Everything was up-to-date in Kansas City at one time. Then it got old. Now, it’s getting up-to-date again. The city is immersed in a terrific building cycle that is transforming its skyline.

Currently, the city is in the midst of a $7 billion renaissance. The skyline will be drastically different in 2007 as the downtown Power & Light entertainment district, Sprint Center arena and Kansas City Convention Center ballroom create magnificent architectural additions to the city’s Art Deco skyline.

More than $3 billion of the total construction is taking place right in the city’s urban core in downtown. Kansas City hasn’t seen concurrent construction like this since the 1970s when Crown Center, KCI Airport and the Harry S. Truman stadium complex were built.

For downtown, it’s been since the Pendergast era in the 1930s when the Main Post Office, Jackson County Courthouse, Municipal Auditorium and two skyline icons, the Power & Light building and Fidelity Bank & Trust, were built as part of a 10-year plan to create jobs during the Great Depression.

Here’s a look at some of the construction and the role glass plays in the design of these projects.

Nelson-Atkins Museum
The design by Steven Holl Architects, New York, for the new 165,000-square-foot Bloch Building shows how glass can be utilized for an addition without compromising the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building. 

Slender and elongated, the majority of the Bloch Building exists under ground along the east side of the original building. Rising from its 840-foot expanse are five freestanding structures or “lenses” that emerge from the ground to create an undulating and varied interplay between architecture and landscape. Internally, the lenses create vaulted ceilings and cathedral-like spaces. 

In between these glass lenses, and in some cases on top of them, a layer of grass creates a green roof where visitors can admire sculptures or relax with a picnic. This integration of landscape and architecture creates a building that is neither above nor below ground, but both at the same time. 

The entry plaza features a large reflecting pool. During the day natural light is directed through 34 circular lenses in the pool into the parking garage below. At night, light from the parking garage lifts up through the circles to illuminate the plaza. The floors of the galleries drop in harmony with the slope of the south lawn. As each gallery level steps down, the ceiling of that level peaks into a glass-enclosed lens that rises above the ground level. By day, light is reflected into galleries below. At night, gallery lights glow softly through the mix of translucent and transparent glass panels. 

In the design, the architect was looking for a unique appearance and the glass was the focal point. The texture chosen for the design was an existing one-Linit Solar, a fine mesh texture, produced exclusively by the European company Glasfabrik Lamberts. However, that was the only thing “standard” about the choice of channel glass. 

The design of the five buildings called for tall, uninterrupted spans of glass. Design, windload, and safety all indicated the requirement for tempered and heat-soak tested glass. The design called for the special clear, crisp appearance of low-iron glass and for custom angle cuts to hug the undulating landscape. The desire was for a specific linear dimension for the façade of the five buildings. 

The Steven Holl design team collaborated with the team of Glasfabrik Lamberts and Bendheim Wall Systems, Inc. for the development of a custom glass for the project. Producing a custom 16-inch width was one of the key challenges, as this is 3 inches wider than normal channel glass. The collaboration developed the P40/60/7, Solar texture, low-iron, SGCC certified tempered, 100 percent heat-soak tested (per the 10.5 hour test IAW Bauregelliste 2002/1, part 11.4 standard) channel glass. It also had to be selectively sandblasted in order to prevent weakening of the glass, also a custom procedure. After extensive testing involving three curtain wall consulting firms, the Lamberts channel glass was proven to be strong enough and dimensionally stable for the 100,000 square feet required in lengths up to 22 feet while meeting the strict aesthetic criteria. 

Kansas City Performing Arts Center
The 360,000-square-foot performing arts center, which will be home to a number of arts organizations when it opens in December of 2009, will contain three performing spaces—a 2,200-seat ballet/opera house, a 1,800-seat concert hall, and a 500-seat flexible, experimental theater (to be built later)—all spilling out into a central glass-enclosed lobby area and lush terraced gardens overlooking the city.

