A rendering of what the new state archives building next to the canal will look like in downtown Indianapolis. Photo from Indiana Department of Administrating.

By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Construction of a new Indiana archives building is slated to begin this summer after a yearslong search for a new site to house the state’s vast collection of historical records.

The $102 million building will be located on a narrow strip of land near the Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis, just west of the Senate Avenue Parking Garage on the Central Canal.

In June 2023, the State Budget Committee gave final approval to begin work on the 5-story, 133,000-square foot building.

State officials — including Gov. Eric Holcomb — have maintained that the new building will provide proper storage, maintenance and restoration services for archival documents.

The state archives collection has executive, legislative and judicial records dating back to Indiana’s territorial government of the 1790s, including the 1816 and 1851 state constitutions. That collection has been stored in a warehouse on the east side of Indianapolis that lacks museum-quality climate controls since being moved from the basement of the state library building during a 2001 renovation.

The move was meant to be temporary, given that the location is not equipped for long-term preservation of some of the state’s most important documents.

Matt Kent, chief financial officer at the Indiana Department of Administration, told the budget committee that the new facility will help “ensure the Indiana Archives has the adequate space they need to complete their agency mission.” The building will also “establish a safer environment for the archival records, and also make those records much easier to access for visitors,” he said.

Better Conditions For State Records

Kent said the new facility will include office space for state archives staff, as well as areas for processing and imaging state records using new technology, climate controlled storage for archive documents, and flexible space for meetings and events.

An underground tunnel connecting the new building to others around the state government campus is additionally planned.

The design and programming phases of the project are already completed.

Now, with funds approved, Kent said groundwork can begin in August at the site — currently an undeveloped plot of land. One lane each on Ohio and New York streets will be closed to facilitate construction.

Vertical construction on the new archives building is expected to start in Spring 2024, Kent said, and the facility will be ready for occupancy in late 2025 or early 2026.

Years In The Making

The new project is coming to fruition eight years after former Republican Gov. Mike Pence failed to finance the proposal as part of the state’s bicentennial celebration.

Pence’s contested plan to pay for construction by leasing out state-owned cellphone towers through a public-private partnership was scrapped by Holcomb, Pence’s successor, shortly after taking office in 2017.

State archivists and researchers have since spent years advocating for the new facility.

But settling on a site for the new archives building has been complicated. Previous site considerations included other plots in downtown Indianapolis and the site that was formerly home to the Indiana Women’s Prison.

Authorization for a new state archives building was included in the 2021 Indiana budget. An appropriation to cash-fund the construction was included in the latest two-year budget earlier this year.

State Budget Committee chairman Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, expressed discontent in June about state spending on the new archive.

“Just for the record, I think we’re going way overboard on an archives building. But I think I’m the only one who feels that way, so I’m outnumbered,” Mishler said.

Also critical was Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, who said that — rather than cash-funding the building — the state could have used its highest-possible “AAA” credit rating to borrow $30 million to $40 million years ago at lower interest rates and completed the project for fewer dollars overall.

“That’s why we’re over the top,” Delaney said about the inflated spending costs.