KCRag Forum

No images, but Copaken and an architectural firm have proposed an apartment building at 1800 Walnut. A little over 100 units, consisting of two joined "towers" about 14 stories tall (11 stories of residential atop retail + 2 story garage). Interesting architecture (reminiscent of Aqua tower in Chicago), but the neighborhood didn't like the scale compared to its surroundings (mostly surface lots or 1-3 story buildings. Retail space on 18th Street.

How tall is too tall for the Crossroads? Area plan currently says 130' for this spot.

I don’t think there should be a limit. Especially along the central corridor-Broadway to Grand.

Also, did someone really say that they didn’t like its scale vs empty parking lots? I think that building to what is there today is the opposite of urban planning. There is nothing around that area really.

I see no problem.with that height at that location. You've got Corrigan next door...8 story star building a block away....

Seems like this is exactly the kind of place this development is meant to go

The crossroads not liking a building? What a shock.

There were people that bitched about the convention hotel going up in the convention district!

That height is absolutely fine. Build it!

I am in favor, hopefully it comes to fruition.

DaveKCMO wrote:How tall is too tall for the Crossroads? Area plan currently says 130' for this spot.

Dave, are they proposing tearing down any adjacent existing buildings to enlarge their plan?

The Western Auto Building is 12 stories and 162 ft. tall according to Emporis.
Arterra at 21st and Wyandotte is 12 stories, and 158 ft. (Emporis).
The Mainmark Building at 17th and Main is 12 stories, and 158 ft.( Emporis).
The Corrigan Building at 18th and Walnut is 10 stories and 145 ft. (Emporis).
Residence Inn at 16th and Baltimore is 10 stories, and 132 ft. (Emporis).

The 1800 Walnut site:



Aqua Tower -- Chicago

Zero problem with the height – build it.

This sounds great. I'm a neighbor and would be supportive of this. Sounds like this may be roughly the same height as Corrigan Station on the same or neighboring block. Not sure why neighbors would be opposed. ARTerra met resistance but the massing seems to fit in well.
Maybe a 500+ footer office tower would be too tall for the Crossroads (better in the loop or CC), but mid-rise residential definitely belongs to maintain a healthy balance and not become an 'entertainment district' few people live in.

This is Downtown, good lord, where do people think these buildings belong?

Not in my good surface parking neighborhood!!!

normalthings wrote:Not in my good surface parking neighborhood!!!

There's a part of city code specifically targeted to maintaining parking at higher amounts in the crossroads.

Some neighbors:

Mainmark 12
Corrigan 10
ARTerra 12
Courtyard 10
Piper/HD Lee 10

Since I was in the room for the discussion, I can tell it was 100% about scale and not building on a parking lot. We have had very little new construction in the Crossroads, but those that have been new were received well (Opus, ARTerra, CityClub, Corrigan 2, Courtyard, Loews, the failed Foutch project at Holmes -- exception would be the Home2 Suites, which was universally panned). Some aren't too pleased with Crossroads/Westside, but it's such an outlier with that location that people were just "sure, if you can make that site work!".

No demolition required, by the way.

I should add that I don't personally think it's too tall for that site, but I was one of the only ones.

How many units? Are they asking for incentives? If no,...

I don't want to be too hard on the crossroads, but it's become one of the most NIMBY urban neighborhoods.

I have no problem with them being heard, but I'm unwilling to give up zoning policy to the select group of people that show up to these meetings.

Build!

No, the height seems completely appropriate. Corrigan and Arterra are comparable projects this is not materially inconsistent. Agree with previous sentiment, 30-story glass tower belongs in the CBD, but this looks like a mid-level residential and seems 100% right sized for the neighborhood and sounds like it will have some awesome & unique architectural elements - KCRag glass wall aficionados unite!

WoodDraw wrote:I don't want to be too hard on the crossroads, but it's become one of the most NIMBY urban neighborhoods.

Bullshit.

Again, we've not 'fought' anything like the neighborhoods made up of middle class single-family-homeowners. The last building that caused a serious NIMBY fight was the 18-story DST/Accardo project that eventually became a community garden... a decade or more ago.

The renderings presented showed a rectangular tower aligned with Walnut with two distinct halves put together. If they can pull the project off it has the potential to be a very exciting building architecturally. Copaken mentioned twice that they were trying to do something more than just another One/Two Light. Emphasis was on studio and small 1-bed units with a possible bar/restaurant on the top level.

East half was similar to this with vertical "Aqua" banding, although obviously much shorter:


The west half looked similar to the left half of this building without the box, with the mid-upper floors tiered out to a max of 10' or so:

DaveKCMO wrote:

WoodDraw wrote:I don't want to be too hard on the crossroads, but it's become one of the most NIMBY urban neighborhoods.

Bullshit.

Again, we've not 'fought' anything like the neighborhoods made up of middle class single-family-homeowners. The last building that caused a serious NIMBY fight was the 18-story DST/Accardo project that eventually became a community garden... a decade or more ago.

Bullshit?

You just created a post saying that you were one of the few that wanted new construction to go into a place largely surrounded by parking lots.

You know for a fact that the crossroads has been aggressively against zoning reform, and has used income restrictions as a method to do that.

Downtown KC needs density. I don't know how we do that without building.

We should be having talks about no density and 1 floor buildings. Not high density and and 14 floor ones