Architecture of Kansas City
Major buildings by some of the world's most distinguished architects and firms include McKim, Mead and White; Jarvis Hunt; Wight and Wight; Graham, Anderson, Probst and White; Hoit, Price & Barnes; Frank Lloyd Wright; the Office of Mies van der Rohe; Barry Byrne; Edward Larrabee Barnes; Harry Weese; and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Prominent citizens settled in the Quality Hill neighborhood and commissioned fine homes primarily in Italianate Renaissance Revival style, which continued to be the major influence for new structures into the 20th century.
[1] Municipal Auditorium, the Kansas City Power and Light Building, and Jackson County Courthouse have been called "three of the nation's Art Deco treasures".
[2]: 23 J.C. Nichols, a prominent developer of commercial and residential real estate, developed the Country Club Plaza (by Edward Buehler Delk and Edward Tanner), and was active in the promotion of lasting architectural landmarks such as the Liberty Memorial (Harold Van Buren Magonigle), and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Wight and Wight).
Then, KCMO gained many of its modern glass skyscrapers, including One Kansas City Place, which is the tallest building in Missouri at 623 feet (190 m).
This includes T-Mobile Center arena (2007), the Power & Light District entertainment development (2007), the Bloch Building featuring contemporary artwork added to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (2007), H&R Block World Headquarters located in the Power & Light District (2006), the 2555 Grand office building near Crown Center (2003), Charles Evans Whittaker Federal Courthouse in the Government District (2000), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (1994), American Century Towers by the Country Club Plaza (1991 and 1994), Bartle Hall Convention Center expansion adding the iconic 4 towers with artwork atop each (1994), and the biotechnology and medical institution situated near UMKC Stowers Institute for Medical Research (1994).
In the late 1800s, architectural leadership of the booming Kansas City included architect James Oliver Hogg[3] and Superintendent of Buildings A. Wallace Love.
[4][3] The upper class, especially those living at the segment of Troost Avenue nicknamed Millionaire's Row,[5] considered the European castellated style to be in vogue.
[6] Its 20-foot (6.1 m) castellated towers, parapet walls, and Scotch coping were inspired by 16th century Europe's Romanesque Revival architecture[3] to give "the impression of an ancient taronial castle".
It was built for $75,000 (equivalent to about $2,543,000 in 2023),[8] with walls of solid stone from a quarry at 2nd and Lydia, based on his love of the Tudor architecture of castles seen in his travels to England and Scotland.
[5] Louis Curtiss designed the Boley Clothing Company Building, which is renowned as "one of the first glass curtain wall structures in the world".
[2]: 29 The six-story building also features cantilever floor slabs, cast iron structural detailing, and terra cotta decorative elements.
Wright based his design on a parallelogram including some features previously conceived for his last building for Johnson Wax Company, along with a unique spire of light.
The auditorium was reduced from 1,200 to 900 seats, many details were eliminated, and the building was sheathed in gunite, a form of lightweight concrete, over Wright's objections.
The spire is generated by four 16 inches (410 mm) xenon bulbs ignited by 40,000 volts, combined with a parabolic reflector to produce 300 million candela per light and totaling a nearly perfect column of 1.2 billion cp.
Architect Helmut Jahn's first major work was the revolutionary design for Kemper Arena, which has no columns blocking sight lines and was built in 18 months, in time to attract the 1976 Republican National Convention.
It is located south of downtown at the intersection of Southwest Tfwy and 31st Street, directly across from the Fox 4 News building and towers, and on the same block as Penn Valley skatepark.
Landmark Tower earned the First Honor Award in 1964 from the American Institute of Architects and was featured in a 1965 exhibit by New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Gastinger Walker Harden Architects is working with the developers on the renovations, respecting the original design, which was inspired by the "International" style.
It was originally built to inspire urban renewal in the previously dilapidated area; however, after a period of misuse, the building itself fell into deep disrepair.
