A Small Arts-Based Neighborhood Micro-Economy Connects People to Place

The Wabash Neighborhood in Lafayette, Indiana has amplified the community’s positive momentum into resident-driven enhancements and development opportunities.

The Wabash Neighborhood, located just a short walk from Downtown Lafayette, is a place with a strong history and sense of community, where residential and industrial uses have co-existed for decades. The Wabash Avenue corridor threads the needle between the Wabash River and an active CSX/NS rail line, both of which have shaped the neighborhood as it exists today. The small neighborhood includes approximately 200 mostly single-family homes and several important commercial anchors and employers.

The neighborhood occupies approximately 150 acres, about 50 of which are in the regulatory floodway and 100-year floodplain along the Wabash River.

The Wabash Neighborhood is a historic and stable neighborhood with a rich history that grounds this place and the people who live here. The neighborhood is home to multiple generations of families and young couples. It is a collection of artists, craftspeople, entrepreneurs, business owners, and more, creating a unique and robust micro-economy with an increasing focus on the arts.

While this neighborhood is small, its active neighborhood association (Wabash Avenue Neighborhood Association), Habitat for Humanity, and Wabash CAN steering committee, came together to mobilize an energetic group of engaged residents and advocates sharing a passion for strengthening the Wabash Neighborhood and supporting its residents. 

Recent momentum created by the Wabash Walls—a public art initiative by the Tippecanoe Arts Federation dedicated to rebuilding and beautifying the Wabash Avenue neighborhood by engaging artists to transform blank spaces into works of art—is a catalyst for further place-based investment.

Wabash Walls photo credits (left to right, top to bottom) Cobre, 2019; Nicole Salgar, 2019; Jenna Morello, Camer1, Nico, Zach Medler, fasm, Chiwi, Geoff, Cobre, 2018.

Neighborhood residents, under the guidance and funding of the City of Lafayette, and working with MKSK, engaged in an eight-month process to prepare a multi-faceted enhancement plan. Residents identified priorities for the riverfront, neighborhood streets, targeted redevelopment, and an enhanced brand for the Wabash Neighborhood.

The celebrated “Boldly Wabash” plan is a clear, implementable neighborhood vision encapsulating the community’s desire for a strengthened sense of place that centers on Wabash Avenue and radiates into the neighborhood. The four guiding principles of this vision are to “Celebrate the Avenue”: Wabash Avenue is the spine of the community; “Rediscover the River”: The Wabash River is our history and our legacy; “Let Wabash Grow”: Welcome new residents and businesses; and “Keep Wabash Special”: The community is special - let’s keep it that way!

The understanding of the neighborhood was shaped by community meetings, stakeholder interviews, and the planning team’s physical analysis. Meetings were interactive, fun, and solidified neighborhood support around the process and the plan’s recommendations and concepts.

The future of the Wabash Neighborhood is bold! The BOLDLY WABASH branding strategy celebrates those neighborhood aspects that make and keep this place special.

The Wabash Neighborhood has embraced a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reposition the Wabash riverfront as a signature park with distinctly programmed areas. Working with the community, MKSK helped to frame a strategy that connects to the history of Wabash River, supports the hands-on, do-it-yourself energy of the neighborhood’s residents, fosters entrepreneurship and the local artist community, and remakes the riverfront as a destination.