KCRag Forum

Cleaning of brick and terra cotta has commenced.

Scaffolding now up around upper portions of auditorium

Southwest corner 14th & Baltimore (directly south of KCPL building): A butt ugly building abandoned and boarded up. Anybody know what the plans are for this? Seems like an ideal location for a new hotel like the W that we hear talk of.

That area is loosely planned as a location for a major convention hotel and possibly another Convention Center Hall expansion over 670.

I am amazed how good the restored brick looks on the south and west sides.  Will be interesting when they start to replace the missing and broken terra cotta pieces.

chain link fence and signs are up saying "construction parking only". is there another place for hilton guests to park than across the street along truman? the hotel has a "valet parking $16" sign out front.

They are now replacing the missing terra cotta pieces--sort of.  The new pieces are a tan color and do not match the original off white.  I am guessing that they must be planning to coat the replacements with the correct color tone?

DaveKCMO wrote: chain link fence and signs are up saying "construction parking only". is there another place for hilton guests to park than across the street along truman? the hotel has a "valet parking $16" sign out front.

I thought they opened the garage under the construction on the north side of the block for hotel guests.

There's a lot on the west wide of Baltimore along Truman that's now signed for Hilton guests.

at 2:30, they were hoisting a video screen up on the Empire.

no shit?

On what side?  The 14th street side?

The west wall of the Empire looks great now that it's been redone. I still have photos of the water damage, crumbling and buckling bricks, and the hole in the wall that I took over to show the City Council members after the Armacost Garage came down.  I was worried that entire wall would have to be replaced.  Larry Bridges must hate me. 

That theater was built well though.  It's been interesting to see some of the guts exposed recently. It's a solid building no doubt.

Advocrat, the building you are referring to is the former IBM Building, which I think is still owned by Kansas City Power & Light.  I think it's empty or used for storage.  I don't know that it needs to be torn down. It could be renovated and made to look quite nice.  The street-level space might make a nice restaurant space.

I don't know that the convention hotel proposal for that site automatically means that building will be demolished for certain.  Some of the renderings I've seen have the convention hotel on the western portion of the block where that parking garage is now on the SE corner of 14th and Central.  And there is no way of knowing for sure that site will be the one chosen.  There are other sites that would require less site preparation, rock removal, and grading.

FangKC wrote: Advocrat, the building you are referring to is the former IBM Building, which I think is still owned by Kansas City Power & Light.  I think it's empty or used for storage.  I don't know that it needs to be torn down. It could be renovated and made to look quite nice.  The street-level space might make a nice restaurant space.

Yeah that building seems to have a solid shell but you can tell that the interior would need a lot of work to attract even a short term tennant - and I doubt anyone is going to want to put the money in to do that with the likely threat of condemnation hanging overhead. 

49r wrote: no shit?

On what side?  The 14th street side?

It was on the corner facing Main. It is gone, now, however. They blocked off a lane, hoisted it up, held it in place, had it playing ads for awhile -- and then they just packed it back up and left.

staubio wrote: It was on the corner facing Main. It is gone, now, however. They blocked off a lane, hoisted it up, held it in place, had it playing ads for awhile -- and then they just packed it back up and left.

hmm well I would say that there is going to be a screen there though, why would they just put one up to take it down?

They probably had to check the placement and how to hang it before the building facade is finished. My guess is that someone is fashioning some type of frame or rig to attach it, and it probably has to do so in a way that doesn't affect the historic facade.

When is this scheduled to open?

advocrat wrote: Southwest corner 14th & Baltimore (directly south of KCPL building): A butt ugly building abandoned and boarded up. Anybody know what the plans are for this? Seems like an ideal location for a new hotel like the W that we hear talk of.

I love how this forum has pages and pages devoted to saving the Grand Opera House and condeming the Kemper family for destroying the north loop, but doesn't blink an eye when someone suggests tearing down a perfectly sound multi-story building just because it was built after 1950.  Hell, polish it up a little bit, attach some sunshades, a video board and a huge a/c unit on the roof and you have the new HOK headquarters.

75% of that block and 50% of the block containing the Power & Light building is an urban ruin.  If someone can't figure out how to construct a hotel and its support spaces in that area, this city has real problems.  But then we did demolish the perfectly good unemployment office building for a surface lot, even though scale-wise it would have fit right in with the P&L District, with some minor reworking to make it a retail or restaurant space, but it was too ugly too . . .

.

Long, as Grand Pooba of the Grand Opera House thread, and chief critic of the Kemper banking cabal's real estate practices, I must point out that I advocated renovating the former IBM structure.