The Line Creek Loudmouth

Children's Mercy Hospital Expansion

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have spent way too much time at Children's Mercy facilities this year.  The eleven year old started off the year (at my suggestion) playing with brothers on the iced deck one Saturday morning and busted his eyebrow open.  Unfortunately, it was 10:30ish and the CMH urgent care opens up at 12.  I was faced with an economic choice: an ER copay and getting it sealed up to stop the bleeding immediately or squeezing the gnash together till noon so I would save money with the much lower urgent care copay. 

Want to know a little secret?  I'm not really into poop, blood, or squishy exposed internal body tissues.  It's why I'm an engineer and not a doctor......so I couldn't handle looking at bloody, fatty tissue and chose the ER.  It was one of the very rare times where saving money was not the overriding decision maker.

About two weeks later, the four year old was the last one to get that respiratory flu going around and it turned into some version of strep so I had to hit the urgent clinic one Thursday night. When we checked in, the very nice receptionist asked us if we had been there before.  I just replied "this is our first time........this month."

Unfortunately the next day his eye puffed up and we ended up in the hospital for three days trying to get the infection cured.  Then on St. Pat's night, we had another CMH ER visit for croup.  I can't tell you how much fun it was trying to drive downtown at midnight when the police were all over the place and drunks all over the streets......

Anyways, Children's Mercy Hospital Hill location is expanding.  The red footprints show new facilities in the hospital master plan.  West and Gillham are at the top of the map, north and the railroads are on the right, and south and 25th Street are on the left.

The master plan and expansion will be done over multiple phases.  The renderings below show the phasing and is looking southeast.  Crown Center offices are on the lower right of the rendering.

The rendering below shows what the Phase 1 main building will look like in context of the whole master plan.

This is what the new building will look like if one is going south on Gillham.  Crown Center offices again are to the right.

This rendering is looking east from Gillham.  North is on the left and south is on the right.

Here is a ground level view looking southeast at the new building.

Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) software has really come far and these renderings are so illustrative of the design and what it will look like.  I don't use this software because I'm taking survey data and turning it into 2D construction plans that low bid contractors use to build trails.  There really is no need to render a trail design.

Last year I got the chance to play with some modeling software when KCMO was one of the seven finalists in the United States Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge.  The modeling software takes data from Google Earth™ with its buildings to create a base map.  Then I used an internet program called SketchUp™ to pull missing buildings and insert them onto the base map.  Lastly I used the road part of the software to change Truman Road from a six lane thoroughfare into a three lane street with parking protected bike lanes.  Things change right about the 22 second mark and here is the raw video. 

The raw video was taken by local advertising firm VML™ and put into part of the pre-final pitch.  The team put together the final pitch and our team led by Mayor James almost pulled it off and made the final choice not easy.  In case you missed all of this, here is the final promotional video.

It was fun to try something new and the team almost pulled off winning $50M.  My point with all this is don't be too impressed with all of these renderings.  If some guy grossed out by blood and guts can do this sort of thing, anyone can do it.

Children's Mercy is a tremendous asset to everyone who lives in this region.  I'm glad they're expanding and this just continues the re-population and re-urbanization of Kansas City.

River Market West II Apartments Proposed

Downtown real estate development stays hot.  Following up on the Hampton Inn™ now being proposed at the northeast corner of Main Street and 16th Street, the last real vacant piece of River Market real estate might be finally becoming taxable property.

It will have a surface parking lot with parking under the building.  Site plan is below.  4th Street is at the top and 5th Street is at the bottom in the drawing.

I think the architect needs a color wheel.  This is what the building will look like from 5th Street.  I guess the light blue stucco will stick out and the former Populous building at 3rd and Wyandotte won't be the only building looking out of place.  The former Populous building being this one that Populous occupied for 10 or so tax abated years before moving to another tax abated property.  I really hate the design of that building.......

Here is the eastern side. 

Proposed view from 4th Street.  The entrance to the parking will be on the right of the rendering where the shaded part and wording is.

Lastly view from the west.

Hampton Inn™ Maybe on the Streetcar Line

I'm making an assumption with no facts or context but I think the business market is desiring hotels located in areas with people and not in far flung suburban wastelands.  Why else would there be multiple hotels being built downtown?

A Hampton Inn™ is now being proposed at the northeast corner of Main Street and 16th Street right on the streetcar line.

It appears to include a Starbucks™.

Below is the west elevation or what it would look like from Main Street.

Next elevation is the southern or 16th Street view.

If you get lost or drunk in the alley on the east side of the hotel, this is what you will see.

Lastly, the north side will look like this.

Here are the renderings for the hotel.

I don't know anything about timing but another streetcar parcel appears to be biting the dust.

City Club Apartments Crossroads Proposal

Ladies and gentlemen, the winning in urban core real estate just keeps coming.  The recently completed reconstruction of 20th Street from massive trafficway to urban street couldn't have come at a better time.

Folks enjoying the #destroaded 20th Street in #KCMO @KCCrossroads pic.twitter.com/lUNloDWdyV

— Wes Minder (@WesKCMO) October 26, 2016

The site of the old Hereford House is going to come back to life as the City Club Apartments.

This is the rendering looking northeast from 20th and Main.

The existing five story building along Main Street is going to remain but two new separate but connected five and six story apartment buildings are going to be built around it.

The rendering below is looking south from 19th Street.  Main Street and the streetcar are on the right and Walnut would be on the left.

This is looking north from 20th Street.

This is the east elevation or view from Walnut Street.

This is what it will look like from Main Street and the streetcar.

I don't have details on the project other than the preliminary zoning plan submittal which I pulled these renderings and site plan from.  This also is my first post written using my Linux PC.  Someone (thank you Mark) was nice enough to give me an old PC and I thought I would use Linux as the OS and have been playing around with applications.  It's taken some time and still is easier to use a Windows OS to blog but I am slowly getting used to using the PC and even gotten some Windows programs like Money to work on it.  Linux is definitely a better OS for a PC which is only used for web browsing and minor things because it doesn't have all the MS bloatware however the PDF programs and simple things like screenshots aren't as easy.  What does one expect for something free?

4400 Washington Residential Project

Sorry folks but I've been on summer vacation.  I've been doing more trail design at night trying to get plans done and ready for bid which is why I haven't posted anything in forever.  Anyways, even though I've focused on northland development, if you own single family housing stock you need to be aware of the multi-family condo development going on south of the river because in 20 years it will impact the value of your house.  I also think high-rise buildings are cool.

Someone is bringing forward a new development at 4400 Washington.

It will have a common area and parking garage in the middle.  It's a great design from an aesthetic standpoint.

Here is the north view of the building's architecture.

Another couple of plan views.

 

Crossroads Hotel Proposal

Looks like the Arterra project in the Crossroads is possibly getting a neighbor.  A development plan to redevelop a couple of existing buildings at the SEC of 21st and Central into a 125 room hotel has been submitted.

Here is what the site looks like today and if you click around the map, one can get the bird's eye views.

View Larger Map  |  View Bird's Eye

This is a general site plan with some descriptions.

First floor plan.

Second floor plan.

Renderings from all angles.

Download the 16MB PDF below.  It's more legible when zooming in to read the details.

Download 1521-15-1030 URD submission

 

The Arterra Crossroads Project

You may ask what impact this has on the Line Creek Valley?  Well if I didn't have a million things to do, I'd opine how America has enough single family housing stock to last a generation and the guys/gals nowadays trying to make money in real estate are doing only multi-family developments.  In a direct way this impacts you with regards to housing trends and available housing stock in the original urbanized area of Kansas City.  I also think it's pretty amazing how Kansas City is organically re-growing itself so much that I've added a "Downtown Development" tag for anything that doesn't have a N, NW, or NE in the address.

