Over at 1401 Olive Street, things have seemed a bit crazy in the past couple months. For those not aware of the work going on adjacent to the lot, Jason Blankenship, owner of Indy Remodeling and Restoration, purchased the houses located at 1405 and 1345 Olive Street late last year. Below are a few pics of the current progress:
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1345 Olive (above) is behind schedule but moving along to be completed by the end of January.
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1405 Olive (above) is nearly done with the exception of the garage (below to the left). I believe that the entire second story was added as a part of this renovation.
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| An expansive deck was added to 1405 and privacy fence along the entire back yard. |
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| The red tone fence is what was installed by the Pocket Park Volunteer Crew this past Summer of 2013. The back yard of 1345 is a work in progress. |
So back in October, Jason and I verbally agreed to allow his crews to utilize the 1401 lot as staging and access for those two houses during construction. This seems to have ruffled a few feathers for local residents who thought perhaps that he was taking advantage of the arrangement!
As someone who has renovated a house or two, and with my experience as a design professional, I better understand the relationship between developers and local residents. On the surface there is an adversarial shade cast on this relationship. But if trust can be established, a true partnership can be reached which can result in a win-win situation. I believe this is what we have at 1401 Olive.
In our conversation, Jason assured me that he would leave the lot in the same or better condition as he had found it. While we are planning various improvements for the sake of the garden and play area (see this earlier post for the proposed site plan), Jason was planning on adding better quality privacy fencing to each of the above-mentioned properties and ensuring that the lot was re-seeded and cleaned up if necessary upon completion of their renovations.
I believe that allowing Jason's team to utilize the lot was the right move. We've gained a supporter, lot beautification and enormous improvements to the immediate surroundings, which would likely have taken many months had this opportunity not come along when it did. Our park is good for his future residents (i.e. his ability to sell those properties), and his renovations are good for our park. And to boot, all of this occurred during a period of time over which no one really wanted to be outside anyway!
So, Merry Christmas to everyone on Olive and Linden Streets, for the renovations and improvements so longed for are slowly transforming our block of Fountain Square into a more neighborly and beautiful place. Come Spring 2014, we'll plan a build / gardening event to begin the additional transformation of the 1401 Olive Street Pocket Park into something for which we can all care and use graciously!
PS. Stay tuned also for features on some local gardens -- I still haven't quite gotten around to posting photos from my early Fall research around SE and East Indy...
Happy New Year,
Jason Burk
1401 Olive Pocket Park Community Coordinator
