10th and Main Southwest Corner (former transit center)

[moderne]

Crosby Kemper was threatening to not build unless the city made Petticoat Lane into a pedestrian mall.

[dukuboy1]

Love the old paper images. I like the story about Blue Ridge Mall getting 5 new stores. Also the ad from new homes in Brooktree. I live in Brooktree . House was build in 77-78’ I think. Fun looking at that history

[normalthings]

Project was discussed at the KCATA December meeting. No meeting minutes! Any updates?

[AlkaliAxel]

Project was discussed at the KCATA December meeting. No meeting minutes! Any updates?

Project for building that building in the newspaper article?

[atticus23]

Project was discussed at the KCATA December meeting. No meeting minutes! Any updates?

Project for building that building in the newspaper article?

Are you asking if a project from the 1980’s is miraculously being resurrected?!?

[Philacav]

The Mid-continent public library has full KC star archives online, going back to the 1880s. Found these from June 1984.

Great detective work! You wouldn't happen to be able to find a rendering of the unbuilt UMB tower at 11th and Walnut, would you?

It may be wishful thinking on my part, but the right 3/4 of the lower four floors of the tower rendering fronting 10th Street seem to evoke the old Rothschild's building that was on that same site.

Rothschild's was one of my favorite buildings on Main; I thought the way the store modernized the facade facing Main while keeping much of the original facade was interesting. All their KC-area stores closed in 1978, but five stayed open in Oklahoma. The headquarters remained in the 1000 Main Street location with the retail space empty for over two years. They kept decorating the display windows with merchandise, however, to a very high standard for those years when no store was inside, until the corporate offices moved to Overland Park for the company's last few years. Of course it was levelled for one of the once-ubiquitous "Alright Parking" lots that seem to have covered 75% of downtown until about 2000.

The rendering also shows a small rectangle on the Main Street side at the left of the tower, but to the right of the blurry outline of the former Macy's building. That might account for the old main location of Robinson's Shoes, which closed about the same time the rendering was made public, and ended its life, sadly, as a Church's Chicken, with the art deco Robinson's signage still on it. That was a gem of a deco facade.

Sorry I didn't post photos of either old building mentioned above...they're not too hard to find online or in George Ehrlich's wonderful book on KC architecture.

I continue to marvel at the nearly full erasure of all of the significant and even minor retail buildings that comprised the core of the shopping district downtown during the mid/late 1980s. So many of these buildings could be mixed-use spaces now and spaces for retail that might have considered coming back or opening anew amid all downtown's growth in recent years.

[Philacav]

Crosby Kemper was threatening to not build unless the city made Petticoat Lane into a pedestrian mall.

Yes, the Petticoat Pedestrian Mall concept. It would have been anchored by the disastrous skywalk that ruined the 11th/Main intersection. The coverage in the Times/Star about the Town Pavilion development included many breathless mentions of how important that skywalk was so people would not have to negotiate with bad weather while shopping going between the Town Pavilion and (what after city subsidy amid much controversy) was Dillard's after Macy's sold their midwest division in 1986.

A lot of the media coverage back then also focused on AMC Theatres' Stan Durwood's ownership of the Waldheim and Lillis Buildings, and their gutting for renovation, while the surrounding real estate developers claimed he was delaying their dreams for downtown's renewal. And we see what ultimately happened to those two wonderful buildings.

[dukuboy1]

as someone who has used those skywalks to get to places to eat lunch from my office at Commerce, they are very handy when it is super cold, raining, or hotter than hell. We could certainly get by without them but there is a convenience factor and they do get used.

[wahoowa]

tangentially related but curious. does anyone know why are there streetlights on the W side of 10th at main, facing E, when 10th is a one way EB road (so no cars would ever pull up facing those lights given current traffic pattern)? they put these up at some point in the last handful of years--they weren't there in 2015. they've just been perennially covered up since installation. when it first happened i wondered if 10th was going 2-way. now i wonder if someone F'd up.

