Columbus Architectural Tours through the Columbus Area Visitors Center are the top thing to do — daily two-hour bus tours (May–October) cover 80+ landmark buildings including Eero Saarinen's North Christian Church (1964, hexagonal with a 192-foot spire) and I.M. Pei's Cleo Rogers Memorial Library (1969, plaza with a Henry Moore sculpture).
The Miller House & Garden — Eero Saarinen's 1957 masterpiece with Alexander Girard interiors and Dan Kiley landscape — is a National Historic Landmark run by the Indianapolis Museum of Art; tours require advance reservations through the Visitors Center. First Christian Church (Eliel Saarinen, 1942) launched the town's architectural commissions and sits at 5th and Franklin.
Mill Race Park on the west side is a 90-acre Michael Van Valkenburgh-designed park with a Stanley Saitowitz Lookout Tower, a Robert A.M. Stern covered bridge and lake trails. The Cummins Corporate Office Building (Roche Dinkeloo, 1983) anchors the downtown business core.
Downtown 4th Street is walkable with independent restaurants, coffee, and boutique shops — a walkable dinner-and-drinks pairing with a Hotel Indigo stay. Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor downtown has run since 1900 with the original marble soda fountain and mechanical music organs. There is more within easy reach — Brown County State Park 30 minutes west, Bloomington 45 minutes west, and Indianapolis 50 minutes north. Spring greens up the Miller House grounds, summer runs architecture tour peak, fall pairs with Brown County color trips, and winter drops downtown rates. Seasonal highlights include Columbus Architectural Tours season (May–October, daily), Exhibit Columbus design event (biennial), Downtown Restaurant Week (spring).
