Downtown Fort Wayne is booming… but first, there was The Landing.
At One Lucky Guitar, we’re able to look out our windows at 1301 Lafayette Street and take in all the momentum swirling around us in the heart of Fort Wayne.
Every week it seems like a new restaurant is popping up down the street, a business is opening their doors, or another exciting event is being unveiled—whether it be a comedy show, a block party or a destination music and arts festival…
This city is electric.
And we owe much of today’s cultural energy to the rich history that The Landing started cultivating nearly 185 years ago.
Back in October 2016, a handful of OLG’ers took a trip to Cincinnati with Greater Fort Wayne, Inc. to tour their Over-the-Rhine neighborhood with Cincy developers, The Model Group. (Shoutout to Kirk Moriarty of GFW for organizing the trip and for loving Bruce with his whole, big and beautiful heart.)
We walked around, saw many of the amazing murals, explored the shops and witnessed a once-dilapidated row of storefronts people used to sprint by instead of saunter pass, now booming with energy and optimism around every renovated corner.
Our group from Fort Wayne felt pretty kindred to that place, Over-the-Rhine. I’m not saying Fort Wayne’s Landing is dilapidated… hell, every now and then a group of my high school pals and I will walk through C-Street and dance around like we’ve just freshly turned 21 and have a real time. But, I think we all know there’s so much more promise hovering above Columbia Street that can fill some of those empty buildings, utilize the entire street, and reel everyone in.
And that’s just what The City of Fort Wayne, Greater Fort Wayne Inc., the Downtown Development Trust and The Model Group are doing—along with the help of countless others.
OLG was engaged to provide a brand look, campaign theme and kickoff video that captured the future of The Landing, while using footage of what’s currently there now, to help inspire everyone to see the vision. And feel the momentum that we get to witness every day just by looking out our windows.
“The Landing Unveiled” premiered at a community-wide event held at the Arts United Center, and you could feel the excitement* in the room as The Model Group presented their initial renderings and announced some of the businesses that would be calling The Landing home.
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Witnessing all of this improvement in our city and working with some of the greatest leaders in Fort Wayne is truly inspiring and it has pushed us to do our best work for all involved.
See you on The Landing, y’all!
Emma
* We took a tour of the Arts United Center a few months ago when OLG started getting more in-depth planning our work for the Arts Campus, and excitement from The Landing presentation carried through, even then. Susan Mendenhall, President of Arts United, was leading us through one of the practice spaces and was showing off a huge, brilliant window designed by Louis Kahn, that looked down the street in the direction of The Landing…
SM: “And just imagine—once the Arts Campus is done—people can take in a performance at ArtsLab, walk across to the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and down to Freimann Square, across the street and then onto The Landing to enjoy a Bravas dog…”
Hook, line and sinker, Susan! I’m there.
Read more about the unveiling, here.
