OFFICIAL: Power & Light District

[Big Red Storm]

This is sounding better and better!  I can't wait for it to be done.  I wonder how much better the rest of downtown will get once this area is up and running?

[KCPowercat]

Actually that contract is for the arena, not the entertainment district.

[mister816]

I know that some of these pics have already been posted but i'm so excited about getting the pnl.  so i got these pics of 4th st live to get some kind of idea of what our stuff will look like and all I gotta say is that if louisville can get this the just imagine what we will get because ours will be almost twice the size plus the arena!

 

THIS IS GONNA BE THE SHIT!

[scooterj]

I've been so busy paying attention to everything else going on that I failed to notice that excavations have begun south of 14th Street in the entertainment district blocks.    The lot immediately west of the Empire Theater has been dug up, and digging is underway on half of the block east of the MO Employment building. 

There's also two unassembled cranes in the north parking of that MO gov't building, the type they have been using so far with wrecking balls.  I don't know if those are for the Jones Store or for that government building.    The Jones Store looks like it's getting very close to being ready for exterior demolition.

[KCN]

Isnt the block west of the empire part of the Bartle ballroom expansion?  I did notice the construction equipment near the MO state office building but I couldn't tell if that was for the blocks to the north or if they really are planning on starting on these blocks as well.  You wouldn't think they'd start here for a little while, since there's no large structure or underground garages that require extensive work on these blocks.

[scooterj]

Isnt the block west of the empire part of the Bartle ballroom expansion? 

I'm talking about the empty lot on the same block as the Empire, immediately west of it, where the dilapidated parking garage used to be that they tore down a year or two ago.  It's the spot where the master plan shows a jazz club and a parking lot with a future residential tower over it.

[KCN]

Ohh...hmm, interesting

[LenexatoKCMO]

As some of you may have seen, the Star had a big insert about downtown developments in it today.  For the most part it was just a retread of everything we have already seen.  However, in the center they had yet another iteration of the P&L map.  I noticed two things that looked new to me: 1) they had put in a street running through the arena space just south of the court building and labled it 13th Terrace squeezing the arena into a smaller footprint and creating an additional small retail block in the northwest portion of the arena block; and 2) they had put back a span of park over 670 east of Main.  I had thought the park over the highway plan had been axed long ago.  Does anyone no if this is still alive?  They also continued to show a bartle expansion area between Wyandotte and Baltimore over the highway in addition to the ballroom span from central to wyandotte.  Is this actually happening or just conjecture? 

[tat2kc]

I noticed that also. I think thats an older plan, not the one currently being built. The cost of adding those parks over the highway would be extremely high, so I don't think that using it as parkland would be economically feasible for Cordish, or the city for that matter. They'd need some kind of revenue generating activity on that land to make it work. But, making that a long park, perhaps even a sculpture garden, urban oasis would be a great place to hold large scale festivals and such. But I don't think it'll happen.

[KCPowercat]

13th Terr. has always been part of the plans I believe....at least I remember hearing that when the arena plans were first coming out...

[scooterj]

13th Terrace keeps coming and going.  It was absent from the arena plans released in April.

[KCN]

If they want the NCAA bball HOF integrated with the arena, I'd assume there won't be a 13th Terr, since I thought that was going where Just Rite used to be

[LenexatoKCMO]

I am beggining to think the star just pasted together a bunch of old material to make today's insert without any regard to current events. 

[mister816]

I think that tat2kc hit the nail on the head... we need some kind of downtown oasis... with sculptures and shit... but we need to go overboard...we need some kind of land mark that you can see from miles away... St. Louis has the arch, Vegas has the Stratosphere, Seattle has the big ugly needle thingy... we need some shit like that.... Something like that would make people wanna come to Kansas City just to see that because so far we have nothing like that.

[KC Kropf]

I think that tat2kc hit the nail on the head... we need some kind of downtown oasis... with sculptures and shit... but we need to go overboard...we need some kind of land mark that you can see from miles away... St. Louis has the arch, Vegas has the Stratosphere, Seattle has the big ugly needle thingy... we need some shit like that.... Something like that would make people wanna come to Kansas City just to see that because so far we have nothing like that.

..... but we have the Sky Stations (playing devils advocate  )

[mister816]

the sky stations are big, but not gateway arch big... I'm talkin about something that you can see from miles away... the sky stations are like half the size of the arch and not even close to the stratosphere... I was born in las vegas, i moved here when I was 13 and now when I go back to vegas and i'm driving around.. I don't know the streets like i want to... when I get lost i look and see the stratosphere... that tells me how to get wherever I want and thats what we need here!

[staubio]

the sky stations are big, but not gateway arch big... I'm talkin about something that you can see from miles away... the sky stations are like half the size of the arch and not even close to the stratosphere... I was born in las vegas, i moved here when I was 13 and now when I go back to vegas and i'm driving around.. I don't know the streets like i want to... when I get lost i look and see the stratosphere... that tells me how to get wherever I want and thats what we need here!

Use the KCTV tower.

[mister816]

a tv tower is not a landmark... the watts towers in LA are a landmark

[staubio]

a tv tower is not a landmark... the watts towers in LA are a landmark

You wanted something distinctive to use as a landmark.  It is distinctive.  If you want it to know where you are, a tower serves that purpose.

[mister816]

lol, the tower is NOT distinctive... I was talkin about something that only our city has... something that you could put on a post card... if someone from any city wants to see a television tower... they could see that at home.  but all of that was just a thought.