Sep

1

A solution for the Cosby Hotel

September 1, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | 1 Comment

Tony interviews 4th District City Council candidate John Crawford, who says the City already has tools at its disposal for solving the Cosby Hotel preservation dilemma.  For once,  the comments on a Tony’s Kansas City post are intelligent and prescient :)

The upshot is that the building in an existing TIF district (Baltimore Place) and Rick Powell is at least two years behind his promised timeline for redeveloping it.  These two things mean that the City already has the authority to seize the building and give it to another developer like Adam Jones.  It’s just a matter of the City Council having the political will to do it.

Seizing the building would not only save an historic structure, it would send a message that developers who get big tax breaks are expected to be good stewards of the public money.

Categories: Architecture, Downtown, Real Estate, Tax Breaks, .

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Aug

30

Tough weekend in the burbs

August 30, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | 1 Comment

Sunday morning’s breaking news items on the KC Star web site…

Categories: Crime, Kansas, Suburbs

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Aug

30

Happy Gillis on Food Network tonight

August 30, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | Leave a Comment

Happy Gills Cafe & Hangout in the Columbus Park neighborhood will be featured on tonight’s episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network.  The episode airs at 9:00 p.m.

This is KC’s third showing on a Guy Fieri show this summer.  Earlier shows feature KC BBQ and Swagger in Waldo.

Categories: Arts/Entertainment, Downtown

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Aug

28

Historic Cosby Hotel might become parking lot after all

August 28, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | 2 Comments

Photograph by Chris Murphy

The Star reports that Rick Powell is set to demolish the historic Cosby Hotel building within a week, despite a City offer to stabilize the structure and attempts to buy it by the Historic Kansas City Foundation and local preservationist/developer Adam Jones.

Powell’s actions continue to confirm widespread rumors that Powell has always intended to tear down the building at 9th and Baltimore in order to pave a surface parking lot for his adjacent condos in the Union Carbide and Kansas City Club Buildings.  It looks we’ll see if the Historic Kansas City Foundation can still save a structure in the post-Jane Flynn era.

What do you think?  Leave a comment with your two cents.

BlogKC’s previous coverage of the Cosby Hotel.

Categories: Architecture, Downtown, KC History, Real Estate, Tax Breaks, .

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Aug

27

Why Claire McCaskill won’t follow you on Twitter

August 27, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | Leave a Comment

Senator Claire McCaskill, perhaps Congress’ most famous Twitter user, explains why she doesn’t follow other people Twitter.  Unlike other Congressional tweeters, she does it all herself without staff help.  While she won’t follow you, she does read every @clairecmc mention and every #mo hastag, and she DMs many people in reply to their tweets.

Categories: Politics, US Senate - MO

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Aug

24

A different kind of college ranking

August 24, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | Leave a Comment

Earlier this month we reported on local colleges and university rankings on the annual US News list.  Today we have a different kind of ranking.  The Washington Monthly ranking looks at schools’ contributions to the world.  Metrics include things like ROTC members, Peace Corps volunteers, research, social mobility of students, community service, etc.  At #92, Mizzou was the only Mo-Kan school in the top 100 national ranking, but we did have some other great rankings in specialty categories.

National Universities
92. University of Missouri-Columbia
148. University of Kansas
188. Kansas State University
205. University of Missouri-Kansas City
213. University of Missouri-Science and Technology, Rolla
239. University of Missouri-St. Louis
256. Wichita State University

Masters Universities
6. Truman State University

Liberal Arts Colleges
89. William Jewel College

Baccalaureate College
20. College of the Ozarks, MO
22. Culver-Stockon College, MO

Community Colleges
2. Heston, KS College
33.  Seward County, KS Community College
50. Barton County, KS Community College

Drop-Out Factories (Worst drop-out rates)
9. Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, KS

Categories: Education

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Aug

23

A tale of two buildings

August 23, 2010 by William Rockhill Nelson | 1 Comment

The building on the left is Valencia Place at 47th and Pennsylvania. It’s better known as the home of the Lockton insurance company and retail tenants like The Gap, McCormick and Schmick’s and Scooter’s Coffee.   The building on the right is the proposed Polsinelli Shughart law offices a block east at 47th and Broadway.

Valencia Place opened in 2000 as the last big project before the J.C. Nichols Co. sold out to Highwoods.   It’s a pretty decent example of how to fit a new office building into the Plaza’s retail core. The site features two stories of retail along 47th Street with the high rise at the rear closer to 48th. This preserve’s the Plaza Urban Design Plan (PDF) its idea of the “Plaza Bowl” – a ring of high rises surrounding the preserved low-rise core of the Plaza retail district.

The exterior uses a mixture of brick, tile, plaster, and glass to provide a contemporary twist on the Plaza’s Spanish/Moorish architecture.  The development even added a couple of unique touches with the blue tile steps and the new tower. Valencia Place shows that a little bit of creativity and some attention detail can provide modern office space without killing the goose that laid Kansas City’s golden egg.

Hopefully between now and the October 5th Planning & Zoning hearing Highwoods and their architects will get busy with the real design and retract the suburban office park template they through out in a press release.  They could even hire local firm 360 Architects, who designed Valencia Place.

Categories: Architecture, Business, KC History, Midtown/Plaza, Real Estate

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