[swid]

I have vague memories of noticing that shortly after Walnut was converted to 2-way all through downtown; I assumed then that 10th had also slated to be converted back to 2-way between Main and Walnut, but (for whatever reason) the conversion never actually happened.

[DaveKCMO]

I have vague memories of noticing that shortly after Walnut was converted to 2-way all through downtown; I assumed then that 10th had also slated to be converted back to 2-way between Main and Walnut, but (for whatever reason) the conversion never actually happened.

Blame Commerce Bank.

[Philacav]

as someone who has used those skywalks to get to places to eat lunch from my office at Commerce, they are very handy when it is super cold, raining, or hotter than hell. We could certainly get by without them but there is a convenience factor and they do get used.

Your point makes total sense to me; I get the practicality of skywalks. I just think they're aesthetically awful and in a city strained for pedestrian life downtown at street-level much of the time, their impact is significant in that regard.

[dukuboy1]

well you have a chicken and the egg type argument. When the weather is nice almost everyone is outside not using them. In most cases people don't use them because they are not 100% familiar where they go and what they connect. They get the most use during rain and extreme cold. Sometimes extreme heat they are used but more often with the cold.

I get the point they are ugly, but they are only in 1 area and not over used. I know there have been some development with proposals here and there to use them as connectors. Regardless of of style, they do provide a safe path through traffic and when weather is not good, potentially causing more dangers to people walking.

I would say we need more things at the sidewalk level to encourage people to be on them. Businesses are a good start but they need a reason to come outside. Fresh air is nice and a lot of people walk the streets for that. More companies would help create more of the pedestrian life you are wanting. The population has grown but more is needed to give it that "buzzy" feel. The skywalks don't really add to or take away. If they came down most people may not even notice

[Philacav]

well you have a chicken and the egg type argument. When the weather is nice almost everyone is outside not using them. In most cases people don't use them because they are not 100% familiar where they go and what they connect. They get the most use during rain and extreme cold. Sometimes extreme heat they are used but more often with the cold.

I get the point they are ugly, but they are only in 1 area and not over used. I know there have been some development with proposals here and there to use them as connectors. Regardless of of style, they do provide a safe path through traffic and when weather is not good, potentially causing more dangers to people walking.

I would say we need more things at the sidewalk level to encourage people to be on them. Businesses are a good start but they need a reason to come outside. Fresh air is nice and a lot of people walk the streets for that. More companies would help create more of the pedestrian life you are wanting. The population has grown but more is needed to give it that "buzzy" feel. The skywalks don't really add to or take away. If they came down most people may not even notice

Again you make excellent points.

My biggest issue has always been specifically the 11th and Main skywalk. It’s too big, and destroys what was once a powerful vista eastward down 11th toward Main and at the actual intersection, suffocates what could be again a very interesting intersection of activity.

Of course so much of what made that intersection a visual feast closed down, in terms of viable retail, and then was demolished amid the Durwood/Kemper real estate spat in the mid-80s.

I digress now as I am helping pull the thread away from the intended location of discussion: another once interesting scene itself.

[wahoowa]

I have vague memories of noticing that shortly after Walnut was converted to 2-way all through downtown; I assumed then that 10th had also slated to be converted back to 2-way between Main and Walnut, but (for whatever reason) the conversion never actually happened.

Blame Commerce Bank.

well that all makes perfect sense. sounds like i was wrong about it being post-2015 then, whoops.

@swid how is life post- wooster treating you?

[KCPowercat]

Core drill testing equipment on site

[normalthings]

Core drill testing equipment on site

Any indication on how deep they were going?

[KCPowercat]

it looked like they were tearing down or getting started. It was on the back corner close to the apartments. I'm not sure how to tell how deep.

[AlkaliAxel]

Are they building some development here?

[TheLastGentleman]

This thread is literally only two pages long, just go back a page