Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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Highlander
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by Highlander »

GRID wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:58 pm Man, this is going to leave a massive gaping hole in downtown. Downtown east of grand is already low density, but removing that building will really change the feel of the area and since that was one of the only somewhat modern buildings, it will take many views in that area back to the 1930's with only the jackson county courthouse and city hall in view. East of Grand needs so much infill. It's ridiculous this is being torn down.
I'm always surprised how different downtown looks after a large building is torn down. From southeast downtown, you will be able to see northwest straight to Grand with no interruption. Since Cordish has arrived and sparked a renaissance in the south loop, KC has recreated little pre-Power&Light district surface parking deserts elsewhere; East Village and now this area.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by KC_JAYHAWK »

Highlander wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:13 am
GRID wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:58 pm Man, this is going to leave a massive gaping hole in downtown. Downtown east of grand is already low density, but removing that building will really change the feel of the area and since that was one of the only somewhat modern buildings, it will take many views in that area back to the 1930's with only the jackson county courthouse and city hall in view. East of Grand needs so much infill. It's ridiculous this is being torn down.
I'm always surprised how different downtown looks after a large building is torn down. From southeast downtown, you will be able to see northwest straight to Grand with no interruption. Since Cordish has arrived and sparked a renaissance in the south loop, KC has recreated little pre-Power&Light district surface parking deserts elsewhere; East Village and now this area.
I agree. It's got to be costing several million dollars just to take this building down piece by piece. Seems that money could have been used for asbestos remediation and then secured to keep homeless people from using it as a camp. With the asbestos remediation, it would have been a great building to convert to apartments for lower income gov't workers.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by flyingember »

KC_JAYHAWK wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:07 am With the asbestos remediation, it would have been a great building to convert to apartments for lower income gov't workers.
And yet no one was interested in buying the building and doing that.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by beautyfromashes »

flyingember wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:38 am
KC_JAYHAWK wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:07 am With the asbestos remediation, it would have been a great building to convert to apartments for lower income gov't workers.
And yet no one was interested in buying the building and doing that.
Not true.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by normalthings »

KC_JAYHAWK wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:07 am
Highlander wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:13 am
GRID wrote: Sun Nov 08, 2020 11:58 pm Man, this is going to leave a massive gaping hole in downtown. Downtown east of grand is already low density, but removing that building will really change the feel of the area and since that was one of the only somewhat modern buildings, it will take many views in that area back to the 1930's with only the jackson county courthouse and city hall in view. East of Grand needs so much infill. It's ridiculous this is being torn down.
I'm always surprised how different downtown looks after a large building is torn down. From southeast downtown, you will be able to see northwest straight to Grand with no interruption. Since Cordish has arrived and sparked a renaissance in the south loop, KC has recreated little pre-Power&Light district surface parking deserts elsewhere; East Village and now this area.
I agree. It's got to be costing several million dollars just to take this building down piece by piece. Seems that money could have been used for asbestos remediation and then secured to keep homeless people from using it as a camp. With the asbestos remediation, it would have been a great building to convert to apartments for lower income gov't workers.
I thought the real kicker was supposed to be the MEP. No easy/non-destructive way to get modern systems in.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by DColeKC »

Why didn't they go with the implosion route? Proximity issues I assume?

Would be empty lot by this point.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by Highlander »

DColeKC wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:44 pm Why didn't they go with the implosion route? Proximity issues I assume?

Would be empty lot by this point.
I was wondering the same thing. I was there when they imploded the Dixon Hotel. Very close to City Center Square.

Is Asbestos the issue? Big building for a single crane. At the rate it's going, someone may have a plan for the lot by the time it comes down.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by kboish »

Must be getting paid by the hour
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by mykn »

Surely asbestos would have been removed before any demolition, I don’t think there’s any way to demo the building and leave it in place.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by TheLastGentleman »

I've changed my tune. This thing shouldn't have been demolished. But it also should've been modified into something more urban.

Image

Image
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by beautyfromashes »

I hate that this building came down with little to no fight at all and even passive approval from many on this board. I’m disappointed in all of you.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by normalthings »

beautyfromashes wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 1:49 pm I hate that this building came down with little to no fight at all and even passive approval from many on this board. I’m disappointed in all of you.
The building wasn't in good shape, imho ugly, and didn't have a great ground floor. Not much worth fighting for.

Big fight was on making sure it did not become surface parking. Happy to say that this will become a grassy lot.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by beautyfromashes »

normalthings wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 1:56 pm The building wasn't in good shape, imho ugly, and didn't have a great ground floor. Not much worth fighting for.

