KCRag Forum

The difficulty with the 670 option is the much increased cost of building over the highway. I agree though, that would be the ideal location.

Building over the freeway would also be another small step towards eventually covering the entire south segment of the loop.

bump

I cannot believe they're actually thinking of paving over the BA plaza. How monumentally stupid can you be. With miles of viable un and under-developed vacant space all around they want to ruin the best space in the area. If money is that much of a problem then perhaps that speaks to the overall efficacy of the plan.


I never use these things but:

Check out the Star this morning. More good news for downtown. I don't care what anyone else says, I think Barnes and Cauthen have done more for downtown than anyone in the last decade. Let's not get too greedy about what we have. The Bartle proposal goes back to the original idea of going over the freeway. Seems best, given the recent announcements about KC LIVE and Block. I hope we can pull this off. Seems like this will take massive agreement from multiple parties involved. I haven't seen any signs that all parties are in agreement with all the recent news. Who will oversee all this development and coordinate all the projects.

wooohooo! great job barnes and great job city hall!
this is awsome. what I wonder though is what they might build as art. Itd be cool to have more skystations but give the columns a better look, like add sculptures and stuff.

i get the suspicion that Barnes and Co. have some great ideas for downtown, but without a new major employer coming into the picture, a lot of the ideas would have been shot down.

With H&R Block coming downtown, some of the other projects can now be justified. The ballroom over the highway makes more sense now, and I be that the Block family will soon make a nice contribution to the PAC. Now that the ballroom is on track, H&R Block coming down, Cordish doing the entertainment district, I bet many of the objections to a downtown arena will be cancelled out. I am betting on arena plans coming out by summer. And I bet that by the time the first phase of the developement comes on line in 2006, the vacancy rate downtown will begin to drop very quickly

tat2kc wrote:And I bet that by the time the first phase of the developement comes on line in 2006, the vacancy rate downtown will begin to drop very quickly

Hmmm.... right around the time Jury would have been opening his renovated President.

Cordish has stated that completing the Hotel renovation would not adversely affect the entertainment project. With the proximity to the expanded ballroom and the Block Headquarters, Jury just might have the ammo he needs now to proceed.

Lets face it, for the city to compete, not only with other metro area, but especially with Overland Park for conventions, the convention center needs to expand. The selfishness of the Kansas side of the metro will hurt the entire area in the end, but for now we must realize that expansion is very much needed. I am all for locating part of the center over I-670 or even part of it south of the loop with connecting walkways--this could produce some awesome architecutre, and great views that would be exciting to visitors.

paisstat....the KCMO CC is already much larger than the OP version...not sure why they need to expand for the competition.....

Actually, the OP center has a larger ballroom than Bartle right now, this proves how out of date KC's largest ballroom is and this is why the KC center needs to be expanded. I also think they should start planning the next exibit hall expansion that will also cross I-670 east of the new Ballroom.

as soon as I posted that I thought Paissat might be talking about ballroom....in which case that would be correct.

Interior renovations to start in September......ballroom construction in January 05.

On the site detailing the Bartle expansion/renovation, there are some troubling photos involving the "plaza" in front of the new ballroom on the south side of the 670.
http://www.visitkc.com/meeting_planner/ ... ansion.htm

There appears to be A LOT of concrete and such and doesn't seem level with the street. Basically, it looks like a more artistic version of what Barney Allis looks like. I realize we have challenging land to deal with, but the last thing we need downtown is more dead space. Putting in a giant slab of concrete and calling it a "plaza" is not my idea of moving downtown forward. Sometimes these concepts sound better than their actualization.

After this expansion, Bartle Hall will have 524,000 square feet of space. And then we will have the fourth expansion which will probably nearly double the space at Bartle Hall.
Also, trailerkid, you may not have much engineering sense, but that concrete is needed for the underground parking garage.
The plaza and parking garage south of the PAC is nice, but it is being done by another architect (Moshie Safdie).
The ballroom is being designed by HNTB who did bartle hall's last expansion and are great at designing bridge structures.

KCDevin wrote:After this expansion, Bartle Hall will have 524,000 square feet of space. And then we will have the fourth expansion which will probably nearly double the space at Bartle Hall.
Also, trailerkid, you may not have much engineering sense, but that concrete is needed for the underground parking garage.
The plaza and parking garage south of the PAC is nice, but it is being done by another architect (Moshie Safdie).
The ballroom is being designed by HNTB who did bartle hall's last expansion and are great at designing bridge structures.

I guess I don't really care what it is being used for, the plaza in front of the ballroom does not look very nice no matter who designed it.

Are you talking about expanding the main exhibit space at Bartle again? I don't know where they could go. It seems they will be a bit landlocked after the PAC goes up.

look at this:

Cool Devin...

I thought the expansion of the exhibit hall would further enlarge the existing one, which would mean one MASSIVE building. I guess I don't know how expanding Bartle's main exhibit space helps when it is not a part of the existing main space. If built out, this would be a convention campus rather than a convention center.

Although the 3 buildings will be connected, a convention "campus " is a good way to put it. You could more easily have different gatherings in the different buildings, or one massive convention taking the entire complex. If promoted correctly, it could be a benefit for KC.