Photo provided An artist’s rendition of the Columbus Municipal Airport’s planned new tower, designed by Arkansas-based architect Marlon Blackwell.
Funding for the new air traffic control tower at Columbus Municipal Airport is officially in order, with construction set to begin next month.
The city announced that the project recently received an additional $17.2 million in grant funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bringing the total funding for the project to $29.2 million. The project received an initial $10 million from the FAA, $1 million in Columbus Municipal Airport funds and $1 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) before being awarded this grant. That means the city now has all the funds required to build the 128-foot-tall tower designed by Fayetteville, Arkansas-based firm Marlon Blackwell Architects, according to airport officials.
“I greatly appreciate the support shown by the FAA in the award of this grant,” said Brian Payne, Columbus Municipal Airport director. “The collaborative nature between architect, contractor and the airport shows a clear vision toward enhancing the rich architectural heritage of Columbus.”
The new structure will replace the airport’s existing 80-year-old tower and will align with current FAA air traffic control tower standards, including sighting, backup cooling and power, security, fire and life safety.
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. It was described as a “kaleidoscope of light” by the designers during an unveiling in June 2024.
Columbus-based Force Construction Company, Inc. was picked to build the tower, in collaboration with the FAA and Woolpert, an aviation-focused engineering firm. The project had been supported by a design grant from the Cummins Foundation Architecture Program.
“More than a piece of infrastructure, our hope is that the new Columbus Municipal Airport Air Traffic Control Tower will become a beacon of Columbus’s architectural and design heritage, that will mark the airport as a new civic hub and provide a key gateway into the City,” Marlon Blackwell said in a press release.
Electronics in the tower will still need to be bid out and airport officials said it’s still unclear when the old tower will be demolished. The total resulting improvements on the airfield could be up to $34 million.
The new tower has already garnered attention in the architectural world after being nominated in the Future Project: Infrastructure category at the World Architecture Festival, taking place from Wednesday to Friday in Miami. The Columbus Tower nomination sits among ten other designs from around the world.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project is set for next Monday. Construction is expected to start in December, with completion scheduled for the summer of 2027.
