KCRag Forum

The feature article in the current issue of The Next American City is about the fight to save the Century Building in St Louis.  The Century Building was built in the late 1800's and sat next to the Old Post Office.  A plan was pitched to renovate the Old Post Office.  The plan would raze the Century Building to make way for a 1000 car parking garage.  There was a lot of public outcry--myself included--but it was backed by major developers, the Mayor of St Louis Francis Slay, and, remarkably, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (!).  In the end, the Century Building was demolished and the garage is currently under construction.

You can view the article here:  http://www.americancity.org/article.php?id_article=199

It really bothered me when I saw this building go down.  St Louis has an amazing stock of old monolithic buildings like that--many more so then Kansas City.  For someone to just come in and tear down something that was build before their grandfather was born...for a parking garage?  What arrogance.  I understand that uses change, but one needs to look at the big picture when thinking about burning a building like that.

insane...also, the beautiful buildings that once stood around the wainright...when they were torn down, a party was practically thrown with ballons, etc...this was the 80s...

This is a disturbing and illuminating article.

Jonathan Kemper was on the National Trust when this occurred. He is currently the president of the board of trustees. Richard Moe can't do anything that the chairman of the board, and trustees, don't support, since they hold the power to dismiss him.

Kemper, and his family, have tremendous influence in St. Louis through Commerce Bank. Although with Commerce, Tower Properties, and the Kemper family history of demolishing historic buildings for parking in Kansas City, I'm not surprised that Jonathan Kemper went along with demolition of the Century Building for parking.

Board of Trustees

The policies and affairs of the National Trust are directed and reviewed by the Board of Trustees. The Trustees meet three times annually (January, May, and October). There are six Board committees (Community Revitalization, Business & Finance, Historic Sites, Preservation, Marketing & Development, and Public Advocacy). Jonathan M. Kemper of Kansas City, Missouri, is the Chairman of the National Trust.

Office of the President

The President manages the ongoing operations and programs of the Trust. Richard Moe has been President of the Trust since 1992.

Communications raises public awareness and understanding of the Trust through media contacts, public outreach programs, and speaking engagements of the President; promotes and stages the Trust's awards and recognition programs; coordinates selection and promotion of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list; and manages the Trust's World Wide Web.

http://www.nationaltrust.org/about/programs.html

One has to question some of the choices of trustees as well.

Trustees

Chairman

Jonathan M. Kemper (Kansas City, MO) is Vice Chairman of Commerce Bancshares, Inc.  His responsibilities include oversight of the commercial and retail banking groups and the Trust Department, operations, and technology and market development.

Aida Alvarez (Piedmont, CA) currently serves on the board of directors of Union BanCal Corporation, Wal-Mart, the diversity advisory board for Deloitte Touche, and chairs the Latino Community Foundation in the San Francisco Bay area.

A representation of Wal-mart?

J. Clifford Hudson (Oklahoma City, OK) is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Sonic Corp., an Oklahoma City-based, publicly-held company that owns, operates and franchises more than 2,700 Sonic Drive-In restaurants . 

Sonic is world-renowned for its' preservation efforts. NOT!

Jeffrey H. Schutz (Denver, CO) is currently a managing director of Centennial Ventures, a Denver-based venture capital firm with approximately $1 billion of assets under management.  Presently, he is on the Boards of Centennial Ventures, CenterStone Technologies, Inc., Siterra Corporation and Telephia, Inc.

Daniel K. Thorne (Georges Mills, N.H.) is President of Star Lake Capital, Inc., a private equity management and venture capital firm.  Presently he is on the boards of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Coastal Conservation League, and is Chairman of the eponymous D. K. Thorne Foundation.

Venture capitalists are among the most strident preservations?

