Architects, artists, and educators wrapped up a series of presentations this week in Columbus, Indiana, in which the illustrious group shared 13 design concepts for the fifth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, titled Yes And. Yes Ands curatorial approach is rooted in improv theater, Exhibit Columbus said. The happening invites participants and viewers to collaborate in the creation of the ongoing performance of the city and work from existing material to shape positive change.Exhibit Columbus announced that ADWO, Adaptive Operations, Studio Barnes, and Studio Cooke John are the 202425 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients last October. This came after Preservation Futures, Mila Lipinski, Too Black, Rusal Mowatt, and Could Be Design were tapped to curate the affair this past summer.Adaptive Operations,Studio Barnes,Studio Cooke John, andADWO are the latest Miller Prize winners. Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, and Kelley Van Dyck Murphy; Sarah Aziz; Akima Brackeen; Csar A. Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germn Pallares-Avitia; Suzanne Lettieri and Michael Jefferson; and Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, and Aleksandr Mergold are the research fellows. The 13 installations will be built by the teams this summer, together with fabricators, volunteers, and local high school students. Below are the project titles, renderings, locations, partners, and descriptions of each installation provided by Exhibit Columbus.J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipientsAccessing Nostalgia | Adaptive Operations | The Crump TheatreThe 136-year-old Crump Theatre is a vessel that holds the collective memory of Columbus, one that is illuminated with the projections of a not-so-distant past. Accessing Nostalgia creates new apertures, literally and metaphorically, within and around The Crump that allows a creative nostalgia to be projected; a nostalgia not for historic reenactment, nor for historic revision, but one that searches for a past perfect that can point to an idealized future. The apertures, or portals are an attempt to peel away and gaze at parts of the building that demonstrate how it has reinvented itself over its history, and how it can continue that pattern in a way that expands its access to arts and culture.The recent preservation efforts demonstrated by its diverse community of supporters show that The Crump is valued as something other than an obsolete piece of real estate. It shows that it is part of a bigger trajectory and narrative that says this is a community that values arts and culture and will prioritize this in a way that treats its built environment as an active member of that community.Ellipsis by ADWO (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Ellipsis | ADWO | Former Irwin Block Building | The Office of Downtown DevelopmentEllipsis is an architecture that excavates omitted histories while making space for the vibrant presences and emergent futures of Black and Indigenous communities in Indiana. Drawing from J. Kameron Carters meditations on the poetics of black religion as situated between the geometry of an ellipse and the literary device of an ellipsis (), the design resists a singular center, instead embracing incompletion, multiplicity, and relationality. An elliptical mound and canopy frame spaces for movement and contemplation. The projects approach to programming is conceptualized as an ellipsis and able to host gatherings and workshops to reconstruct histories that were left out of modern records. Ellipsis occupies the Irwin Block, a site where a 130-year-old building was destroyed by fire in 2022. In response to these multiple timescales of loss, Ellipsis references Indigenous land remediation techniques, particularly cultural burnings, that mythologize fire as medicine, an agent of loss and renewal enacted to maintain abundant ecosystems and to steward plant and animal life. The intervention begins with earthworks and cut-and-fill operations carving a subterranean path into the site and building a prairie mound around it. Hovering above this path and mound is a fire-treated timber canopy, providing shelter for community gatherings below.Joy Riding by Studio Barnes (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Joy Riding | Studio Barnes | Jackson Street Parking Garage | City of ColumbusJoy Riding is a multimedia experience that highlights the joyous nature of Black car culture in conversation with the iconic aesthetics of the mid-century modern architecture of Columbus. The project transforms the Jackson Street Parking Garage into a destination for music, entertainment, and civic joy. The installation consists of sculptural frames affixed to the buildings faade, reimagining the garage as a contemporary monument to the subwoofers typically found in the trunk of a classic mid-western car, as well as a bespoke, Transformer-like sound system mimicking the proportions and materials of mid-century modern furniture. When in its fully transformed state, it evokes the deep basslines central to Black car culture, underscoring how sound, ritual, and assembly have long served as catalysts for celebration. Crowning the structure, a vibrant mural collapses Columbuss iconic architecture and the standard parking stall to offer space for rituals forged by collective imagination. Over its duration, Joy Riding aims to remind visitors of the fun they had riding in the car with friends, listening to their favorite album, and finding joy in the simple pleasures of sitting in the parking lot.Lift by Studio Cooke John (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Lift | Studio Cooke John | First Christian ChurchLift is grounded in the architectural legacy of Saarinens First Christian Church that will open the sunken courtyard to new ways of connecting. It erases perceptions of a congregation that is old-fashioned, formal, and