500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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Major KC Fan
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by Major KC Fan »

I think the view from the west, especially from Strawberry Hill, is magnificent! Topography does hide some of the lower neighborhoods, like the Crossroads, but the skyline profile is great from the River Market to Park Place and the Federal Reserve. If you’re viewing from the West Bottoms of course you get a diminished view. It’s simple geography. You can also get great western views from the approach from I-70 around the 57th and 18th Street approaches. Maybe you’re just afraid to travel west to KCK? 😳
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by Cratedigger »

Major KC Fan wrote: Sat Oct 22, 2022 9:43 am I think the view from the west, especially from Strawberry Hill, is magnificent! Topography does hide some of the lower neighborhoods, like the Crossroads, but the skyline profile is great from the River Market to Park Place and the Federal Reserve. If you’re viewing from the West Bottoms of course you get a diminished view. It’s simple geography. You can also get great western views from the approach from I-70 around the 57th and 18th Street approaches. Maybe you’re just afraid to travel west to KCK? 😳
Yes! The view from St. John's park is one of my favorites in the city
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by GRID »

You don't know me very well if you think I'm scared of KCK lol. I like the view from KCK, but the skyline looks very small from the west.

KC's downtown looks MUCH larger from the south (main street, liberty memorial etc) and southeast (71 and Troost) and the North (169, Waterworks park etc).

From the the west even from Strawberry Hill or Kaw Point, it looks much smaller. Same with view from the direct east like the Old NE area. The skyline looks very small.

You are welcome to think otherwise though. That's just my opinion.

And yes, from the West Bottoms it looks like Downtown has like two buildings, so even worse. The one place where the skyline is impressive from the west is up in the hills of the West Side like observation park where you can see the crossroads and crown center skyline etc. and you see a lot more of the loop skyline from that angle and elevation than from over in Kansas.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by Major KC Fan »

That’s the point I was trying to make if you’d read my post completely. The west view does not provide the expansive views from other angles that show more of the actual downtown area, but it does provide a striking silhouette of the tallest towers. Kind of like the frequent logos you see of various businesses using a downtown silhouette. Any western view needs to be from an elevated bluff, not the bottoms-simple geography. The proposed tower on Broadway would greatly add to that profile.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by GRID »

Yeah. Like I said, I like the views from the west. If kck had built the tornado thing lol it would have had great views of kcmo.

I just think some views of the skyline make the city look much smaller. I think the absolute worse view of Downtown is from just east of the loop. Now only does the skyline look small, but it's very low density at ground level and dominated by very old buildings so it just looks like a city that has barley changed in decades (other than tearing things down). But the crown center skyline is nice from over there.

I always thought the view from Blue Ridge Blvd just north of 87th was kind of cool as you can see the entire plaza to downtown skyline from that vantage point. It's a bit far though, but I think that's what makes it interesting.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by shinatoo »

One of my favorite views is comming in at night down 35 right at 670. You get an almost 180 deg view starting with Childerns Mercy around Crown Center, union station, Crossroads, Kauffman and then downtown.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by GRID »

shinatoo wrote: Sat Oct 22, 2022 5:16 pm One of my favorite views is comming in at night down 35 right at 670. You get an almost 180 deg view starting with Childerns Mercy around Crown Center, union station, Crossroads, Kauffman and then downtown.
yeah, that's a good view, if you are passenger and can enjoy it.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by FangKC »

Looking SE from Kansas City, KS.

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Looking NE from Cambridge Business Park.

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Looking east from the West Bottoms.

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Looking north from the Liberty Memorial.

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From behind the Liberty Memorial.

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Photo by Jonathan Tasler.

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Looking north from Union Hill (Eric Bower photo).

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Looking north from south of the Plaza.

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Looking west from 12th Street near Prospect.

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Looking NE from Park Place (former BMA tower) in Penn Valley Park (old photo before some towers were built).

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Looking NE from The Scout in Penn Valley Park.

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Looking NW from Hospital Hill Park.

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Looking North from the Sheraton Hotel at Crown Center.

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Looking NW from E. 17th and Hardesty.

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Looking SE from the Missouri River near the Fairfax Bend.

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From Kaw Point.

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Looking NW from 24th and Forest.

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Looking south from Waterworks Park.

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Looking south from North Kansas City.

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Looking SE from the levee next to the downtown airport.

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Looking east from the Westside pedestrian bridge near the FBI building.

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Looking SE from Quality Hill.

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Looking NE from Observation Park on the Westside.

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Looking SE from Parkville University.

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Looking SW from Kessler Park in Old Northeast.

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Looking west from Truman Road and Forest in Independence.

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Last edited by FangKC on Sat Oct 22, 2022 10:56 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by shinatoo »

Waterworks Park gave me the feels.

Lots of cities would be happy with the Plaza Skyline.

