KCRag Forum

Wichita Firm converts old parking garage into apartments. http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/ent ... 45814.html

Pretty cool and innovative project. I assume leveling the floors would be the biggest issue but looking at the spiral entrance to that garage they might have had level floors already.

I have some cool pics of this place... need to post them here when I get back to Wichita (so a couple weeks).

IIRC The new garage Copaken built in the crossroads was designed to be converted to offices or apartments in the future.

Pretty cool that it was able to provide parking right outside of the door. They say in the article that it was pretty expensive though, I think in many cases it might be more cost effective to tear down and build new. You could fit more apartments that way, and build higher. Tearing this down might have been difficult here because it was listed on the national register of historic places. (lol)

To be honest, I've sort of cringed over the years watching a handful of new residential construction projects go up in downtown KC--and, post-Greensburg tornado, seeing that the most substantial part of the buildings is almost always the freaking parking garage. These developments' garages are built out of sturdy concrete and steel of course, then surrounded or stacked on top with inherently flimsier wood construction which becomes the actual living space.

If the end product of a garage conversion is vastly stronger than a stick-built replacement alternative and the end product doesn't look like crap, maybe tearing down a garage really is a waste in some cases.

All good. I know the ICT product intimately as my father owned it until passing. But the lessson learned is valuable yet i still see KC civic leaders not quite grasping the rapidly evolving dynamics of transportation and it is a killer as a developer.

ToDactivist wrote:All good. I know the ICT product intimately as my father owned it until passing. But the lessson learned is valuable yet i still see KC civic leaders not quite grasping the rapidly evolving dynamics of transportation and it is a killer as a developer.

Rapidly evolving? I would argue we still have the same transportation dynamics as we did in 1970 and the fact that things aren't evolving is the problem we've been facing.

Freeways into business districts, busses mainly serving an urban to downtown environment.

Our transportation system has been largely static except for the streetcar. The bus company makes cosmetic changes to routes and that's about it.

flyingember wrote:

ToDactivist wrote:All good. I know the ICT product intimately as my father owned it until passing. But the lessson learned is valuable yet i still see KC civic leaders not quite grasping the rapidly evolving dynamics of transportation and it is a killer as a developer.

Rapidly evolving? I would argue we still have the same transportation dynamics as we did in 1970 and the fact that things aren't evolving is the problem we've been facing.

Freeways into business districts, busses mainly serving an urban to downtown environment.

Our transportation system has been largely static except for the streetcar. The bus company makes cosmetic changes to routes and that's about it.

ok