joint stations for two or more railroads instead of every railroad having its own terminal. Indianapolis was home to the world’s very first Union Station, which opened in 1853. This is not the original building, but it is pretty old. It opened in 1888, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In its heyday, Union Station was one of the busiest train stations in the world, with over 200 trains per day by 1900.

After World War II, train travel declined here, just as it did everywhere else, and was almost gone from Indianapolis by 1970. Union Station fell on hard times and into disrepair from lack of maintenance, and the city tried to figure out what to do. In 1983, part of the train shed was renovated into a hotel that is still there as a Crown Plaza. One unique feature of the hotel is that is has a small number of authentic Pullman sleeping cars from the 20’s for rooms, which are still sitting on the tracks. In 1986 the rest of the station was renovated into a small shopping center at a cost of $30 million, but this lost most of its traffic after the nearby Circle Centre Mall opened. The marketplace in Union Station closed in 1997. After that, the building was given over to private tenants. Perhaps the most prominent tenant today is the Mexican Consulate.

The building is very striking and is done in a style called Romanesque Revival that was popular in its day. It is so-called because it was a resurrection of a style called, not surprisingly, Romanesque that was popular in the 11th and 12th century, especially in France and Spain. The use of arches was one of the signatures of this style, of course hearkening back to the Romans. You can see both the large arches on the ground floor and the arched windows on the third. Other elements of this style are the horizontal belts of stone you see, called belt courses. The style was widely used for churches, and you can clearly see the resemblance between Union Station and a cathedral.

The architect was Thomas Rodd of Pittsburgh, who did a great job as this building is one of the best examples of this style in the Midwest. And not just on the exterior. The interior is also very striking, with a huge, skylit barrel vaulted ceiling running the length of the waiting room.

Romanesque Revival was a popular style for Union Stations. For example, if you ever travel to places like Louisville or Nashville, you’ll be able to instantly recognize their Union Stations, since they are done in a very similar design, albeit with gray stone instead of red and by different architects. This building is older than those, by the way.

There’s actually still train service here today. Amtrak runs one train a day, accessed from a small joint station with Greyhound on the south side of the tracks. By the way, the huge seven acre train shed on the back may not look like much, but it contains fourteen elevated tracks and is one of less than a dozen such structures surviving in America today.