Columbus, Indiana –
Athens of the Prairie

How does a small Indiana town of 39,000 people compete with the great cities such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco to become ranked number six in the nation for innovation and design by the American Institute of Architects? 

The answer lies in the vision of J. Irwin Miller, President of the Cummins Engine Company. In the early 1940s, the congregation of the First Christian Church of Columbus sought out architect Eliel Saarinen to design a new church. Saarinen first declined their invitation but was eventually persuaded by Miller, a congregation member, to accept the commission. The success of this partnership led Miller to institute a program through the Cummins Foundation to pay the architects’ fee for any public building if a client chose to work with a firm from a list meticulously compiled by the Foundation.

The example set by this project has multiplied many times over, and through this unique public/private partnership with the Cummins Foundation, Columbus is now home to more than seventy buildings of design significance including; schools, churches, hospitals, office buildings, golf clubhouses, and private homes, designed by world famous architects. Columbus also developed a significant program to locate art in public spaces throughout the community.  

Two projects were recently  completed – the redevelopment of the Commons by Koetter Kim and the Mill Race Center by William Rawn – and three more are well underway. The Commons was originally designed by Cesar Pelli in 1973.

These new buildings, parks and sculptures reinforce the commitment to quality design illustrated by the commissioned projects of architects and artists such as Paul Kennon, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Robert Venturi, Harry Weese, Eliot Noyes, Dale Chihuly, and Henry Moore.