KCRag Forum

flyingember wrote:I knew it was a big project but that is impressive.

There is a decently sized center courtyard with amentities such as a theater, "beach", fire pits, etc. look at the city planning info I linked above.

How would this sign affect streetcar power lines? Would it be better to put the sign on the green south facing wall of this development.

I like this. Was hoping the corner retail was two stories and like the idea of a crossroads entrance sign.

This looks awesome.

One of the most impressive things about it to me is how they were able to hide the parking. There is a one-floor underground parking level, then 127 spaces on the ground floor - but none of it along the street because they use a short row of stairs on Walnut & 19th up to rental units on the floor above. Usually with developments in KC you always have to take the good with a little bit of bad (i.e. Corrigan Station building a garage across the street) This development does a good job of maintaining the pedestrian experience - looks a little crazy overall, but I'm impressed with the care they took on the pedestrian experience around the development. Unfortunate to lose a couple old buildings on Main even if they were pretty average, but overall this would be a big win for the city in my opinion.

KCDowntown

ldai_phs wrote:How would this sign affect streetcar power lines? Would it be better to put the sign on the green south facing wall of this development.

off the top of my head the streetcar wires are 16 feet up. so there could be a sign at something like 25 feet in the air to maintain maintenance clearance. That's extremely high up and would look quite silly.

More of a pole sign style like the SE corner of Main/Truman for P&L could work well as a gateway. LEDs are much cheaper than 10 years ago when those signs went in so we could get something that could be covered with them and can display a seasonal entry to the core of downtown. I picture one on each side of the street. By doing low footprint poles they could be put at other gateways into downtown too.

As for the rendering colors, remember that rendering rarely look exactly like the real thing. You have shadow, dirt, texture adding detail that they don't show. People always complain about everything looking the same. A brightly colored building will make our classic brick buildings look even more historic. I like that they're making an effort to not make a faux historic structure for the entire block.

This is exciting.

Now if every surface lot along streetcar line could get a project that follows these principles.

I like it because it has an active ground floor all the way around. Retail on Main blending to walk-up townhomes on 20th and Walnut.

earthling wrote:Now if every surface lot along streetcar line could get a project that follows these principles.

It could definitely set a precedent. It's nice to see an architectural firm from Chicago designing a template local firms can learn from. I would love to see local firms get the hint and design less suburban infill along the streetcar route and in neighborhoods like the east village.

For the most part the new apartments built DT have been unimaginative and boringly similar. Not only is this different but it nicely incorporates the scale of the midwest hotel. I love how it even repeats the height and size of the late beloved torched Hereford House on the corner.

Instead of a sign over the street, a welcome to crossroads wall sign on the side of Midwest hotel may work just as well

Or, instead of a sign over the street, they could put a billboard on the south end of the Hilton site across 20th.

Some kind of tribute to signboard hill might be kinda cool.

grovester wrote:Some kind of tribute to signboard hill might be kinda cool.

So a billboard?

Just kind of funny that everyone's talking about putting up a big sign and it was not much more than a year ago that the billboard on the Hilton Homes2 lot was bought by the city and taken down.

missingkc wrote:Just kind of funny that everyone's talking about putting up a big sign and it was not much more than a year ago that the billboard on the Hilton Homes2 lot was bought by the city and taken down.

Monument signs are a bit different than Cricket wireless ads IMO

Looked through the design drawings and would say that the avg unit size is easily as small as I've ever seen in a KC apt project. There were many units in the 360 sqft range - and I think the max I saw was just over 1000 sqft. I would say the vast majority of the units are in the 600-700 sqft range.

There are 293 apts in this project - roughly as many as the One Light Tower (315 units / 25 stories).

KCDowntown

I agree they did a good job at street level. They could do some roof signage. There is a roof sign for the Power & Light District at 12th and Main. Such a sign could go on top of the one-story retail space where Hereford House used to be.

I think Kansas City could use more color in its' buildings. Some European, Central and South American cities use color in their buildings and it provides contrast, and livens up the built environment well. It doesn't have to be gaudy.

We have small dabs of it here already.

http://tinyurl.com/zkaznxe

I understand that a billboard may not be the aesthetic equivalent of one of those neighborhood entry signs from Portland. But there is a certain amount of humor/irony in the fact that everyone was happy to be rid of the billboard but now interested in getting a big, new sign. Guess I'm the only one that sees it. However, I also think that given the less-than-genteel, less-than-cool very recent industrial/warehouse nature of the Crossroads, a billboard might in fact be a very suitable entry sign.