Indianapolis Speedway
Indianapolis
Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects

A Chinese pagoda in industrial materials gives an iconic image to America's most popular sport

© Gregory Murphy

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By Elizabeth Harrison Kubany

Built for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s initial race in 1911, the site’s first "pagoda" (so named because the necessary stacking of graduated levels made the building resemble a Chinese pagoda), the precursor to the modern-day control tower, housed scoring and race-control functions. The pagoda burned down in 1925 and was replaced by a similar structure. In 1957, a steel and glass structure replaced the former wood building.

In 1998, the track announced that the Grand Prix would race there beginning in 2000. Three different races (Indy, NASCAR, and Formula One) with three different types of cars having varying sets of facilities requirements meant that the Speedway needed a major upgrade. Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf (BDMD), an architecture firm based in Indianapolis, was commissioned to improve the existing facilities and to design the necessary new ones.

Five structures were built to provide the spaces required by the international sanctioning group. The first, a nine-story, 100,000-square-foot control tower, replaced the 1957 structure.

The new 153-foot-tall building borrows iconography from both the 1911 and 1957 buildings and, as a result, looks like a contemporary concrete, galvanized steel and glass version of the original Chinese pagoda. At alternate levels, the exposed galvanized structural steel (the same material used in the miles of bleacher seats that surround the building) cantilevers to provide exterior viewing decks. The tension-glass curtain-wall system allows unobstructed views to the cars.

Other facilities built as part of this project include garage buildings, a media building for 700 journalists, team offices, and a catering facility.

With more than 250,000 permanent seats, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the world’s largest sporting venue. Three times a year, these seats are completely filled. But, because the building is host to only three events a year, the complex is starkly empty most of the time and the building is in "quiet repose," says Hess. So the architects had to design something visually interesting that could hold its own even when surrounded by miles of empty grandstands. Using vernacular Chinese forms and modern materials, they were able to produce a structure that affords color to the complex even when the complex is totally empty.

See the May 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Control Tower and Formula One Support Facilities

Location:
Indianapolis

Gross square footage:
Control Tower – 100,000 sq.ft.
Garage / Suites Building – 75,000 sq.ft.
Media Building – 65,000 sq.ft.

Owner:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation
www.brickyard.com

Architect:
Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf Architects
334 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: (317) 635-5030
Fax: (317) 634-5409
www.bdmd.com