KCRag Forum

FOX4

nice story, They should do something on ALL of the projects (just talk about how many and stuff)

I hope that there are exterior changes when they converth the US Bank Tower.
Here are three links to two buildings from the same era of the US Bank Tower that are going through condo/retail renovation.
The Tower, the former Bank One building in Fort Worth TX, was made famous by being gutted by the tornado in that ravaged downtown FW in 3/2000.
It also includes a rendering of one of the Tandy Towers which is slated to go residential. There are two sites for The Tower, one shows what it looked like before.
As you can see balconies and recessed areas in the curtain wall were added. It updated the exterior from the reflective glass and concrete.
The base of The Tower will have 60,000 s.f. of retail where the bank lobby used to be. It will also include a 25,000 s.f. grocery store at the base.
I hope the US Bank will have some of the same features.
Has anyone seen the renderings of the completed project will look like?
I am thinking of selling my house in FW and buying one of these units. in The Tower.

http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/bankone.htm
http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/tandy.htm
http://www.livingatthetower.com

gil

I doubt there are many exterior changes.....what are you saying is changing on that FTW tower? I can't see any differences.

The original building John Portman designed was just glass. The new design has balconies. The old Tandy headquarters has the same. They recessed areas in the curtain wall of the building.
I think it will update the look of both towers completely.

It looks like the new name is going to be Wallstreet Tower.

KCLofts wrote:It looks like the new name is going to be Wallstreet Tower.

Bletch. That name is terrible. Who thought that up. Why not just call it Dollar Apartments, or AMEX Lofts? How about NASDAQ Condo?

Developers of the Wallstreet are looking to get a building to the south torn down with city funds while another developer is looking to redevelop the same property. The building in question is 1115 Walnut and is in solid shape to be repaired.

KIVA confirms this, showing George Birt looking to convert the 5 story building into 25 units. The building would be listed on the national register of historic places and hence receive the proper tax credits.

Why would the Wallstreet developers want to clear out the other space -- to build more parking?

I'm of the opinion that it is almost always better to preserve existing buildings, especially ones with some character and history. I hope both development can move forward independently. I doubt the city will pay to knock down a building that has redevelopment plans.

they won't build another building there, i mean, you have that park/plaza area next to that spot.
I think this is the building they are talking about:
http://www.kcmo.org/vacantproperties/1115_WALNUT.JPG
http://216.62.88.52/ColdFusionApps/vaca ... ertyID=333

It's the five story building just to the right of Walltower.

I would like to see what they are going to do. Parking structure would suck, parking lot would absolutely blow, expand the Park? Probably not in thier plans. Restore it, add balconies and maybe a few floors and keep the density while adding street life. That's what should happen.

they want to clear it out to make their building stand out better from the south.

when in fact, that part of the facade is blank (most likely)
I'd rather have a building covering up a blank spot than not. Unless they can put a TV or something there (like HOK HQ will be)

I'm pretty sure that I read in one the articles about the WallStreet building that it had plenty of parking.

That building (1115 Walnut) has a lot of history. It was the orginal Myron Green Cafeteria and headquarters and also Robert Altman's movie "Kansas City" was filmed inside. There are a lot of buildings more dangerous and needed to be torn down than 1115 Walnut. It is surrounded by new office towers and lends its history to the streetscape.

Anything we can do to help 1115? Besides chaining ourselves to it singing "We Shall Overcome"? Hmmm... That doesn't sound too bad.

i wouldn't mind if they demolished this building:

I'm sure that I'm taking the bait here Devin, but why on earth would you want to demolish a building that is so connected to the history of Kansas City?

For those who don't know, this building housed Tom Pendergast's offices on the second floor.

KCDowntown

Because Devin hates pendergast. Devin, even as corupt as the penderdast machine was it kept KC working, and building ever higher(!), durring the depression. There are many, many, many good affects of the Pendergast Machine that u are obviously overlooking. I'm not saying it was all good, but you have to look at the whole picture. Take the bad with the good. That building is as much a part of KC as 18th and vine is. Demolishing the building will never erase Pendergast's indelable mark on KC. All it will do is allow more history to be forgotten and another lot go empty.

Pendergast may have been corrupt but alot of KC as we see it now is because of him.....I applaud his ability to keep things moving....the methods maybe not so much but hey, that was the the way in that time period.