Matthew R. Simmons (Houston, TX) is Chairman of Simmons & Company International, a specialized energy investment banking firm.

http://www.nationaltrust.org/about/trustees.html

Century Building in St. Louis.

http://www.builtstlouis.net/century0.html



http://www.mstl.org/projects/century-building/

http://www.buildingmuseum.org/recovery/century/

Critics Say National Trust Helped Doom Renowned St. Louis Building
May 11, 2005

Critics of the National Trust for Historic Preservation say it supported the demolition of St. Louis’s 108-year old Century Building in order to save the city’s Old Post Office Building. The Century, located across the street, was torn down to make room for a parking garage in February.

http://archrecord.construction.com/news ... ritics.asp

Preservation and Profiteering  

Kevin Priestner is an editor of the LBJ Journal of Public Affairs.
Sunday, 28 August 2005

In an egregious act of mission drift, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has strayed from “saving America’s treasures” to destroying them. In St. Louis, the Trust is financing the restoration of the Old Post Office. When completed, the restored building will anchor an ambitious redevelopment project in which the Trust, for the first time in its history, will retain a financial stake. Toward that end — and in brazen disregard of its stated mission — the Trust supported the demolition of the historic Century Building, which was torn down to make way for a 1,000-space parking garage.

http://lbjjournal.org/index.php?option= ... 0&Itemid=2

Demolition photo

http://www.slfp.com/News122804.htm

http://www.eco-absence.org/stl/century/hirsch1.htm

To add insult to injury, the demo team did a Richard Daley and snuck in at night to damage the building beyond repair before an injunction could be granted to halt demolition.

Then, they proceeded to demo until well after 9pm, sometimes up to midnight, just a block away from newly occupied downtown condos.  The city really didn't handle this gracefully at all.

i just threw up a little.

Missouri Preservation just announced the 2012 Endangered Buildings List. Structures from Kansas City on the list are:

Milton Moore school at 4510 Linwood
Kemper Arena
Leona Pouncey law office building at 1505 E. 18th Street in the 18th and Vine District

Milton Moore Elementary School



Leona Pouncey Law Office



Kemper Arena



http://www.kshb.com/dpp/lifestyle/state ... -buildings

http://preservemo.org/

I have a lot of sentiment for Kemper Arena since I worked many years there but let's face it the building has seen better days, its usefullness just doesn't exist and repurposing isn't practical. If the decision is made to replace it with a smaller building for the Royal I would support it. The concept I support, how it is done is something else. Don't support the current AR plan - too much city taxpayer support. That is unless the voters approve it.

Of course there was a plan to lower the seating capacity by raising the arena floor but I don't remember what the projected cost would have been. Since the building does not rely on the seating structure to support it the seating could be torn down and the insides rebuilt.

Kemper Arena needs to be kicked in the balls. It should have been torn down when the roof caved in instead of building that contraption over the top and then doubling down on a turd when they added the side addition for extra seating and concourse area. It is the single biggest reason we lost hockey and basketball in this city. I hate you, KA! Beat it!

beautyfromashes wrote: It is the single biggest reason we lost hockey and basketball in this city.

Huh????????????????????????????????????????

beautyfromashes wrote:Kemper Arena needs to be kicked in the balls. It should have been torn down when the roof caved in instead of building that contraption over the top and then doubling down on a turd when they added the side addition for extra seating and concourse area. It is the single biggest reason we lost hockey and basketball in this city. I hate you, KA! Beat it!

Not hardly. Kemper was built for the Scouts, but they drew almost no fans and had owners without sufficiently deep pockets. The Blades died when the IHL collapsed. The Kings were comically mismanaged and were outdrawn by the Comets.

The Historic Kansas City Foundation is seeking nominations for their 2013 List of Most Endangered Buildings in Kansas City.

http://midtownkcpost.com/2013/03/12/loo ... dings-6022

http://www.historickansascity.org/wp-co ... ngered.pdf

Last year's list included:

•KCMO closed schools
•Lane Blueprint Building, 1520 Main
•Knickerbocker Apartments, 510-531 Knickerbocker Place
•The historic Country Club Plaza and Country Club District
•Wheatley Provident Hospital, 1822-1826 Forest
•Hawthorne Plaza Apartments, 3835 Main
•Leona Pouncey Thurman Law Office Building, 1505 E. 18th St. (already demolished)
•Donaldson House, KC Art Institute, 4347 Oak (to be demolished)
•Disney Building (Laugh-O-Gram), 1127 E. 31st Street
•Kansas City, Missouri Historic Preservation and Long Range Planning Programs

Donaldson House is gone.