Thank you so much for posting all that.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by atticus23 »

^Thanks @Fang for posting all of these pictures!

Is this site and the site from Collison's article today in CitySceneKC the same or are they two different proposals. Sorry, if this was answered previously.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by normalthings »

atticus23 wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:01 pm ^Thanks @Fang for posting all of these pictures!

Is this site and the site from Collison's article today in CitySceneKC the same or are they two different proposals. Sorry, if this was answered previously.
Same project. We need FAA to back off and start approving things.

An uncooperative FAA is maybe the only thing that would get me to support closing the downtown airport or drastic changes to it.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by kenrbnj »

normalthings wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:05 pm
atticus23 wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:01 pm ^Thanks @Fang for posting all of these pictures!

Is this site and the site from Collison's article today in CitySceneKC the same or are they two different proposals. Sorry, if this was answered previously.
Same project. We need FAA to back off and start approving things.

An uncooperative FAA is maybe the only thing that would get me to support closing the downtown airport or drastic changes to it.
Exceptionally interesting remark. This past week, Orlando hosted the NBAA-BACE conference; the premier business jet/private aviation meeting. It's a monster of a conference: 45,000 attendees from the industry. My firm serves the aviation community with turbine engine diagnostic and support equipment, so we exhibited.

When I managed to get a moment to break free, I noticed the Charles Wheeler Downtown KC airport booth. ..Kansas City is actively marketing the Charles Wheeler Airport. There had been mention of several additional ground support facilities in-work; namely additional hangars for maintenance and storage.

If this conversation occurred last month; one could be forgiven to suggest Charles Wheeler Airport could be redeveloped into something outside of aviation.

Based on the commitment by the airports authority -- firsthand: There is sincere interest to continue developing and expanding the downtown airport.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by normalthings »

Vor getting removed opens up space for developer ment at Wheeler. I’m pro wheeler but not if it prevents downtown growth
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by Link2 »

kenrbnj wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:25 pm
normalthings wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:05 pm
atticus23 wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 2:01 pm ^Thanks @Fang for posting all of these pictures!

Is this site and the site from Collison's article today in CitySceneKC the same or are they two different proposals. Sorry, if this was answered previously.
Same project. We need FAA to back off and start approving things.

An uncooperative FAA is maybe the only thing that would get me to support closing the downtown airport or drastic changes to it.
Exceptionally interesting remark. This past week, Orlando hosted the NBAA-BACE conference; the premier business jet/private aviation meeting. It's a monster of a conference: 45,000 attendees from the industry. My firm serves the aviation community with turbine engine diagnostic and support equipment, so we exhibited.

When I managed to get a moment to break free, I noticed the Charles Wheeler Downtown KC airport booth. ..Kansas City is actively marketing the Charles Wheeler Airport. There had been mention of several additional ground support facilities in-work; namely additional hangars for maintenance and storage.

If this conversation occurred last month; one could be forgiven to suggest Charles Wheeler Airport could be redeveloped into something outside of aviation.

Based on the commitment by the airports authority -- firsthand: There is sincere interest to continue developing and expanding the downtown airport.
Charles Wheeler Downtown is the second-busiest airport in the state (behind Lambert) in terms of the average number of aircraft operations per day.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by Cratedigger »

normalthings wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:46 pm Vor getting removed opens up space for developer ment at Wheeler. I’m pro wheeler but not if it prevents downtown growth
Vor?
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by WoodDraw »

VOR is a navigation aid for airline approaches that's slowly being removed. I can't even remember what it stands for. It's a legacy system.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by normalthings »

Cratedigger wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:57 pm
normalthings wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:46 pm Vor getting removed opens up space for developer ment at Wheeler. I’m pro wheeler but not if it prevents downtown growth
Vor?
Type of communication. Technology has moved last so it can get removed and open up a sizable portion of the airfield for development.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by TheLastGentleman »

I drive 169 every day to and from the northland and over half the times there’s a plane landing or taking off from Wheeler
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by moderne »

It must be some sort of trick of the eye. From downtown environs it looks like a lot of room for planes, but taking off or landing from the south feels disquieting close to the buildings.
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Re: 500 foot mixed use tower considered for downtown

Post by dukuboy1 »

TheLastGentleman wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:26 pm I drive 169 every day to and from the northland and over half the times there’s a plane landing or taking off from Wheeler
Commerce Bank alone has a jet that leaves about 7:30 daily over to STL, then comes back to KC to drop off ppl. And then again does the round trip in the afternoon. Plenty of activity there to justify any redevelopment, additions etc.

However I agree the the issue is replacing rules and guidelines setup about 40-50 yrs ago that are no longer needed. New technology, better defined flight paths, etc. are in place now that rules holding back building sizes and such should be easily reviewed and worked with. Obviously there will always be some sort of hard cap design within certain areas but anything holding back development should be able to be addresses quickly.
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