A Permanent Home for Indiana’s History
For over two decades, Indiana’s state archives — including the original 1816 Constitution that established statehood and the 1851 Constitution that governs the state today — were stored in a warehouse on the east side of Indianapolis. The move was supposed to be temporary during a 2001 library renovation. It lasted more than 20 years.
Documents over 200 years old sat in a facility without museum-grade climate controls. That changed when Governor Holcomb and the Indiana General Assembly authorized construction of a purpose-built archives building, funded through a $35 million appropriation in the 2021 state budget and additional construction funding in House Enrolled Act 1001 (2023).
The result: a $102 million, 130,000 square foot, five-story facility on the Canal Walk in downtown Indianapolis — designed to safeguard Indiana’s historical records for the next 75+ years.
The Site
The building sits at 350 W. Ohio Street, on a narrow strip of land between the Indianapolis Canal Walk and the Senate Avenue Parking Garage. The parking garage was constructed in the early 1990s with an intentional setback to accommodate a future building on this exact site.
Even with that foresight, the construction challenges were significant:
- Zero-lot conditions — The structure extends to all property boundaries with no setback room
- Landlocked site — Bordered by the canal (west), parking garage (east), Ohio Street (south), and New York Street (north)
- Two tower cranes required for material handling due to the constrained footprint
- Hydro mobiles deployed along the canal-facing west side in place of traditional lifts
- Off-peak delivery scheduling and just-in-time logistics to manage limited staging area
- Lane closures on both Ohio and New York Streets during construction
What’s Being Built
The Archives Building is designed to balance two missions: preserving centuries-old records under strict environmental controls and making those records accessible to the public.
Archival Storage (Four Floors):
- Four of five floors contain windowless storage areas — eliminating UV exposure to protect sensitive documents
- Advanced HVAC and MEP systems maintaining precise temperature, humidity, and UV controls
- Compact shelving systems across all four storage floors
- Conservation lab for restoration and repair of historical records
- State Imaging and Microfilm Laboratory for digitization and reformatting
- Climate-controlled microfilm vault
Public and Administrative Spaces:
- Glass jewel-box entry at the south corner, hovering above the Canal Walk — designed to beckon the public inside
- Two-story reading room with display cases for historical documents
- Document processing and imaging areas with current digitization technology
- Rooftop terrace available to state departments for events
- Underground tunnel beneath the Senate Avenue Parking Garage connecting to the broader government campus
Exterior:
- Indiana limestone and Jura Gray limestone facade, selected to harmonize with the Indiana State House
- GammaStone Natural Air ventilated rainscreen panels providing thermal and acoustic insulation
- Interior features include exposed concrete columns, wood paneling, and intricate ceiling systems
Our Role
MVGeneral embedded a project engineer directly on the Pepper Construction team, providing hands-on project engineering support through the construction phases. RATIO Architects led the building design, with Guidon Design serving as architect of record for interior architecture.
Our PE’s day-to-day responsibilities on this project included:
- Submittal and RFI processing — Managing the documentation flow between the field, the owner, and the design team on a project with highly specialized archival systems
- Field verification — Verifying field measurements and maintaining accurate as-built documentation across a five-story structure on a zero-lot site
- Subcontractor coordination — Communicating with and directing subcontractors in a constrained environment where sequencing and logistics demanded precision
- Owner and architect communication — Providing clear, consistent updates on project status, budget, and schedule to the State of Indiana and the design team
- Quality reporting — Processing quality reports to ensure work met the exacting standards required for a 75-year archival facility
On a $102 million state-funded project with this level of technical complexity and public visibility, every detail in the documentation chain matters. That’s where MVGeneral’s project engineer operated — keeping the information flowing so the project kept moving.
Project Team
- State of Indiana (IDOA / IARA) — Owner
- Pepper Construction — Construction Manager
- RATIO Architects — Design Architect
- Guidon Design — Architect of Record (Interior)
- MVGeneral Construction Services — Project Engineering
Status
The Archives Building celebrated its topping out in December 2024, with the Governor signing the final exterior beam. Substantial completion is expected in late 2025, after which Indiana’s historical records — including the founding documents of statehood — will finally have a permanent, purpose-built home in the heart of downtown Indianapolis.
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