Mike Wolanin | The Republic Columbus Regional Airport Director Brian Payne unveils the design of the new control tower during a ceremony at Columbus Regional Airport in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. The new tower was designed by architecture firm Marlon Blackwell Architects.
Columbus Municipal Airport’s first air traffic control tower was built in 1942, made of wood. The next came in 1954, this time made of metal. The design for the airport’s newest 128-foot tower, unveiled Tuesday, will be made of steel and aluminum, described as “kaleidoscope of light.”
City and state officials, current and former airport employees and the public gathered outside near the shadow of the existing tower and in the basic footprint of the new tower to celebrate the airport’s history, those who contributed to it and the future.
Construction on the $11 million tower is slated to begin in May 2025 with completion in the spring of 2027, Airport Director Brian Payne said.
When he started in the role 12 years ago, the airport was running 36,000 operations a year. Payne said on Tuesday they’re on track to eclipse their annual record by 10 percent, topping more than 60,000 operations for the first time.
The increasing airport activity combined with concerns about the existing tower’s lack of accessibility and not being up to par with current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Control Tower standards led to the commissioning of the new tower.
Fayetteville, Arkansas-based firm Marlon Blackwell Architects was selected to design the futuristic structure after a grant from the Cummins Foundation Architecture Program. The airport was able to receive long sought after FAA funds last year to go towards the project.
Blackwell said he has been coming to Columbus for more than three decades, bringing his students at the University of Arkansas on field trips to get a taste of Columbus’ architectural flavor. In introducing his contribution to Columbus’ architectural history, Blackwell thanked Payne for his “vision and perseverance” in shepherding the project.
“The design is really inspired by the spirit of flight and aviation,” Blackwell said of his firm’s creation. “And it’s manifested in both form and material with streamlined aerodynamic planes shifting upward and undulating outward, and really is intended to act as an iconic, planar figure, clad in stainless steel and aluminum, not unlike what you might see on a plane.”
The number one priority for the firm in designing the tower, according to Blackwell, was to ensure the controllers and airport staff who will spend countless hours there have “a dignified and functional work environment.”
The northern and southern sides of the tower will be made of low-luster stainless steel to pick up on the temperature of the light, so depending on the sun, its color will change.
“If you catch the sunrise, you have a kind of pinkish light, if you catch the sunset, it has much more orange-purples and other types of spectrum of light,” Blackwell said.
In short remarks at the beginning of the event, Mayor Mary Ferdon discussed how Columbus’ heritage “has been to create and design structures, which are not only functional, but make us think and dream and enhance our lives in ways that we don’t expect” and thanked Marlon Blackwell Architects for their efforts.
“Now you’ve got a cherry on top of your resume with this tower in Columbus, right? It’ll be something that’ll be talked about throughout the region,” she said
Marlon Blackwell Architects worked in conjunction with aviation-focused engineering firm Woolpert on the tower. Marlon Blackwell’s longtime collaborators, Guy Nordenson and Associates, also had a hand supporting the structural design and unique identity of the project.
