KCRag Forum

Union Station


This shows how the station could have been expanded out the back, at least in early designs.


Municipal Group

Liberty Memorial





Notice the layout of the stairs.


Crosstown Center




Louis Kahn Office Building (Apparently his last design)












KCI

Location of a Proposed Fourth Terminal

Multipurpose Dome




Truman Sports Complex






Kansas City Place (I've seen this image with a key identifying the names of the buildings, but I couldn't find it again)

World of Oz Theme Park (Apparently this would have been built over the ruins of the Sunflower Ammunition Plant...)





Law Building Rehab

AMC Entertainment District



1032 Main Tower


Power and Light District


Modern Roof for Truman Sports Complex





Downtown Baseball Stadium


Three Trails






South Loop Cap

Kauffman Center






Plaza High-rise


Convention Hotel

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/31/reale ... ml?mcubz=3
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/18/busin ... -mall.html

Almost forgot about this one.
West Edge





Demolition....

Nice!

It still blows my mind that the West Edge got built and then torn down.

I don't even remember the West Edge project. What's the story behind it?

It was supposed to be Bernstein-Rein's new HQ, and it started being built as a Moshe Safdie design, then the developer got in a fight with JE Dunn over something or other and construction stopped and the partially-built structure sat for a few years before being sold, torn down, and rebuilt to house Polsinelli. I think. There were several years of madness surrounding the whole deal, with the building being sold back and forth between several different companies, at least one bankruptcy, and a reasonably lovely Safdie design that got turned into scrap metal because nobody wanted it.

Something like that, anyway. It's fairly convoluted.

.

Very interesting article about the Oz theme park.

http://www.thegoddardgroup.com/blog/ind ... rd-part-1/

mean wrote:It was supposed to be Bernstein-Rein's new HQ, and it started being built as a Moshe Safdie design, then the developer got in a fight with JE Dunn over something or other and construction stopped and the partially-built structure sat for a few years before being sold, torn down, and rebuilt to house Polsinelli. I think. There were several years of madness surrounding the whole deal, with the building being sold back and forth between several different companies, at least one bankruptcy, and a reasonably lovely Safdie design that got turned into scrap metal because nobody wanted it.

Something like that, anyway. It's fairly convoluted.

There was claims a construction payment was not made for so long that work was purposefully stopped.

The parking garage was saved.

The replacement building ended up being minorly damaged in the explosion across the street. I forget it that created any delay or not.

They didn't have the money to finish the building as designed anyway. It wasn't like we had an architectural icon and knocked it down. It was a completely unworkable project of hubris that nearly ruined businesses close by.

Vol. 2
1910 Union Station Plans (These are in a hallway in Union Station)



A lot of these next ones came from this book

Union Station Development

Union Station as Botanical Garden (With a....submarine?!)

Science Museum Between the Plaza and Theis Park

Science City




Crawford Architects KCI



JLL KCI



KCI Mystery Design

Burns & McDonnell KCI





AECOM KCI






Alternative Streetcar Color Scheme


Union Station Expansions



Chastain's Union Station Transportation Hub

flyingember wrote:

mean wrote:It was supposed to be Bernstein-Rein's new HQ, and it started being built as a Moshe Safdie design, then the developer got in a fight with JE Dunn over something or other and construction stopped and the partially-built structure sat for a few years before being sold, torn down, and rebuilt to house Polsinelli. I think. There were several years of madness surrounding the whole deal, with the building being sold back and forth between several different companies, at least one bankruptcy, and a reasonably lovely Safdie design that got turned into scrap metal because nobody wanted it.

Something like that, anyway. It's fairly convoluted.

There was claims a construction payment was not made for so long that work was purposefully stopped.

The parking garage was saved.

The replacement building ended up being minorly damaged in the explosion across the street. I forget it that created any delay or not.

wtf that is nuts. i had forgotten about this whole thing and kind of lost track of it after i moved back to st. louis.

my god, i went back and skimmed the west edge thread. my god!

Despite the utterly absurd debacle that was the West Edge construction process, and the loss of a potentially very attractive Sofdie design, it's worth noting that overall the West Edge has been a hugely positive addition to the Plaza, IMO.

First, the original southern building, opened as Hotel Sorella, now Fontaine, was retained. It's a great design, with well hidden parking, a great rooftop pool area and bar/dining room, and terraced views of Sunset Hills. I love it.

The Polsinelli office building, while disappointing compared to the Sofdie design, is bland, OK I guess, but offers some of the most sought after Class A space on the Plaza as well as new homes for JJ's, Jax Oyster House, and now Monarch cocktail bar. All well done, all bring something unique to plaza nightlife. JJs and Monarch patios are actually quite attractive with interesting views of the surrounding hood.

That being said, STILL wish they had kept the original, constructed (!) building with the swoopy metallic lobby and Advertising Icon museum, and potential corner grocer.

Here's more of the early P&L design. They came from here if anyone's interested. https://williamcorneli.wordpress.com/20 ... s-city-mo/

Just curious, which projects in this thread would you all have liked better than what actually got built and why? West Edge seems to be an obvious one, but what others?

My personal pick would have to be the original design for Liberty Memorial.




The scale would have been insane. It looks like they would have had to excavate half the hill to build it! I also like the stairs going down to the fountain.

Power and Light Building

Found this in the Plaza library. Sorry about the glare. :/

As designed by Emilio Ambasz