Here is the description of the Arterra project straight out of the project application and zoning ordinance:

"The Arterra 21/2100 Wyandotte site is located within Kansas City’s Crossroads neighborhood, lying directly southwest of the Central Business District. The Crossroads neighborhood is home to a diverse mixture of restaurants, bars, offices, service businesses, light industrial uses, retail shops, galleries, studios, condominiums, apartments, vacant buildings, and surface parking lots. The Arterra 21/2100 Wyandotte site has been vacant and unused for almost 10 years. The site had previously been occupied by a badly-contaminated multi-story industrial building (commonly referred to as the “PCB Building”).

The Plan’s proponents have proposed the construction of an eight to twelve (8 - 12) – story mixed-use structure, with approximately 1,500 – 2,000 square feet of commercial space and parking on the ground floor, resident/tenant parking on the second and third floors of parking, with approximately 115 market-rate apartments above. The Plan’s proponents believe that this proposed project is well-positioned to attract new residents to the Crossroads because of the new housing units being constructed and its location near the downtown streetcar line and near the heart of the Crossroads’ arts and cultural spaces and activities."

Here is the project location (for Northlanders, it's a block south of Manny's but one block north and west of the Jack Stack BBQ restaurant).

Rendering of the exterior (good thing the engineers didn't get their way 30+ years ago).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download ARTerra_RezoningPackage_150116

So if you're looking to ditch the small shack you have for a place with a view, this is right up your alley.  It kind of reminds me of something......

 

Clip credit to Sony Pictures Television from The Jefferson's (Sherman Hemsley rules) TV show.

More Parking for the Crossroads Coming?

I know this isn't geographically connected to this blog's purpose nor does it involve history or any of the other topics I usually cover but I've gotten to know more of the Crossroads area with the day job.  I also have some folks who follow/read downtown and I need to give them a reason to stay around.  Not everyone loves more of the same development and national retailers like folks in the 'burbs do.

I just think these are some cool renderings for a proposed parking garage at 19th and Walnut which some of you someday might use for a First Friday.  The fact that people complain about parking and lack thereof is a good problem for an area to have.  It means people want to be there.  It's being called the Corrington Station garage.

The rendering as viewed from a drone.

Looks like the garage will have a small 2400SF retail space on the front.

Here are the elevations from all four sides.

I downloaded this back in May so I'm not sure what the status is and I'm kind of mailing it in so you can download the whole 21MB plan here. Download Corrigan_Station_Garage_Development_Plan_Submittal(20150731)

It is amazing to see the real estate market in this area become so hot that upzoning/sizing like this is happening.  Economic renewal in the 1960's was tearing old buildings down and making surface parking lots.  Now some parts of the city are seeing surface parking lots become valuable tax paying buildings.   Land has become so valuable that someone is spending the money to build a parking garage to meet market demand.  This all wouldn't have happened if a trafficway was crammed through the area back in the day.

Proposed Riverfront Development

Berkley Riverfront Park is finally getting something going.  After after a series of plan after plan after plan, spending money building the park and building the road, and then moving and building another road, there will be development on the Missouri River.

Here are some items from the site plan application and the details in the "Application for Site Plan Review."

Download Union at Berkley Park - Site Plan Narrative FINAL (2014-11-10)

Here is the engineering style site plan.  The top of the pictures is north and is closest to the Missouri River and are the original Front Street and the bottom is the relocated Front Street which is closer to the railroad tracks.

 

Here is the prettier landscape architect version of the plan.

Here is a zoomed in view of some of the landscaping design.

Here are the elevations for the east building.

Here are the elevations for the west building.

Drawing credits to Landform from their submittal to KCMO.

 

Last Kemper Arena Comment (for a while)

Consider me immature for kicking someone when they are down.  Since I had to clean house Saturday, I talked Ms. Loudmouth into letting me ride my bike first thing in the morning. I had planned to just go along the Line Creek Trail and turn around in Briarcliff, but figured since it was still cool, I had made great time, and I wasn't going to get another chance to ride for a while, I would go all the way downtown. 

Along my bicycle ride downtown, I saw where someone in North Kansas City was using Kemper Arena's modern architectural style to build a new building between Burlington and Atlantic.

Last one (till they decide what will be done to the old bowl), I promise.