Paving the way for change, 3/9/2006
By Kevin Collison, The Kansas City Star
Grand Boulevard will have its grandeur restored –– at least where it borders the Sprint Center and Power & Light District –– when those projects are fully opened late next year.
The two-block stretch between 13th Street and Truman Road will be rebuilt with charcoal- and red-colored pavers in sidewalks and crosswalks, and landscaped with “Red Sunset” maple trees, evergreen shrubs and raised planters. The plan has been accepted by the Parks and Recreation Board, city officials, and developers of the arena and entertainment district.
“We’re pretty pleased,” Mark McHenry, director of parks and recreation, said Wednesday. “This is a design that’s nice but not difficult to replicate, and with time and money we’ll be able to grow it north and south.”
It is estimated the two blocks of streetscaping would run $1.2 million, not including the cost of rebuilding Grand. The financing for this section of the project is included in the budgets of the Sprint Center and Power & Light projects, and it will be maintained jointly by staff from those developments. In its prewar heyday, Grand was downtown’s premier artery for civic celebrations and parades. In recent decades, however, it has lost most of its luster. That is expected to begin changing with the new streetscape project.
“We’re trying to make it an exciting and inviting environment,” said Scott Bingham, a landscape architect with Bowman Bowman Novick Inc., the firm that worked on the plan with the Downtown Arena Design Team.
The design is based on a Downtown Streetscape Master Plan prepared for the city last year by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, a respected Chicago architecture and planning firm. Officials eventually plan to apply the landscaping elements to the entire length of Grand within the downtown loop, and then to Crown Center.
“This is the standard through the loop,” said Debra Smith, city manager of planning, preservation and urban design. “We do hope in the future to be able to extend it to Crown Center.”
The improvements for the two-block stretch of Grand closely follow the recommendations in the Skidmore Owings & Merrill study with one important exception. Officials have decided not to include the 10-foot-wide landscaped median that was suggested by that study to improve pedestrian safety.
Joe Drimmel of HNTB, the project manager, said the landscaped median was scrapped in part because city and park officials were concerned about maintaining it. Grand is part of the city parks and boulevard system. Drimmel added that the need for left-turn lanes also would have reduced the length of the median to only about 80 feet.
The project calls for Grand to have five lanes, two driving lanes each way and a center turn lane, and a drop-off lane in front of the Sprint Center entrance. There will be no street parking in the two blocks covered by the plan.
McHenry also said a landscaped median would not be compatible should the street be closed to allow crowds to gather for special events.
“The key to that area of Grand is that during peak events you could close off service and use it as an outdoor gathering place,” he said.
Another element of the plan, besides the trees and raised planters, is new street and pedestrian light poles using the “neo art deco” design suggested in the Skidmore study. The sidewalk on the west side bordering the Power & Light District will use “antique red” pavers. The same color also will be used for the crosswalks.
On the east side bordering the arena, red pavers will be used along the curb, and then charcoal-color pavers will be used for the rest of the sidewalk. The same trees and sidewalk patterns will be applied to the entrance plaza of the Sprint Center and National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
“We wanted to make sure the plaza space and entrance was as inviting as it possibly could be,” Bingham said.
The section of Grand in the construction area has been closed to traffic since early January. The street is to reopen in June, although the streetscape work is not expected to be completed until next year. The Sprint Center is scheduled to open in October 2007.
Grand plan
The new look for Grand Boulevard by the Sprint Center will include:
■ Paving stones that are charcoal and red.
■ Maple trees, evergreen shrubs, raised planters.
■ “Neo art deco” light poles.
It won’t include:
■ Parking on the street.
■ A 10-foot-wide landscaped median suggested in a preliminary study.
© 2006 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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