My list for this year.

1. Orion Building (Film Row) in the Crossroads, 17th and Wyandotte.
2. Lane Building, Main Street south of Truman Road.
3. McCoy Elementary School, 1524 White (south of Independence Avenue), slated to be demolished.
4. Thatcher Elementary School, Independence Avenue (next to Northeast Middle School), slated to be demolished.
5. Knickerbocker Apartments, Knickerbocker Lane (W. of Broadway next to KC Life Building).
6. 911 Linwood (former Thorton & Minor Hospital building).
7. Midwest Hotel, Main and 20th Street.
8. Hawthorne Plaza Apartments, Main near 39th Street. Inability to find a developer, and problem with windows open to the elements.
9. The Wiltshire Hotel building at 10th and Holmes, slated to be demolished as part of the East Village redevelopment.
10. Historic Preservation projects in general--based on legislative cuts to historic preservation tax credits.

#10 should be #1.

good point Chaglang.

Seems like the Norton School should be on there. It is no longer owned by KCSD but is for sale and rotting a little every day.

taxi wrote:Seems like the Norton School should be on there. It is no longer owned by KCSD but is for sale and rotting a little every day.

Norman? On SW Trafficway at about 38th? You could lump old Faxon in there with it. Same situation.

A little progress in preservation of historic buildings in Kansas City. The City Council has passed a new ordinance that creates more requirements before a historic building can be demolished, and suspends a demolition permit if an application is filed to designate a building as historic.

Council member Scott Wagner introduced the ordinance, and it was approved by the council April 25.

It doesn't prevent demolition in all cases, but it slows down the process to buy time.

“What the demolition delay ordinance would allow you to do is to say before you knock it down, let’s see if there’s any real value to that building – culturally, historically – and if there is, there’s an opportunity to save it,” Wagner said.

---

Three weeks ago, before the new ordinance passed, Shirley Helzberg opted to demolish the Orion Pictures building, 118 W. 17th St., which was part of Kansas City’s iconic Film Row, to make way for a three-story parking garage. Hollywood used Kansas City’s Film Row from the 1920s to 1970s as a central distribution center for films. The Orion building was not listed on the local historic registry.

“People were trying to save it and Mrs. Helzberg said, ‘No, it’s gone,’ and money talks,” said David Remley, Historic Northeast resident and photographer who specializes in architecture. “All of the buildings were intact until three weeks ago. I felt sad because again the city has no heart for preservation on an ongoing basis. We will try to save the big things like Union Station, Folly Theater and the President Hotel, but the small things in neighborhoods, like that (Orion) building in the Crossroads, we don’t pay much attention.”

If the new ordinance had been in effect, the building possibly could have been saved.

The ordinance allows an owner, a city council member, a member of the Historic Preservation Commission, a neighborhood association and other historic preservation organizations to file an application to designate a building as historic, and the application automatically suspends the demolition permit.

Once the application is filed, the Historic Preservation Commission must hold a public meeting on the proposed nomination within 45 days of the application and must make a decision within 90 days. The demolition permit can be suspended up to 6 months during the process. A demolition permit cannot be suspended if the building is listed on the city’s dangerous buildings list due to safety hazards, or if the director of city planning and development determines the property doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for historic designation.

http://northeastnews.net/pages/?p=18681

There is a project at the upcoming National Day of Civic Hacking that is pretty relevant. Check out the link and join us!

Demolition tracker with calls to action
Project lead - Jase Wilson
Why its important: Jase's Ignite.
How it'll get built: Monitor the demolition permit page. When a new one appears, create a neighborland call to action.
Team members: