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PROJECT BACKGROUND
Constructed in the 1970s in Muncie’s Thomas Park-Avondale Neighborhood, the Ross Community Center has been through the economic rise and decline of heavy industrial manufacturing. The closure of many factories, including the GM factory across the street, left the city and neighborhood with decreased tax revenue, residual brownfields, abandoned factories, and declining neighborhood connectivity. By the early 2000s, public funding cuts for community centers left neighborhoods without central gathering spaces to encourage safe recreation and a positive sense of place, especially for neighborhood youth.
Neighborhoods adjacent to the abandoned factories fell into extreme decline, especially as brownfields and abandoned factories became central to neighborhood identities. The GM factory continued to fall into disrepair until 2013, when several philanthropic community partners, such as the Ball Brothers Foundation and IU Health, identified the Ross Community Center as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization and long-term community support. Around the same time, an ad hoc organization called the 812-coalition began working collaboratively with local organizations and ministries to offer health, housing, and social programming aid to those most affected living in and around the abandoned factories. As social structures declined over the years, the area became more susceptible to extreme addiction, mental health issues, and the increased need for social services. The Ross Community Center became a hub for neighborhood youth after school by providing additional meals, homework assistance, and safe recreational activities through neighborhood partnerships.
Flatland Resources led the master planning, design development, and phased implementation of the sports complex, transforming a contaminated and underutilized site into a multi-functional community space.
PROJECT PERSONNEL
DAVID
project lead
+project manager
+project designer
As a part of continued efforts to support the Thomas Park-Avondale neighborhood, Ball State University School of Architecture partnered with the Ross Community Center during their “Design Week” initiative. Design Week is a student-based architecture intensive where students connect with a local organization or local need to come up with multiple designs for the same design parameter. The Ross Center project focused on designing an outdoor community space based on residents’ expressed need for sports, recreation, community engagement, green space, and gardens. Design parameters included the physical space of 7 acres of parking lots that had been sitting unused since the closure of General Motors. After Design Week, Flatland Resources was tasked with using the student-generated results as a starting point for a Ross Center Sports Complex that grew into a comprehensive masterplan with continued neighborhood input.
The 7-acre parking lot came with some limitations, as it was tied to pollutants left over from the factory that restricted how the lot could be used or repurposed. It required extensive planning in both design and construction phasing. The Master Plan included a large greenspace for field sports, three baseball/softball fields, a neighborhood playground, and a community garden, all connected by a 2-mile walking trail around the entire site. The site now serves as a regional base in East Central Indiana for an intercity baseball league for youth, junior, and senior leagues.
BASEBALL FIELDS
BASEBALL FIELDS
A multi-year project seemed to be overwhelming. Fortunately, the broad capacity of FlatLand Resources created ease for the Ross Community Center. They prepared our grants, designed and built our fields and park within the funds awarded to us.
- Jacqueline Hanoman. Executive Director
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