Regional Businesses Unite for 45th annual Monumental Awards

Across the Indy region, citizens wake up every morning, commute to and from the office, hopefully, enjoy a walk for lunch stroll and a delicious meal, and end their day with family and maybe a trip to the local park. And at every point throughout our day, we're engaging with our built environment in ways that deepen our community pride and increase our quality of life without even realizing it. The built environment touches all aspects of our lives, encompassing the buildings where we live, work, and play, the distribution systems that provide water and electricity, and the roads, bridges, and transportation systems we use to get from place to place.

The Indy Chamber's Monumental Awards exist to showcase the region's best and brightest in our built environment—one that's stronger due to the tireless work of companies across the region. The ceremony and initiatives surrounding it, celebrate the contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers, and designers who make up the Indiana built environment.  We are fortunate to work in an area where all of these companies thrive on partnering with one another to bring new projects to our community.

This October, the Monumental Awards will recognize nine distinctive categories, which include; architecture, construction, engineering, innovative reuse, interior design, landscape architecture, neighborhood revitalization, public art, and real estate development. A successfully built environment is one that supports community health, public safety, accessibility, and inclusion. Furthermore, all of these factors are critically important to fostering strong relationships between people and places.

Designing in the built environment often requires consideration of placemaking, a participatory process that helps shape public space that harnesses the ideas and assets of the people who use it. When done well, placemaking strengthens connections between communities and people in a way that results in innovation, inclusion, and community-building. By recognizing companies that are excelling in strengthening the built environment, we hope we're inspiring other professionals to think bigger—whether they're designing large, transformative projects or working on smaller, more contained footprints.

Beyond impacting residents, neighborhoods, and cities, Indy's built environment plays a critical role in our region's economic development strategy. Talent attraction tactics revolve around good jobs, an attractive environment, and a community that companies and employees can easily engage with. An Indy region that entices knowledgeable, diverse, and innovative workers is contingent upon a strong built environment, which drives the importance of the Monumental Awards. The event recognizes the physical structures that propel our region forward in a way that makes Indy more inclusive for all.

Last year, submissions came from seven counties across Central Indiana and represented over 70 different projects that contributed to bettering Indy's built environment. Projects resulted in environmental improvements, job creation and growth, enhanced living and socializing space, and new sustainability practices.

If you work in the built environment, we invite you to participate in the 45^th annual Monumental Awards. Submissions are due by July 1 and can be submitted online at indychamber.com. If you live in Central Indiana's nine-county region, I look forward to seeing you at my favorite event of the year—the Monumental Awards, on October 5, welcome to all.

Lynn Busby, Monumental Awards Chairperson & Director of Community Outreach at m2 Performance Strategies, can be reached at [email protected].