Halstead Architects Share

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Hal­stead Archi­tects was found­ed in Indi­anapo­lis in 1993, and has become a strong stake­hold­er in Mar­i­on since adding a sec­ond office here in 2008. They are cur­rent­ly cel­e­brat­ing their 10^th anniver­sary in Mar­i­on. The local office start­ed with 1 – 2 employ­ees, and is grow­ing to 6 includ­ing own­er & founder, Mike Hal­stead, by this summer.

The deci­sion 10 years ago to add a brick & mor­tar office in Mar­i­on stemmed from the work they had under­tak­en for orga­ni­za­tions and con­trac­tors and the rela­tion­ships they were build­ing. At the time, the promi­nent local archi­tect, Ger­ald Guy, was retir­ing, and Hal­stead was encour­aged by the pos­i­tive direc­tion the city was head­ed. Con­trac­tors encour­aged them to start an office local­ly, so Hal­stead bought a build­ing on South Wash­ing­ton Street in down­town Mar­i­on, ren­o­vat­ed it, and set up shop.

Part­ner, Michelle Doyle, said their expan­sion into Mar­i­on has cre­at­ed a pos­i­tive tra­jec­to­ry for the firm. Hal­stead took on projects such as the exte­ri­or ren­o­va­tion and mur­al wall of the Com­mu­ni­ty School of the Arts, the new con­struc­tion of River­side Com­mu­ni­ty Fed­er­al Cred­it Union, and the trans­for­ma­tion of an old bowl­ing alley into the chic Plaza Green Apartments.

Cur­rent events with Hal­stead Archi­tects are gen­er­at­ing ener­getic chat­ter with their recent pur­chase and restora­tion of the his­toric Marks Build­ing. The firm’s ambi­tious time­line for ren­o­va­tion is actu­al­ly hold­ing true thus far as they plan to have their office suite on the 2^nd floor of the build­ing move-in ready by ear­ly June. The main floor is being ​“white-boxed” for move-in ease for a new ten­ant of whom they hope to oper­ate a restau­rant, brew­ery, or cof­fee shop. In addi­tion, a one-bed­room mar­ket-rate apart­ment on the 2^nd floor behind Halstead’s new office will be ready to lease out lat­er this summer.

Hal­stead Archi­tects is a gen­er­al prac­tice firm spe­cial­iz­ing in com­mer­cial, com­mu­ni­ty, mul­ti­fam­i­ly hous­ing, retail, reli­gious, and his­toric preser­va­tion work. Their mis­sion is to pro­vide reli­able, pro­gres­sive, and com­mu­ni­ty-con­scious archi­tec­ture. Hal­stead is known for many projects in and around Indi­anapo­lis and they have devel­oped into a promi­nent resource in Marion.

Doyle added, ​“I’m very excit­ed to see all of the ener­gy and devel­op­ment down­town. Groups are work­ing togeth­er, tak­ing advan­tage of our assets such as the Mis­sissinewa Riv­er, YMCA, and the Car­di­nal Green­way. This devel­op­ment [recent build­ing pur­chas­es and active projects among sev­er­al groups] is long over­due, but I’m excit­ed to see how it unfolds in the next cou­ple years. We have a great asset in all of our build­ings; our for­tu­itous past has paved ways for a great future with oppor­tu­ni­ties.” Doyle explained that Marion’s res­i­dents are tak­ing a pos­i­tive turn. ​“I’m excit­ed about all the work that cit­i­zens are doing. As a firm, we hope to be an inte­gral part of it. We want to keep serv­ing the City of Marion.”

Sub­mit­ted by:

Lay­la Price, Board Secretary

Main Street Marion