Traction Yards - Team Pitch - Themed Adaptive Reuse District Concept

Project Overview

As part of Purdue University's Themed Entertainment Design Certificate, our team developed a concept proposal for Traction Yards, Hendricks Commercial Properties' adaptive reuse redevelopment of the former Circle Centre Mall in downtown Indianapolis.

Working from a real client brief, our goal was to create a community-centered destination that celebrated Indianapolis' transportation history while supporting the district's future as a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood through placemaking, storytelling, and immersive public experiences.

My Role

I served as the team's Project Lead and Project Manager, helping guide the project from early concept exploration through final presentation.

My responsibilities included:

Leading weekly team meetings and project coordination
Building the project management plan and communication workflow
Facilitating concept development and team decision-making
Developing portions of the project vision, story, and guest experience
Coordinating deliverables and presentation materials
Supporting creative direction across storytelling, moodboards, and experiential design

This project emphasized balancing creative collaboration with structured project management, allowing each team member to contribute their individual strengths while maintaining a unified vision.

Design Vision

Rather than treating Traction Yards as simply another retail destination, our concept positioned the plaza as the social heart of the district.

The experience combined:

Community gathering spaces
A heritage-inspired streetcar café
Nightly projection mapping
Adaptive reuse architecture
Historic storytelling
Flexible event programming

The goal was to create a destination where Indianapolis' past and future could coexist through everyday experiences instead of static exhibits.

Creative Process

The project followed a collaborative design process that included:

Client and site research
Historical precedent analysis
Competitive benchmarking
Moodboard development
Team voting and concept refinement
Brand identity development
Story and guest journey creation
Concept visualization
Financial feasibility exploration
Final presentation development

Early brainstorming explored numerous opportunities before the team narrowed its focus to a plaza-centered experience with projection mapping and a streetcar café as the strongest expression of the overall vision.

Highlights

Some of my favorite contributions included:

Creating the project management framework that kept our multidisciplinary team organized.
Helping shape the overarching narrative around Community in Motion, connecting Indianapolis' transportation heritage with its future identity.
Developing a projection mapping concept that transformed surrounding architecture into a storytelling canvas.
Exploring operational and financial considerations to demonstrate how experiential design can also support long-term business value.
Reflection

This project reinforced something I enjoy most about themed entertainment and experiential design: bringing together people from different creative disciplines to transform an abstract idea into a cohesive guest experience.

While my day-to-day responsibilities centered on leadership and project management, I found myself equally energized by the creative process itself, helping connect storytelling, placemaking, operations, branding, and presentation into a unified vision.

Working on a real-world adaptive reuse project for Hendricks Commercial Properties made this experience especially valuable, offering a glimpse into how immersive design concepts evolve through collaboration before ever reaching construction.