impersonal while inviting everyone to come in and experience the love and welcome of the church community made up of people from all walks of life. Lift responds to the lines and grids of the iconic building with a gridded base anchored to the lawn. Fabric moves organically through the lines of the cubes, connecting them andgenerating multiple ways of engaging within the varying spaces it creates. The fabric extends upwards, becoming kite-like, with layered, colorful textures soaring high into the air and visible from 5th Street. It calls passersby down into the courtyard. It announces that all are welcome into the space of contemplation and reflection, the spaces of whimsy and wonder, the space of a loving faith community. From below, visitors feel lifted as their gaze is drawn towards the sky, while still rooted to the earth. Lift connects the heavenly and the earthbound, the faith community and the architectural treasure, the space of the church with the space of the larger Columbus community. Research FellowsInside Out by Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, Kelley Van Dyck Murphy (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Inside Out | Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, Kelley Van Dyck Murphy | Bartholomew County Public Library and Columbus Area Visitors CenterDrawing on the playful work of Alexander Girard, this multi-story dollhouse presents a visual assemblage of Columbus architectural legacy. Alongside his well-known textiles, Girard created a three-story dollhouse for the Miller House and Garden in creative exchange with Tunsi Girard, Xenia Miller, and Eero Saarinen. Colorful dolls inhabit the Millers dollhouse interiors, and a nearby carpet illustrates the familys stories, arranging icons that recall different events that shape their collective identity. Columbus is an architectural archive, its buildings spatially arrayed throughout the city. Yet, its significant interiors remain hidden as privatized spaces or are less well-known than their exteriors. This dollhouse turns the citys architecture inside out, revealing its interiors. New dolls, designed by Columbuss youth and painted by their counterparts in St. Louis, animate the dollhouse, representing the citys diverse inhabitants. A terraced playground, recalling Girards conversation pit, surrounds the dollhouse, allowing young visitors to ascend and better view the upper levels. Like Girards carpet, the design incorporates Columbuss community stories, weaving the citys unique and varied identities into the project. This interactive installation invites imagination and discovery, reflecting Columbus multiplicitous collective identity, and offers a playful way to engage with its architectural history.View of the World from Indiana by Sarah Aziz (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)View of the World from Indiana | Sarah Aziz | Columbus PropellerView of the World from Indiana highlights how the American Midwest has long served as an intrinsic, yet under-recognized, infrastructure for a coastal discipline. With the highest concentration of architecture fellowships in the United States, the region has often been perceived as a place scholars go out to in their early careers before returning to the coast. Yet, with 44 schools of architecture, 19 fellowships, and several internationally acclaimed cultural institutionssuch as the Walker Art Center and Graham Foundationthe Flyover States are unquestionably a space of emergence. The installation comprises twelve bathtub Madonnasone for each Midwestern statethat pay homage to the areas folk art practices and enshrine a forgotten local building whose lineage can be traced back to canonical artworks. Above these tubs, a sign reading NOTHING TO SEE HERE, designed to be seen from passing planes, amplifies the regions overlooked status in contemporary architectural discourse. Through humor, irony, and historical reflection, the project reclaims the Midwests place in the conversation, reminding us that to dismiss it as empty or uninteresting is to overlook a critical hub of architectural pedagogy, practice, and progress. Pool/Side by Akima Brackeen (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Pool/Side | Akima Brackeen | Bartholomew County Public LibraryPool/Side introduces a shallow pool and elevated seating platform as both infrastructure and socio-cultural artifact at the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library Plaza. Drawing inspiration from modernist principles, the project acknowledges the deeper social histories embedded in architectural facades and building materials. This installation reimagines key elements of modern architecturereflection pools, sunken courtyards, conversation pits, and plinthsas tools for exploring themes of resilience, cultural identity, and exclusion. As a space for gathering, rest, performance, play, and reflection, Pool/Side seeks to reclaim these spatial typologies through a lens of inclusivity, imagination, and historical acknowledgment. It challenges visitors to reconsider the boundaries of public spaces and adequacy of infrastructure.The Steel Horsie by Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, and Aleksandr Mergold (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)The Steel Horsie | Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, Aleksandr Mergold | Bartholomew County Historical SocietyAs it turns out, the little grey building across Lafayette Ave from the Bartholomew County Historical Society is perhaps the lone monument to the massive railroad that once cut diagonally through the center of town. The First Christian Church now stands over a former locomotive turntable that was the center of locomotive action. Horse stables, corn cribs, wheat elevators, ice sheds, coal bunkers, and huge lumber stockpiles once crowded along the tracksidesan industrial cityscape now vanished.Between the 1890s and the 