Big fight was on making sure it did not become surface parking. Happy to say that this will become a grassy lot.
Cause we need more fenced off grassy lots DT?! And personally, I don’t care much about looks. A new facade and it would have looked as good as the Lights (not saying much there) but at least it would have brought 100s of new residents DT. The first floor was ugly, but totally redeemable. We should have vision for renovation only instead of implosion and grass.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by shinatoo »

Image

Could have had this.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by chaglang »

East Village's westward expansion
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beautyfromashes
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by beautyfromashes »

chaglang wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 3:05 pm East Village's westward expansion
Be dead by the time it treks that far.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by TheLastGentleman »

When a building is as fundamentally urbanistically broken as the BoE was (the main reason I wasn’t too bothered by the demo earlier), there needs to be an alternative to demolition and immaculate preservation. For instance, perhaps we can offer incentives to a project which saves the building but modifies it to contemporary urban design standards. There can even be a provision that the modifications be fairly easily reversible in case tastes change.

For the BoE, the ground floor could have been expanded over its “lawn” setbacks with retail components. It could’ve even been designed with a midcentury modern flair to compliment the original building
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by flyingember »

beautyfromashes wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 2:12 pm
normalthings wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 1:56 pm The building wasn't in good shape, imho ugly, and didn't have a great ground floor. Not much worth fighting for.

Big fight was on making sure it did not become surface parking. Happy to say that this will become a grassy lot.
Cause we need more fenced off grassy lots DT?! And personally, I don’t care much about looks. A new facade and it would have looked as good as the Lights (not saying much there) but at least it would have brought 100s of new residents DT. The first floor was ugly, but totally redeemable. We should have vision for renovation only instead of implosion and grass.
We should have vision, but, again, property rights means someone can tear down a building and do nothing.

This isn't going to change without changes in city code.


Also, I haven't seen or heard of an implosion in downtown KC. I wonder when the last one was?
It would have to have been since 1984 if it's not this one viewtopic.php?p=599928#p599928
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by chaglang »

Kinda funny that the only building on that corner that meets current urbanist standards is a parking garage.

It's surprising to me that anyone could look at a building of more than a couple stories and take the bet that whatever replaced it would be better. That so rarely works out in Kansas City.
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Re: Old KCPS HQ - 12th & McGee

Post by FangKC »

beautyfromashes wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 1:49 pm I hate that this building came down with little to no fight at all and even passive approval from many on this board. I’m disappointed in all of you.

FangKC wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 1:53 pm From a climate change point-of-view, it doesn't make sense tearing down a building that size. All the energy it took to build it is still floating around in the atmosphere. Then, you are going to burn even more energy building a replacement structure--adding more carbon. It's a steel and concrete shell, that doesn't appear to be on the verge of collapse. It would make more sense environmentally to renovate the building -- like they did with the Flashcube Building, and Traders on Grand. One could still demolish the parking garage on the far south parcel and build a new building there to further add space to rent.

FangKC wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 11:38 pm I agree. We shouldn't be tearing down any building that size unless there is a financed replacement that is much, much denser, and approved. Even then, shouldn't we be building those projects on an already-cleared lot?

My position on this is that the tower should be renovated for housing with an affordable portion included. It is not a good idea to make the entire building affordable--unless everyone is on-board with large subsidies. It's still better to mix up the income levels.

The former library space could probably be renovated into office space. Leave the closest attached garage, and tear down the garage furthest south on the block and replace that with a new building.
...

I think the strategy should continue to be increasing the resident population of Greater Downtown instead of waiting for big office projects to come. If that does eventually happen, there are other places to build large office buildings.

If in doubt, go for the residential.

If we use "the building is ugly" as a standard, we'll be tearing down hundreds of functional buildings.

FangKC wrote: Sun Nov 11, 2018 11:01 pm We can't just tear down every building because someone doesn't like it.

There are other reasons to reuse a building. Climate change. Anyone who denies this is just burying their head in the sand. When discussing demolition, we need to remind ourselves that gases from producing the concrete, steel, glass, etc. as well as the gasoline trucking the materials there, are still up in our atmosphere heating the planet.

Tearing it down to just build a replacement 10-15-story building, which will produce even more gases, is foolish. This situation is exactly why historic tax credits were intended. We should probably change the name of these credits to conservation tax credits, because we are conserving natural resources and our planet, as much as conservation of historic properties.

FangKC wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 11:15 pm The building opened in 1960--58-years-old. It's eligible for historic tax credits under the old criterion of being at least 50-years-old.
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They want TIF to remediate asbestos--before they can demolish it; and before they can build. Yes, the Residence Inn didn't ask for TIF, but they only had to demolish a two-story building, not a 10+ story building and its' garage, that might need implosion to bring down.

I assume they want to tear the building down because they cannot configure the present building to their needs.
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