Source: The Republic

The City of Columbus will use nearly $330,000 in state funds awarded this week to bolster a unique partnership with Indiana University's J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program and an Indianapolis-based fabricator to build three artistic structural bus shelters that will be placed along ColumBUS transit routes.

Gov. Mike Braun awarded READI 2.0 Arts & Culture grants on Tuesday, including $329,940 to build three structural bus shelters in Columbus.

The three shelters will follow one that was installed at NexusPark between its entrances along Herman Darlage Drive in 2025, a blue bent-plate steel project performated with glass with ceramic threading, featuring the iconic "Dancing Cs," created by designer Paul Rand in 1974.

That shelter was designed by students in classes taught by J. Irwin Miller Program professor Lucas Brown.

Students in the fall of 2024 took digital fabrication and stakeholder engagement courses to lay the foundation needed, and by the spring took part in an architectural design-build studio course to put the design together.

Brian McCutcheon of Ignition Arts--who Transportation Director Matt Dudukovich said is renowned for his architecturally significant fabrications--produced the final shelter and has signed on to build the additional three.

The Columbus Downtown 2030 plan recommended building architecturally significant bus stops in the downtown. While they haven't chosen a spot for the first shelter quite yet, Dudukovich said they are leaning towards putting one between the Bartholomew County Historical Society and the LGP Analytics-owned building at 305 Franklin St.

The city is pitching in for the project on top of the state funds, as is McCutcheon and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), which contributed a grant of $15,000 towards the initial shelter.

This is part of an overall strategy led by Dudukovich, who has a goal of installing a bus shelter at the 50 most frequented ColumBUS stops, something that he emphasized would take years. Of the total 150-some bus stops, less than 20 have bus shelters currently, Dudukovich said. 

The bus shelters are one way to encourage people to use the ColumBUS system and improve their experience in doing so, Dudukovich said.

The first of the new shelters is not expected to be built until next summer in the June to July range, as the J. Irwin Miller programs design-build studio course isn't until the second semester, according to city officials.

[Note: this story has been updated from the original version in The Republic, where it was stated that Columbus received READI 2.0 funds in the amount of $390,940, which was inaccurate. The grant total was $329,940.

The original article also referred to the Miller Architecture Program as the J. Irwin school, which has been corrected in this version. The Miller Architecture Program is part of Indiana University's Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design.]