Extreme Metro Makeover

KANSAS CITY IS BEING TRANSFORMED RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES.
BY EDWARD M. EVELD

Overall, Kansas City’s recent renovations are running well into the billions of dollars. When you invest that kind of money in a Midwestern city, the results are nothing short of spectacular.

One of the most amazing new features will be the Power and Light District (powerandlightdistrict.com), set for an October grand opening. This new district is located downtown, an area that has long had a moderately successful convention center and other pockets of activity, but has suffered economically due to a lack of a central entertainment district. Not anymore.

In all, there will be nine blocks of eateries, shops and refurbished theaters. The Cordish Company of Baltimore planned the area several years ago, investing $850 million into 450,000 square feet of entertainment and retail.

While the retail and restaurant spaces are not all filled yet—although they’re going rapidly—a stroll through this entertainment district will offer the Gordon Biersch Brewery and Restaurant; Mosaic, a 7,100-square-foot “ultralounge;” a Jos. A. Bank clothing store; and Maker’s Mark Bourbon House and Lounge. Besides renovation of the historic Mainstreet and Midland theaters, the Power and Light District will also feature a live-events stage and an outdoor plaza capable of holding more than 10,000 people.

The $276 million, 18,500-seat Sprint Center (sprintcenter.com) is also set for an October opening, with the goal of ushering in a new era of entertainment and sports. So far, this new glass-enveloped venue located next to the Power and Light District has been nicknamed everything from “crystal bowl” to “spaceship” to “glass pillow.”

It took 2,204 glass panels, each weighing about 700 pounds, to sheath the arena. The glass adds sparkle to the skyline, and from inside the arena, visitors experience the outside as well, with views of the streets and buildings of downtown surrounding them.

Kansas Citians are hoping the arena will be home to an NBA or NHL team in the near future, but for now, one of the first big bookings is Disney’s High School Musical: The Ice Tour from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2. It will also be a contender for Big 12 post-season basketball tournament play, and NCAA Championship and Final Four events.

Fanning south from the new arena and entertainment haven, downtown’s old warehouse district is evolving more organically.

Instead of multimillion-dollar development plans, the Crossroads District (kccrossroads.org) has been adding to its eclectic array of art galleries, shops and restaurants storefront by storefront.

One such shop that is new to McGee Street, which runs from the Sprint Center to Crown Center, is Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolate. The front of Elbow’s sleek shop offers chocolate drinks and artistically sculpted chocolates, while at the back, chocolatiers are at work. “The vision was that the good things going on in the Crossroads would spread this way,” Elbow says. “And it’s really happening.”

The Crossroads District is host to First Fridays, when many of its galleries stay open from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. the first Fridays of each month, and visitors can stroll leisurely from place to place.

While much of Kansas City’s new developments is still under construction, the new Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (nelson-atkins.org) is ready for discovery now.

Take a 67-story building and lay it on its side, then bury it beside the Nelson-Atkins, the neoclassic, limestone temple that sits high above its immense lawn in midtown Kansas City. That’s in effect what Steven Holl Architects created with the venerable museum’s new Bloch Building. Holl designed the building to burst from the ground by way of five glass boxes, dubbed “lenses”—each a differently shaped polygon—which infuse the galleries with natural light.

Paul Goldberger of The New Yorker calls it, “One of the best museums of the last generation.” And Richard Lacayo of TIME magazine says it is the “most anticipated building of 2007.”

According to Marc Wilson, the museum’s director, “The light is both a material—with the same status as the walls and ceilings—and a catalyst for the other architectural elements.” Overall, says Wilson, the Bloch’s interior, with its unexpected turns and intersecting planes in walls and ceilings, has a calming effect on visitors, which accentuates the art-viewing experience.

At night, residents are treated to the gorgeous glow of the Bloch Building as each lens is lit from in between the glass panels, while during the day, visitors are bathed in the soft interior light created by the natural light filtered though the treated glass of the exterior.

Since the Bloch Building opened in June, it has been heralded as an architectural treasure. The $200 million expansion and renovation project increased the exhibit space of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building by 70 percent.

With many Kansas City renovations either complete or nearing completion, long-time residents and visitors will be treated to a city vibrant with new life and vigor. But for everything new, there will be something of the original city, and that is what will make KC truly shine.

GOING ON NOW

You can see two special exhibits at the Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: “Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection,” which runs through Sept. 9, and “Developing Greatness: The Origins of American Photography, 1839 to 1885,” which runs through Dec. 30. Tickets are $8 for both adults and children.

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