KCRag Forum

Do we have a huge demand for parking semi trucks at 20th & Main I'm not aware of?

Why is there a 2nd floor sky lobby vs. on the corner interacting with the street?

Seems like some pretty easy fixes could make this serviceable given the weird physical layout....

That's awful. It looks like it was designed by someone who has never been to the site and is operating on the assumption that people are afraid of being at 20th and Main. Various people at the city have acknowledged that the MainCor building and the Gomer's at 39th and Broadway were mistakes based on how they are shut off from the corner. I'd start bringing up those buildings as examples of why this building sucks.

It's probably time to start making phone calls to City Hall about this.

.

here's the focal point to mention, the garage has huge blind spots for pedestrians. Jimmy John's was so worried they put up illegal signs on theirs. now another midblock driveway gets approved with poor sight lines

then add a bike going down the street to the mix. there's a bcycle station around the corner on Grand a few blocks the other way from the train

it's about basic safety for everyone.

if they want to keep the midblock parking entrance they need 45 degree sight lines from 6 feet back. those brick walls add danger by design

My goodness, what a disappointment. Is this really the final design? It's something straight out of the 1960's. Abominations like this is why I had a hard time getting bent out of shape over the new building north of the P&L. You really can't tell how someone would walk to this place.

Look at the rendering on page 28. Main is shown as a 3-lane, one-way traffic sewer. Have the people performing the renderings been to the site? They copy/pasted the Midwest Hotel three other places and nuked everything north of the Rieger. That dumpster enclosure is very Olathe. Good grief, people are going to get on the streetcar at Union Station and this will be one of the first things they see.

I think I'd rather keep the Walnut Flyway. This is offensive.

Let's not forget 20th will be drastically changed by the time this thing is built....that has not be factored into this plan.

I'll assume KC Crossroads neighborhood association will put a fight up on this....feels like every time we rely on the planning department, they act like their hands are tied.

Eon Blue wrote: Look at the rendering on page 28. Main is shown as a 3-lane, one-way traffic sewer. Have the people performing the renderings been to the site? They copy/pasted the Midwest Hotel three other places and nuked everything north of the Rieger. That dumpster enclosure is very Olathe. Good grief, people are going to get on the streetcar at Union Station and this will be one of the first things they see.

Renderings have been getting worse and worse and this one is pathetic, everything about it, from the lighting to the skewed perspective. Perhaps they are outsourcing these things to China or Bangladesh.
It's a double whammy, bad design and even worse rendering.

The raised first floor is always baffling. I assume they're doing it because of parking minimums, but it never fails to ruin even designs that are far better than this.

For example, I always find myself admiring this little building on Broadway, until I remember that the first floor is a wet fart:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0700254 ... mMVMvw!2e0

Finding out if they're exceeding parking minimums for no reason would be another good approach to fighting this design.

chaglang wrote:The raised first floor is always baffling. I assume they're doing it because of parking minimums, but it never fails to ruin even designs that are far better than this.

For example, I always find myself admiring this little building on Broadway, until I remember that the first floor is a wet fart:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0700254 ... mMVMvw!2e0

Finding out if they're exceeding parking minimums for no reason would be another good approach to fighting this design.

There are no parking minimums right along the streetcar

So honestly, when does the design review process begin from the city? Plan commission?

KCPowercat wrote:So honestly, when does the design review process begin from the city? Plan commission?

That or the BZA.

It's a terrible looking building, but the worst part is that there is no entrance facing 20th and Main.

There are no parking minimums right along the streetcar

What are the other parking options for people who may be using the hotel. Granted the hotel doesn't need the same number of spaces as the number of rooms but what choices are out there?

SUPER easy. Enter the lot from the east, off of Walnut. People will be smart enough to figure it out.

aknowledgeableperson wrote:

There are no parking minimums right along the streetcar

What are the other parking options for people who may be using the hotel. Granted the hotel doesn't need the same number of spaces as the number of rooms but what choices are out there?

All he said was the city doesn't require a certain # of spots. Taxi, bus...not everybody using a hotel grabs a rental car right?

SUPER easy. Enter the lot from the east, off of Walnut. People will be smart enough to figure it out.

I stated "what other parking options". Don't believe the above answers that.

Taxi, bus...not everybody using a hotel grabs a rental car right?

Which I said in my post. Evidently the developer feels the project needs a certain number of parking spaces. Take some parking spaces away to give more building on the ground level would need to be replaced somewhere. So where are those other places?

Also SUPER easy. Valet. Contract with an existing surface lot somewhere. Not uncommon for hotels to do this in areas with even moderate amount of density. Offset the expense with either more rooms or rentable space. Note that they don't have an equal room to parking space ratio as it is, so it's not like taking away the grim under-building parking would be breaking some sort of threshold. In other words, under the current design if the hotel is at capacity they will have to have people park offsite.

I'm sure there are other creative solutions to this issue. But this being KC, we get the most lazy, unimaginative solutions passed off by developers as the *only* option.

Those orange sodium lights are going to look awesome shining out from under the building!

Which I said in my post. Evidently the developer feels the project needs a certain number of parking spaces. Take some parking spaces away to give more building on the ground level would need to be replaced somewhere. So where are those other places?

Where the random semi-truck is parked in that rendering?

aknowledgeableperson wrote:

There are no parking minimums right along the streetcar

What are the other parking options for people who may be using the hotel. Granted the hotel doesn't need the same number of spaces as the number of rooms but what choices are out there?

there's a huge lot at 20th and Grand a whole block away. I've walked further to parking for a hotel before

Yes, but who controls those lots? Could the developers negotiate for space? Just because the space is there doesn't mean the developer can utilize it.