Buckingham Companies and the Indianapolis Museum of Art today announced that they are collaborating on the art program for The Alexander, a new hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Part of CityWay, a new four-block neighborhood encompassing residential, retail, offices spaces, a YMCA and public park, The Alexander—managed by Dolce hotels and resorts—will feature more than 40 works by more than 20 contemporary artists. The hotel is slated to open this fall.
Acclaimed artist Jorge Pardo has been commissioned to design The Alexander’s second-floor bar-lounge, including the furniture, lighting fixtures, and surface treatments, as well as a monumental chandelier for the hotel’s grand stairway. Site-specific commissions are also being created for all of the hotel’s public spaces, including a luminous floor-to-ceiling abstract sculpture by Alyson Shotz, and an outdoor installation by Jaume Plensa.
Buckingham Companies is paying a fee to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for the curatorial services they are providing by selecting artists for CityWay. CityWay is a 14-acre development that is transforming a former parking lot and underutilized spaces into a dynamic neighborhood that connects downtown Indianapolis to the Eli Lilly campus and is easily accessible from many of the city’s existing cultural districts. In addition to the 209-room Alexander hotel, CityWay will encompass a new state-of-the-art YMCA, four-acre public park, restaurants, residences, office space, and retail. Modifications to some of the existing infrastructure, including narrowing some of the streets, and adding landscaped medians, will make the area more pedestrian friendly.