Downtown News Headlines

Streetscape design calls for the 'greening of downtown', 7/9/2005
By Kevin Collison, The Kansas City Star

Downtown Kansas City’s often drab streets would resemble a tree-lined oasis illuminated by light poles sporting a “neo art deco” look, according to a new master plan.

The streetscape design guide prepared by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, a respected Chicago architecture and planning firm, was commissioned in early 2004 and is being delivered to city officials at a time when downtown is undergoing an estimated $3 billion building boom.

The streetscape plan, which takes some cues from the city’s renowned boulevard system, is scheduled to be reviewed by the City Plan Commission on July 19. If approved by the Kansas City Council, the plan will be used to orchestrate what often has been a haphazard approach to the street-level design of downtown.

“From a planning standpoint, it seems to be what we need,” said Thomas G. Coyle, the new city planning director.

“What makes it critical is all the downtown activity that’s going on. … We need a plan to implement all this.”

The streetscape plan reinforces a key recommendation in the recent update of the so-called Sasaki plan that said downtown visitors, workers and residents “should experience gracious, shady streets.” In essence, the streetscape plan seeks to upgrade the public areas that connect many of the key projects being built downtown.

“There is a great deal happening downtown, an unbelievable level of development,” said Leigh Breslau, the SOM partner in charge of the project. “That has gotten people optimistic. It’s that optimism that led to the decision to purse a more coherent public realm.”

Breslau said the Kansas City streetscape plan essentially would extend into downtown the lush boulevard system designed for the rest of the city more than 100 years ago by George Kessler.

“This greening of downtown will make it a much more inviting and comfortable place to be,” he said. “It appeals to everybody because nobody loses in the process.”

Important details — such as how all the recommended improvements, projected to cost at least $500,000 per block, would be funded and who should maintain them — remain to be hammered out between the city and downtown property owners.

Although the city constantly struggles to maintain and improve its streets, civic leaders say the new downtown streetscape plan represents an important aesthetic road map and a base to build upon.

“I think they’ve come up with a plan that’s affordable for Kansas City and I think an exciting package of street elements that, if we implement them, we think would be great,” said Bill Dietrich, president of the Downtown Council, an organization of downtown property owners that probably would have a major role in the plan’s implementation.

The Kansas City Downtown Streetscape Master Plan mainly covers the area within the freeway loop and emphasizes improving the appearance of what it calls its most visible streets: Grand Boulevard, 12th Street, Main Street and Broadway.

Grand would receive particular attention. A 10-foot-wide landscaped median is recommended along its entire length inside the loop, shade trees would be planted every 25 feet, and the street and sidewalks would be illuminated by double-headed streetlights paired every 90 feet.

“Grand would definitely benefit from a median because it is so broad,” Breslau said, adding that it would be particularly helpful to pedestrians crossing the street between the new Sprint Center and the planned Power & Light entertainment district.

Trees and plantings are paramount in the SOM recommendations. The plan includes a block-by-block matrix of how many and what kinds of trees should be planted.

The most extensive landscaping would be along 12th Street, where the plan recommends columnar trees every 15 feet and 3-foot by 5-foot planters with native plants and grasses. The plan calls for secondary streets such as Baltimore Avenue and Central Street to have shade trees planted every 30 feet.

The master plan also recommends a harmonious array of street fixtures including streetlights, benches, newspaper corrals, bicycle racks and bus shelters. The current thinking is for the fixtures to be black and silver.

Debra Smith, the key city planner involved with the SOM plan, said the streetlight design, which she described as “neo art deco,” was chosen because it blended best with the new and old architecture downtown.

The poles could be either single- or double-masted, and would be designed to accommodate banners, flower baskets and pedestrian lighting.

Breslau said the design of the Kansas City fixtures would be unique.

“The challenge was to find a neutral, sophisticated backdrop to this broad range of architectural language,” Breslau said. “This plan is easy to install, maintain and operate, and we believe it reflects Kansas City. It’s not something we’ve done elsewhere.”

SOM has designed high-profile streetscapes throughout the United States and Europe, including Chicago, Milwaukee and Lower Manhattan in New York City.

The firm’s architects have been chosen to design the proposed Freedom Tower in New York at the World Trade Center site. SOM also designed one of Kansas City’s most honored buildings, the former BMA Tower at 31st Street and Southwest Trafficway, which is being converted into the One Park Place high-rise housing project. The BMA Tower received the Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1964.

Public art plays a prominent role in SOM’s downtown streetscape recommendations. The plan calls for integrating art into the design of the street fixtures, introducing artistic elements into the median proposed for Grand, developing new fountains, and using art to signal pedestrians that they are entering a different district of downtown.

The firm received $100,000 to prepare the downtown Kansas City streetscape master plan. Under a separate contract, the firm was paid $231,000 to prepare a more detailed plan for a seven-block stretch of 12th Street between Wyandotte and Locust streets.

City planners say that section was chosen to be the first installment because it is on the route of the new bus rapid transit line.

The master plan estimated it would cost $3.7 million to implement the sidewalk features of the plan on that section of 12th Street, and $5.3 million if the street improvements were included. Currently, the city has about $2.6 million available for that 12th Street work, money that came from the downtown bond issue approved in 2001.

Smith said the city has not yet determined how to fund the rest of the 12th Street work or the improvements after that, but said it would probably be done incrementally.

Breslau said a price for implementing the entire plan downtown hasn’t been established.

Private developers also are planning to follow the master plan.

The Cordish Co. of Baltimore has agreed to follow the guidelines in much of the entertainment district it is developing in a seven-block stretch of the South Loop, and the company developing the former Fidelity Bank & Trust Building at 909 Walnut St. into luxury apartments also will cooperate, Smith said.

“Community ownership is essential to a successfully lasting project, as city resources can only go so far,” the plan stated. “This is especially true for the landscape elements. An unkempt planter will bring down an entire street just as an unkempt yard reflects on an entire neighborhood.”

The Downtown Council established a community improvement district two years ago, using money generated by a special surtax on property owners. A staff hired by the district provides security and cleans streets and sidewalks. Dietrich said a logical next step would be for his organization to take on a supportive role caring for the streetscape improvements.

Coyle said any implementation of the streetscape plan must include a cooperative agreement for long-term maintenance.

“The worst option is to put it in and not take care of it,” he said.

City planners said they consulted with the authors of the Sasaki plan, formally called the Kansas City Downtown Corridor Strategy, during their streetscape discussions. The plan by Sasaki Associates Inc. of Watertown, Mass., was prepared at the request of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, an organization of top business leaders.

Sasaki recently released an updated plan, and one of its key recommendations for the area within the freeway loop is to make it more pedestrian-friendly. Kathryn Madden, the main author of the Sasaki report, endorsed the streetscape recommendations made by Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

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