The enveloping structure of the complex, which was designed by Moshe Safdie & Associates, Boston, is formed by a series of undulating vertical segments of a circle forming the northern container of the theater’s back stage, concert hall, and experimental theater. As they ascend, they form a segmented, gently curving crown to the building. From this crest, the roof descends in a curve following the geometry of the light cables, metal, and glass structure toward the south. The roof intersects with an outwardly inclined and curved glass wall, which contains the foyer. The tensile forces of the suspended glass roof of the foyer are counteracted by a series of cables tying down the structure to anchors at the entrance terrace. The curved, segmented northern walls are sheathed with silvery stainless steel and punctuated by acid-etched, limestone colored, pre-cast concrete perpendicular walls.

The roof is stainless steel over the performing halls, changing to glass over the foyers. The glass enclosure opens the foyer to dramatic views of the sky and skyline. At night, seen from the exterior (from Crown Center and further south), the glazing disappears and reveals the dramatically lit theater facades and activity within the public areas, café, and restaurant. The various lounges in the structure form sculptural shapes visible under the glass structure.

The structure follows the natural topography with a linear, glazed internal gallery that extends from north to south.

The image of the center varies greatly when seen from different directions and at different times of the day. From downtown, the undulating segment walls reflect the sky and trees. At night the masonry walls are lit, highlighting the playful rhythm. From the south the building shimmers during the day, revealing only hints of the theaters within. At night, the entire complex glows-the wood facades, lounges, and activity within visible even at a great distance.

The center is designed with dramatic curves, simple geometric patterns, and ample use of windows and open spaces. The stainless steel, pre-cast concrete and glass structure resembles a modernistic shell. From the north, the center’s stainless steel walls are a series of vertical circular segments. From the south, the roofline crests and falls away in a sloping curve before changing to glass and offering a panoramic view of Union.

HOK Building
HOK Sport’s new office in Kansas City’s River Market is uniquely suited to the firm’s ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence. “Designing our own space afforded us the ability to include elements, such as the grandstand, unique to our culture,” said Jon Knight, principal and lead designer of the office space. 

With seven dedicated design labs, an open, communicative floor plan and a colorful, modern environment, the building serves as a conduit for creative energy. The building’s two-story grandstand space is large enough for staff meetings with the Kansas City office’s more than 200 employees. 

A variety of sustainable elements, including ample daylighting, are incorporated into the design as well. 

Glass was an important part of that open, communicative floor plan. The mostly glass and anodized aluminum structure is sleek. There are sunscreens (vertical fins) and fritting on the glass panels. Conference rooms feature glass walls, extending the concept of transparency. The glass, which is 1-inch insulating, was supplied by Viracon. It is 1/4-inch clear E-2M with a simulated acid etch frit pattern on the #2 surface, 1/2-inch air space, and 1/4-inch clear with a simulated sandblast frit pattern on the #3 surface. 

Sprint Center
The Sprint Center, scheduled to open next fall, was designed by the Downtown Arena Design Team, a consortium of the world’s most prolific sports design firms. It is intentionally transparent to allow views both into and out of the arena, and the clear patterned glass will catch and reflect light both day and night. 

“From the beginning, we’ve based design in the belief this building should represent Kansas City’s honesty, clarity, vision and the Midwestern values we all cherish,” explained Brad Schrock, designer. “The manipulation of the glass curtainwall provides a one-of-a-kind events venue that will highlight Kansas City in a unique way.”

Craig Milde, project architect with HOK, echoed the thought. “Glass was part of the original design and it is how we won the competition. It was our view to maintain an open arena, one that opened into the downtown area.”

“The taut glass skin wrapping the seating bowl and concourses will be an ever-changing tapestry as light plays across the surface,” added Clark. “The image will vary hour by hour as the color, intensity and quality of light change. At night the building will become a beacon, marking its place in our new downtown.”

“The concourses are voluminous and take full advantage of the dramatic views afforded by the glass skin,” said Rafael Garcia. “Throughout Sprint Center people will experience fresh colors and carefully selected finishes that create cohesive and dynamic spaces.”

The Downtown Arena Design Team consists of HOK, Ellerbe Becket, 360 Architecture and Rafael Architects Inc.

Kansas City Star Press Pavilion
The $200-million Kansas City Star Press Pavilion, which was completed this summer 2006, is a new printing facility for the newspaper. The eight-story Press Pavilion covers two city blocks and is sheathed in blue glass and green metal. Visitors can watch the cutting-edge printing presses roll from a glass observation area, or take a tour of the facility.

Designed by The Austin Company of Cleveland, