OFFICIAL - Loews Convention Hotel (formerly Hyatt)

[Midtownkid]

Hey who cares how it looks! As long as it's over 25 stories I'm gonna blow my load. Hell, if it's 40 it can be made of cardboard and have no windows!

[Midtownkid]

I have it on good authority that the number of floors will be equal to bhedges1987's post count minus the total number of registered Raggers whose usernames contain the word "midtown" at the moment of ground breaking.

Just for the record I think I was the first "midtown" on the forum...13 years. 13 years too long!

[GRID]

This hotel (even if it technically only has 25 floors) will look like a 45 story building from most angles and will dramatically alter the skyline. So I do hope at least the south blank wall doesn't look terrible. I'm sure there are things that can be done to improve south wall.

[bhedges1987]

This hotel (even if it technically only has 25 floors) will look like a 45 story building from most angles and will dramatically alter the skyline. So I do hope at least the south blank wall doesn't look terrible. I'm sure there are things that can be done to improve south wall.

Depends where they build it.... They could flatten out that hill to be even with the road below it and it will look extremely small. If they keep the hill and build it on top then yes.

[moderne]

Obviously you are not familiar with the site. The hill cannot be "flattened out" as Wyandotte St is on it(along with the KCPA and the Bartle ballroom). The western half of the block is level with Wyandotte. The eastern half is already the lower level of Baltimore.

[flyingember]

Obviously you are not familiar with the site. The hill cannot be "flattened out" as Wyandotte St is on it(along with the KCPA and the Bartle ballroom). The western half of the block is level with Wyandotte. The eastern half is already the lower level of Baltimore.

You clearly haven't realized this very flattening up to a street has already been down downtown in multiple cases going back decades. Downtown is a hill so every place a building is on a hill there has been flattening.

The Arts Dist garage at Kauffman Center. The southern end is even with a lower street while the northern end is below ground at the same level.

Consentino's and the garage next it. The southern and eastern end is at street level while you have to go up a level to get to a Main

The Commerce Trust Tower. The lobby is even with Walnut but you have a level of garage below it on Main

City Center a Square has entrances on different levels east and west.

The 9th and baltimore Lane Printers building. It's east end is at one level, the west end is a mezzanine level about 10 feet above, and I know the basement runs all the way under the mezzanine in this case.

[bhedges1987]

Obviously you are not familiar with the site. The hill cannot be "flattened out" as Wyandotte St is on it(along with the KCPA and the Bartle ballroom). The western half of the block is level with Wyandotte. The eastern half is already the lower level of Baltimore.

So then, they will use the lower part of the hill to begin floor 1, which in return will make it look much smaller?

[flyingember]

Obviously you are not familiar with the site. The hill cannot be "flattened out" as Wyandotte St is on it(along with the KCPA and the Bartle ballroom). The western half of the block is level with Wyandotte. The eastern half is already the lower level of Baltimore.

So then, they will use the lower part of the hill to begin floor 1, which in return will make it look much smaller?

think of Consentino's. they put the nice area on the downhill side.

So my guess is they would put a nice lobbey on that end, which I seem to recall was said in one of the articles, and have all the admin areas behind it. Stuff which you might have with a blank wall anyways. So they don't use window space on that kind of stuff.

[moderne]

The renderings and news coverage puts the lobby entrance on Wyandotte directly across the street from the ballroom with an elevated honky tube for direct indoor access to the convention center. Conventional thinking would make the lobby level as "L" or "1."

[MidtownCat]

This thing definitely needs a crown. Just like the one at the K, and I'm talking just like it.

Put a big ass jumbo tron on top of it, capped by the crown

I can't think of anything else that could deliver a gritty, urban experience quite like a set piece from Blade Runner

To clarify, I'm only on board with a giant screen and a crown at the top of this thing unless the mysteriously unidentified seven floors at the base can be a replicant laboratory.

[LCDSI]

1.) Here's the new wilshire grand hotel in LA. This will be the first highrise without a flat top in downtown LA. Korean Air got around this by adhering to certain strict fire codes so they do not need the requirement of having an available helipad on the roof.

http://www.wilshiregrandcenter.com/


2.) Here is a link to the extended Marriott/ Ritz Carlton Tower downtown hotel. The new portion is the tower on the left hand side of the image.

http://www.latimes.com/business/realest ... story.html


Let's hope the architects are paying attention to these and other examples of what the new Hyatt Hotel could look like.

[joshmv]

I'll take both, thanks in advance.

[Downtowner]

Does the 1% for art apply to this project? If so, $3 million could add some cool feature to the top of it. With all the city funding, I'm hoping they'll be some demand on the design. This city has built some really ambitious - and architecturally significant - buildings and this should not be an exception.
Can we bring Frank Gehry back for this? He did fly in trying to get the arena job. Sly should get involved on lobbying for this not to be a giant rectangular box (like most of the Dallas and Denver downtown highrises). Because of the location next to the PAC, how cool would it be to have the hotel design complement the PAC? This is a giant opportunity for KC to set itself apart one more time.

If 2 designs were proposed - one likely mundane box and one cutting-edge design - with a published gap in funding, I would think local business leaders would step up to raise the $ to make the difference. Biggest donor gets a permanent suite. Remember when the PAC was nearly scrapped for the Lyric building? Panicked donors came forward to make sure the current design happened. Time for Sly to get creative with this signature project. While KC builds at a snails pace, it's been off-the-charts stuff like Bloch & Kaufmann Center. And go back in history for KCP&L bldg., Union Station, The Plaza, etc.

[flyingember]

the 1% art thing is kind of particular.

I don't know if $2 million annual assistance counts

[moderne]

KC Biz Journal now reporting 30 floors.

[normalthings]

KC Biz Journal now reporting 30 floors.

link?

[LCDSI]

KC Biz Journal now reporting 30 floors.

link?

here's the link.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... -plan.html

[aknowledgeableperson]

solar panels.

[archiKC]

Yes just a rendering....At night it looks fine but in the light the top feature makes the building look unfinished. DUMB.

Were they going for this effect and failed?

I mentioned it a few posts back, but to me it looks very similar to the top of the New York Times building



you might call it unfinished, others might call it an architectural screen intended to hide unsightly rooftop equipment. Ultimately, extra add-ons like this add money to the project, so if they don't serve a purpose (visually pleasing or functional) they are the first thing to get cut

[beautyfromashes]

This is probably a dumb question, but I was looking at the rendering with the stripe down the side. Has there ever been a highrise with a water feature down the side?