KCRag Forum

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Glass looks cheap.

Lol

Jargony architectural review: that is an odd looking building.

Looks like someone at Helix has a thing for Mies-ian aesthetics. It's a shame they cut it down to 3 floors.

On the postive side, It's got an active first floor, high quality exterior materials, and courtyard space!

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It looks like a student project.

horizons82 wrote:Looks like someone at Helix has a thing for Mies-ian aesthetics. It's a shame they cut it down to 3 floors.

On the postive side, It's got an active first floor, high quality exterior materials, and courtyard space!

I agree with you on the "Mies-ain" architecture comment. When I first saw the design, my mind immediately went to Ludwig's many buildings in Chicago. If you Google image search "mies van der rohe chicago" you will find the building style I am referring to which I believe this project very much emulates.

Personally, I enjoy this style of architecture and would love to see a piece of it come to KC.

TheLastGentleman wrote:It looks like a student project.

However, I can admit that I do agree with this comment also as it is an admittedly simple architectural style.

Odd that the same day two taller mixed use buildings are proposed for Midtown, a shorter one is unveiled for a prime corner of the streetcar route.

one can only guess they are protecting the views from the main corrigan tower, which are pretty awesome.

I wouldn't think a 4th or 5th story view from Corrigan looking west would be all that great. Looking NW, sure, but there's probably enough space between the two buildings that that's not covered anyway and if it is, they could keep it shorter on the north portion of the building and build taller on the south portion which is actually the opposite of what they did.

The architecture is fine for me but the density and first floor use is extremely disappointing.

pash wrote:Are we counting ground-floor office space as an "active use" these days? It's half parking, half office space at ground level—not what I would call "active", which I think of as referring to uses that create interaction between the street and the building's interior, implying uses open to the public (or at least high-traffic).

Retail, restaurants, AND offices with this type of glazing would count as active use, yes. Where are you seeing that it's office on the first floor, anyway? It just says "tenant" on the plans. Could easily be retail/restaurant space. Sure the parking isn't ideal, but you could easily convert that space down the line to another tenant.

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the original requested use for that ground-floor space was a coffee shop.

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from the developer: the reason for only building three stories is "parking". in other words, any taller and they'd have to add on to the 277-space parking garage (says those providing the financing).

DaveKCMO wrote:from the developer: the reason for only building three stories is "parking". in other words, any taller and they'd have to add on to the 277-space parking garage (says those providing the financing).

Any idea what the parking arrangement is for the new Linden Street project on Walnut? They've built no parking on site that I see.

smh wrote:

DaveKCMO wrote:from the developer: the reason for only building three stories is "parking". in other words, any taller and they'd have to add on to the 277-space parking garage (says those providing the financing).

Any idea what the parking arrangement is for the new Linden Street project on Walnut? They've built no parking on site that I see.

my guess is that they have an arrangement with the scientologists, who own surface lots on the east and west sides of the project. construction workers are using the lots now and the scientologists were strict on towing, which leads me to believe they already have an arrangement.

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Some new renderings are up on the Helix website: