OFFICIAL - Commerce Tower

[The Newbern]

Commerce Tower is a fine example of the style of its era. There are plenty of other "knock offs" of this style that don't aspire to much more than utility. Commerce Tower is an exception and, while not my favorite building by a long shot, represents its time quite nicely, IMHO.

[pash]

.

[moderne]

from George Ehrlich:
...the Commerce Tower presents a sheer facade, and though the structural grid is quite evident, it receives competition from the mullions that subdivide the glass of the envelope. With no columns at the outer cormers there is a hint at a more complex exterior...
I think it echos a classical column-base, shaft, and capital.
BTW, the "little room sticking out the north side of the building" was designed as part of the cocktail lounge for the Top of the Tower complex of restaurants. I find this building reminiscent of the Transamerica/Occidental tower in LA.

[The Newbern]

"little room sticking out the north side of the building"

Is this and the rest of the floor still used in a food service capacity?

[moderne]

unfortunately not. The restaurants occupied the top two floors, including separate German, Asian and French(Tour D'Argent) places. The cantilevered space gave a feeling similar to the new bump out in the Willis(sears)tower in Chicago, sans glass floor.

[Eon Blue]

If/when the building is converted to residential, imagine the premium they could get for a penthouse incorporating the bump-out into the unit.

[chaglang]

from George Ehrlich:
...the Commerce Tower presents a sheer facade, and though the structural grid is quite evident, it receives competition from the mullions that subdivide the glass of the envelope. With no columns at the outer cormers there is a hint at a more complex exterior...
I think it echos a classical column-base, shaft, and capital.
BTW, the "little room sticking out the north side of the building" was designed as part of the cocktail lounge for the Top of the Tower complex of restaurants. I find this building reminiscent of the Transamerica/Occidental tower in LA.

The lack of corner columns makes the patterning seem more abstract, which is a good thing IMO. It's something I really like about the building but couldn't put my finger on. Thanks for posting that.

[smh]

Business Journal reports Commerce Tower under contract to consortium of local investors, will become partially residences.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... tract.html

Outstanding.

[kboish]

Downtown certainly seems to have a buzz about it again...good news!

[KCMax]

Wow! Great news. Lots of momentum for DT housing.

[earthling]

That's great news but I thought there were asbestos issues and converting to residential would be very expensive compared to keeping it as office space (that wouldn't require ripping asbestos out).

“That building has great sight lines, and demand for residential is off the hook Downtown,” he said. “So it makes all the sense in the world.”

Will be interesting if they'll stick with residential plan after realizing cost to remove asbestos.

[KCMax]

“That building has great sight lines, and demand for residential is off the hook Downtown,” he said.

Fo'shizzle?

[mgh7676]

Talk of the Commerce Bank signage on top of the building coming down was mentioned back in March...is this still going to happen? If so, I'll miss the lit up letters on the skyline at night.

[aknowledgeableperson]

That's great news but I thought there were asbestos issues and converting to residential would be very expensive compared to keeping it as office space (that wouldn't require ripping asbestos out).

A smart move would be to remove the asbestos now matter what the next use would be. I would imagine it would be hard to rent space with a tenant knowing asbestos was still around.

[chaglang]

Talk of the Commerce Bank signage on top of the building coming down was mentioned back in March...is this still going to happen? If so, I'll miss the lit up letters on the skyline at night.

There's some precedent to leaving old signage and modifying it to fit the new use. The Stuart Hall Lofts sign, for example. I hope they do that with Commerce. The signage is part of the whole design package.

[earthling]

If this goes residential (I'm assuming upper floors) as well as the original P&L building, KC would have 3 residential buildings over 400' including 909 Walnut, which is tallest residential in Midwest outside Chicago. Is kinda cheating as conversions but not many cities outside the top 15 have that many. Denver, San Diego for sure.

[KCLover]

Talk of the Commerce Bank signage on top of the building coming down was mentioned back in March...is this still going to happen? If so, I'll miss the lit up letters on the skyline at night.

One of my friends that works at a local sign company put in a bid to remove the signs. It's too my understanding that the bids were all pretty high and with the building changing ownership they might have put it on hold or indefinite hold considering the costs to remove. I haven't heard anything since so not sure what they are doing.

[KCPowercat]

My barber is in the garden level and he told me they aren't renewing his lease past 12/31/13. He isn't sure if they will do month to month yet.

[GRID]

Bad idea. Really hope downtown KC can hang on to existing office towers, especially ones like the Commerce tower which has parking and relatively large floor plates and build some new residential towers (maybe the cordish tower will spark new demand and higher rents).

Downtown KC is already shedding jobs to the suburbs at a much faster rate than most comparable cities and has almost no chance of new office tower construction. With all the other development occurring, there will eventually be demand for that class B type space which could lead to class A new construction (which downtown KC desperately needs)

I just hope that KC doesn't fix one piece of the urban fabric puzzle that was missing for a long time (residents), but in the process creates a new missing piece (lack of jobs/office space).

Like I said, hopefully the cordish tower will start a wave of "new" high-rise residential construction, which is a very different market than crossroads and river market lofts or historic conversions.

[flyingember]

part of the reason we're shedding jobs is our old office towers. there's a number of historic towers sitting completely empty right now. they're all going residential over time. companies are showing they want more modern.

everything from LEED to floor plans just aren't working for the kind of companies we want.

the occupied buildings are mostly newer ones. State Street, DST and such are in much newer buildings than the Commerce Tower