Downtown Gary, Indiana

A Vision & Action Plan

Published in May 2025

Case Study Overview

Gary, Indiana has experienced a remarkable arc of metropolitan glamour, industrial collapse, and prolonged decline driven by disinvestment and systemic discrimination. This case study focuses on strategies to reactivate a culture of city building in the heart of downtown through a series of medium-sized buildings that frame public spaces, alongside neighborhood regeneration plans that revitalize communities while minimizing displacement.

Current Status

The City of Gary has secured $15 million in READI funding for downtown reactivation, along with an additional $12 million for blight removal. These funds will be used to demolish buildings beyond repair, stabilize historic structures where feasible, renovate existing buildings, and initiate new vertical construction in the downtown core.

1939 Aerial of Downtown Gary

By 1939, a majority of Gary’s buildings were constructed, and the city was on its way to economic prosperity and a population boom. (Source: Indiana Geological Survey)

History

Gary, Indiana was first a company town for U.S. Steel, then a bustling metropolis of cultural attractions, then a site of rapid disinvestment and abandonment, and now a city with a stigma of disrepair. The collapse of the steel industry, white flight, discriminatory policies, and decades of political and economic difficulty has left the city exhausted and suspicious.

In spite of the decades of challenges inflicted on the city, Gary remains proud of its many triumphs. From a cultural perspective, the city boasts a robust arts and music scene, and was the birthplace of the Jackson Five. Gary has continued to hold one of the nation’s largest Black populations, which has generated a legacy of historical accomplishments. Architecturally and urbanistically, Gary once had a remarkable urban fabric full of stunning historic buildings. The community is ready for a new built environment that honors the past while also looking to the future.

Blight Reversal

Gary has received recent financial support for blight elimination, which puts pressure on the city to demolish what remains of the city’s urban fabric, and much of its architectural history. Blight reversal, on the other hand, includes the restoration and preservation of historic buildings and spaces, and ensures a more sustainable, productive, and nuanced approach to Gary’s downtown and residential buildings. Saving historic structures and repairing homes can heal the community while also creating economic opportunities for the city. Visible renewal of blighted properties, like the proposed City Renaissance Park, sends the message that Gary is ready to rewrite its history and create a strong home for its community.

Vacant Land & Buildings Diagram

Gary has an unusually high proportion of vacant land and buildings, as a result of decades of disinvestment and decay.

District Plan for the Broadway Corridor

The corridor unites a series of overlapping districts, each with their own character. This combination of variety and energy will keep pedestrians engaged with the overall experience of walking down Broadway, an experience which evolves along the north-south trajectory.

Urban Design Interventions

The study area for this charrette was downtown Gary, overlapping with a majority of the Transit Development District. Though the various regulatory recommendations of this document look holistically at downtown Gary, the whole city cannot be rebuilt at once. The urban design intervention proposals in this section are focused in specific areas that will support development and ultimately build momentum towards the revival of the rest of the city.

The Broadway Corridor, as the civic, economic, and cultural stronghold of the city, is the critical area to activate first, generating energy and income for the city in order to enable more expansive growth. To the east and west, the Holy Angels and Emerson areas represent localized seeds of development, such that two strong neighborhoods can grow, populate, and anchor the areas around them.

Architectural Identity

The City of Gary is renowned for its iconic structures, yet it is the fabric buildings – mixed-use buildings with storefronts – that shape the everyday experience and define the character of the place. These buildings form the walls of an ‘outdoor room,’ and frame the public realm. Historic fabric buildings evoke a bygone era; they are also ripe with details unique to the city, and represent an overall massing, density, and block structure that is place-specific.

This guide shows how to design place-based mixed-use buildings that draw inspiration from historic precedents in Gary to create architecture that is both rooted in its context and reflective of the present day. The goal is not to replicate historic Gary brick by brick – doing so would be impractical, especially since we no longer build grand department stores or ornate theaters. Instead, this is an effort to define a contemporary architectural identity for Gary, one that honors the past as a foundation for shaping the future.

Fabric Building Matrix of Heights and Widths

This matrix represents possible combinations of essential elements of a fabric building; the variety of combinations all feel part of a common language.