1940s, Columbus transformed from a town that relied on horses and trains to the iconic Midcentury Modern car-centric city we know now. But behind the iconic image, the past still lingers, along with a less obvious present. The automotive industry, Amazon distribution centers, and big agriculturespaces that move vast quantities of materialall lie just beyond the city limits. What is The Steel Horsie? Maybe its a train trestle or bridge, standing parallel to the trackbed? Or is it a giant draughthorse that wandered off in search of its lost stable?Evoking the lost infrastructure of the past, the Horsie is made of the pieces of the present infrastructureborrowed bales of automotive scrap from Kroots and the Citys own signposts. Below are bales of hay and cardboard to sit over striped outlines of the buildings that were once there. Within the frame are artifacts of the past, recent and more distantthe old fiberglass panels from the First Christian Church Tower images of the buildings, places, and people connected to the railroad that once rumbled nearby. In the BCHS carriage house across the way, visitors can peek into peepholes in the shed door to catch glimpses of archival footage of Columbus before the mid-century, back to an earlier modernity.Apart, Together by Michael Jefferson and Suzanne Lettieri (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Apart, Together | Michael Jefferson and Suzanne Lettieri | Ovation Plaza | Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center and Ovation Technology GroupApart, Together is an urban cinema screen consisting of multiple colors, each capable of being chroma-keyed to display different images and films. Drawing from Columbus iconic architecture and the formal and experiential qualities of kinematic op art, the scenographic installation undulates to reveal forms and sightlines as one moves around the piece.Running parallel to 4th Street, the screen establishes a new visual and spatial boundary to enclose Ovation Plaza. Embracing the Yes And theme, the Yes acknowledges the sites existing live public performances and its vision for outdoor film screenings. Meanwhile, the And takes shape as a hybrid physical-digital screen, designed to amplify content from our community partners, YES Cinema and the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center.The multi-experiential installation celebrates the plurality of individual interests, sensibilities, and preferences of the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood and consolidates them within a shared civic space to allow Columbus residents to be Apart, Together. PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS by Csar Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germn Pallares-Avita (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS | Csar Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, Germn Pallares-Avita | Central Middle School and Columbus Signature Academy Lincoln ElementaryThe public schools in Columbus showcase the creativity of many influential voices in Modern Architecture by combining striking roof forms, materials, and landscapes. While these schools celebrate imagination, we acknowledge that the classroom remains largely unexplored. They continue to reflect the past, resembling a box with a teacher-led front and back, which has historically prevented students from all backgrounds from learning in a self-determined and empowering environment.PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS draws inspiration from the dynamic roofscapes of Columbus public schools to create a variety of colorful, hard, soft, and furry platforms that break the conventional boundaries of the classroom, fostering a sense of openness and spontaneity in educational environments. This installation experiments with new arrangements for learning spaces that incorporate materials and sounds from the classroom and schoolyard to engage multiple senses, encouraging students of all ages to learn in new reposes, clusters, and heights. This outdoor classroom has no back-row students or marker boards. Instead, they will discover nooks to learn together and from one another, promoting a student-led environment.PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS extends the legacy of architectural exploration in Columbus into the classroom to bolster creativity and curiosity.Valence by members of the J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program (Courtesy Exhibit Columbus)Valence | J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program | C4 Columbus Area Career ConnectionValence was designed by the Design Education Team, a collaboration between Indiana University and high school students from the Columbus Area Career Connection (C4) program, under the joint leadership of Professor R. Spencer Steenblik of Indiana University and C4 instructor Darin Johnson.The project draws inspiration from chemical valence bonds and carbon molecular structures, incorporating these principles into its design through a patent-pending [Xyl]ode Joint system. The installation features modular, sustainable wood construction for rapid reuse and bright, colorful details.Throughout the day, the structure serves multiple functions: a morning exercise space, an outdoor classroom for architecture students, a gathering place for groups, and an evening social hub. Its design pays homage to Columbus architectural heritage while fostering new community connections.The Design Education Team emphasizes hands-on learning, with university students mentoring high school students. This collaborative approach integrates advanced computational design tools with practical craftsmanship, creating opportunities for sustainable innovation and community engagement. The pavilions sustainable design ensures its legacy beyond the exhibition period, with components that can be recycled, biodegraded, or repurposed for placemaking initiatives in nearby communities.