Millennium Place
Millennium Place is a new neighborhood on the site of the Munsyana Homes housing project in south Muncie, Indiana.
In 1938 the Federal Housing Authority issued funds for the construction of a low-income housing project in Muncie. Munsyana Homes opened in 1939, with quadrangles of concrete block apartment buildings around a few bleak open spaces. The Munsyana Homes housing project was considered the most “distressed” in Indiana in 2003 and a $12.3 million Hope VI grant was awarded to the city to help replace Munsyana. The deteriorated buildings and poor layout served as a haven for drug dealing and violence which plagued the surrounding neighborhood.
The $40 million cost of the project is being financed through, rental housing tax credits and federal Community Development and HOME funds in addition to the Hope VI grant. Work began in 2003 and the last phase is expected to be completed in 2007.
ARMONICS, Inc., of Indianapolis served as architects for Millennium Place. The development is being built and managed by Flaherty & Collins Properties of Indianapolis, in conjunction with the Muncie Housing Authority. Flaherty & Collins states on its web site that the site “is being transformed into a vibrant community with 244 new units of mixed-density, mixed-income, and mixed-tenure housing.”
Millennium Place includes newly reopened streets dividing the inaccessible “super blocks” of the old projects. The houses all have front porches which help facilitate interaction between neighbors and provide supervision of the street. It is a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood following time-tested principles of city planning. The new neighborhood park will include a playground, several shelters/pavilions, and a water feature with a fountain for children to play in.
Although Millennium Place is still under construction, the occupied streets, with the brightly-painted houses and new trees, already show signs of community life. Children now ride their bikes around the neighborhood and on pleasant evenings neighbors can be seen socializing on their front porches. Millennium Place is a very attractive new neighborhood and most visitors are surprised to learn that it is in fact public housing.
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| The "Quads" - four-unit houses along S. Madison Street (photo by Dawn Ross) | |
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| Rear view of a block of Quads from the parking alley | Quads facing the park along Center Street |
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| More Quads facing the park (photo by Bob Williams) | Street scenes in the completed phases of Millennium Place |
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| Some mature trees were retained and help frame the streets in the eastern part of the Millennium Place neighborhood | |
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| This composite panorama shows one block of the two-block-long park (under construction) which forms the center of the new Millennium Place neighborhood. The park will include a playground, small pavilions, and a water feature. The next phase (on the block to the right) will include a bandstand. | |
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| A closer view showing the back of the houses facing Elm Street. The Millennium Place Park Pavilion is under construction at center | |
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| 3-1-06 A double house on the corner of Elm and 2nd Streets under construction | 4-19-06 The same house with the concrete-and-wood-fiber siding in place |
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| 5-2-06 The same house nears completion... | ... as does the rest of the block |
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| Front porches | |
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| View east on 2nd Street from Jefferson | Rear view of houses on Elm Street |
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| Sidewalks being poured | |
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| Elm Street looking north from 2nd | Project architect Olon Dotson discusses the design of a double house with architecture students |
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| Sidewalks being poured | |
As a student in the studio which designed and built the Pavilion in the park at Millennium Place, I was able to see this change first-hand. I was fortunate enough to have Olon Dotson, vice president of ARMONICS (the project architects), as my professor and to learn about the background of the development. I think Olon summed it up well when he related to a colleague, “Last night I got a call at 8:00 P.M. from one of my students who was out at Millennium Place – he wanted to let me know that the concrete had been poured... Four years ago, if a student had called me at 8:00 P.M. from Munsyana, it would have been because something bad had happened.”
Millennium Place web site (includes before and after photos and video interviews)
Flaherty & Collins Properties web site
Howard Square
Flaherty & Collins also built and now manages nearby Howard Square, a 30-unit senior citizen apartment complex built during 2004-2005. The development of Howard Square included the renovation of two historic apartment buildings across from the new building.
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| Two historic apartment buildings on Elm Street were renovated as part of the Howard Square development | |
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| The main Howard Square building at the corner of Elm and Howard Streets |