Cummins selects firm to design downtown office building

Cummins Inc. announced Tuesday morning that it has selected New York-based Deborah Berke Partners to design its global distribution headquarters in downtown Indianapolis.

The $30 million project, slated for four acres on the former site of Market Square Arena, calls for office space for up to 400 Cummins employees, ground-floor retail, a parking garage and green space.

The Columbus, Indiana-based diesel engine manufacturer has a long history of embracing inspiring architecture, commissioning famous architects to design its facilities as well as local municipal buildings, schools and churches.

“We are thrilled to have Deborah Berke Partners join us in our effort to extend Cummins’ architectural legacy to Indianapolis,” Marya Rose, Cummins’ chief administrative officer, said in a prepared statement. “They share our vision to create a space that inspires employees, customers, community residents and visitors.”

In selecting Deborah Berke, Cummins also announced that it has named Ratio Architects Inc. as the local architect of record for the project and F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc. as construction manager.

Cummins chose Deborah Berke from two other New York-based architectural firms that it also was considering—SHoP Architects and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

Founded in 1982 by Deborah Berke, the firm’s portfolio includes commercial, hospitality, institutional and residential projects in the United States, as well as in Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.

Cummins announced in March its plans to build the project downtown, south of a mixed-use project under development by Flaherty & Collins Properties. The firm's headquarters will remain in Columbus.

The company will purchase the four-acre site bounded by Market, Alabama, Washington and New Jersey streets from the city for $4.3 million. The city said it will invest $3.3 million in infrastructure improvements and parking on the site and abate 70 percent of the development’s property taxes for 10 years.

Construction is expected to begin within the next six months, with the building opening by late 2016.