Submitted by City of Carmel
Something exciting is blooming on the west edge of Carmel’s central core as the city unveils the new Flower District in an area that has been growing with businesses, restaurants, shops, and a variety of housing options.
The new Flower District boundaries include a triangular shape bordered by Pennsylvania, Old Meridian, and Main streets and will extend east to Guilford Road.
There will be three primary gateways into the Flower District, each of them roundabouts. On the southern tip, the roundabout at Old Meridian and Pennsylvania (where the sculpture of the giant pink flower sits); on the northwestern tip, the roundabout at Main and Pennsylvania; and on the northeastern tip, the roundabout at Main and Old Meridian.
Brainard
“We are very excited to identify this section of Carmel as the new Flower District,” Mayor Jim Brainard said. “Great cities are made up of great neighborhoods and we have already seen the successful growth and development within our Arts & Design District, City Center, Midtown, Brookshire and the Village of WestClay.”
During the Mayor’s first term, he established a committee co-chaired by local business leaders Paul Reis and John Schuler to study what could be done in this area. Over the years, their work resulted in improvements to Old Meridian Street, the construction of a new Grand Boulevard and a land-use plan that called for future hotels, townhomes, condominiums, apartments, shops, and restaurants. Concerns about preserving green space led to the commission of a tree expert to identify old growth forest, some of which was incorporated into the median along Grand Boulevard.
As improvements were made and the area experienced rapid growth, new discussions were held to determine how to identify the area and give it a name.
“When we first put this plan into place in the late 1990s, we referred to this as the Old Meridian district, but I felt that that name was overused and we could come up with a better name,” Mayor Brainard said. “Then, with the addition of sculptor Arlon Bayliss’ Grace, Love and Joy in 2019, a 35-foot, pink flower sculpture, the term Flower District became the appropriate choice.”
Carmel’s Flower District contains the triangle made by Main, Pennsylvania, and Old Meridian streets between U.S. 31 and the city’s central core. (Graphic courtesy Studio M Architecture and Planning)
Working with Studio M Architecture and Planning, the city has put together preliminary plans that will focus on adding a large amount of beautiful floral landscaping in the primary gateways, in medians, and throughout the area to encourage walkability for residents and visitors. Also in the plans are the addition of monumental public art sculptures at the center of each roundabout and at their base, cast stone walls branded with the new Flower District name and steel lattice entry markers.
The current plan calls for future improvements and the potential activation of special events to gradually come over the next few years.