Columbus Area Visitors Center

If you’re reading this, you likely already know that Columbus, a town of only 45,000 people located in the middle of the Indiana cornfields, is internationally known for its modernist architecture, and is home to about 60 significant buildings, six of which are designated as National Historic Landmarks. Back in the 1940s, J. Irwin Miller, the heir to the Cummins diesel engine fortune (the company is based there) made a deal with the city: He would pay the architect fees for anyone who wanted to put up a structure there, so long as they chose off of his carefully curated list of modernist architects. As a result of his generosity, Columbus has more architectural significance per capita than any other place on the planet.
The Columbus Visitors Center does a good job of showcasing Miller’s legacy, and offers a variety of bus tours. I’d recommend skipping those though, as the downtown is very walkable, and it’s a lot of fun to wander around in at your own pace and gawk at all the amazing buildings. Start out with the short video they show in the auditorium before tours (see website for times), and then purchase a self-​guided tour packet ($ 10), which consists of a map and a set of cards describing each of the downtown buildings (you can call a number on your cell phone and punch in the code that corresponds to each building, for a detailed recorded narration). After you’re done with the downtown, you can get in your car and check out some of the more outlying structures –the Visitors Centers staff is very friendly, and they’ll point you in the right direction, depending on what you’re interested in. If you’re in Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, Columbus (Ohio) or Cincinnati, this makes a great centerpiece to an overnight getaway here.

The tour is over hyped. Visit this church across from the visitor center and the North Christian Church by E. Saarinen, that alone makes a visit to Columbus worthwhile.

If you happen to find yourself in Columbus, IN, this is the place to stop to get filled on all of the touristy happenings of the town and surrounding areas. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. This place is stocked with brochures that provide a variety of suggested activities.
The Visitor’s Center is part information hub, part gift shop (reminiscent to the IMA in Indianapolis), and part tour hub central. This is the starting point for the tours of Columbus, which includes as an Architecture Tour, Miller House and Garden Tour that has varying options, and a Downtown Walking Tour. They can also provide a map of a self guide architecture tour that you can take at your own leisure.
They do show different films prior to each tour. The videos focus are geared towards the tour that is about to depart. They did happen to show my friend a video even though there wasn’t a tour occurring at that time.
If you wish to take any guided tour, I seriously recommend booking the tour in advance. In some cases, 4+ weeks as most of the tours have extremely limited capacity, especially the Miller House Tour. The prices on the tours vary, but are extremely reasonable. It cost $ 20 a piece, $ 22 after taxes and fees, for the Architecture Tour and Miller House and Garden Tour.
There is free parking in their lot and on the weekend, there was street parking if the lot was full, and there was no time limits.
Also, if you are a Dale Chihuly fan, you can check out his Yellow Chandelier and Persians piece near the stair case of the visitors center.

What a wonderful little town. Her Majesty picked up a library book called 1001 places to see in the U.S. before you die. I was going to a week long woodworking class near here (See Marc Adams School of Woodworking), & we found this gem about an hour South of Indy. The story of the guy who was instrumental in bringing world class architecture to the middle of cow pie Indiana is Amazing. He wanted to lure the brightest minds to work for his Engine company & figured that to lure them, you have to have good schools. He went to the school system, & offered to cover the architect’s fees if they would use the design. The schools said sure, the architect’s plans were ground breaking, & a few more schools later, architects wanted to come to Columbus.
We took the 2 hour bus tour, & found lots of very interesting things to look at in this small city. There is a walking tour, an audio tour, and a couple of movies in the visitor’s center. We enjoyed 3 days in Columbus & didn’t see any litter, any grafitti, & even more important for Chicago folks NO PARKING METERS ! ! This is a great weekend getaway. We used a package with the Hilton Garden Inn, & recommend it, although there are others available.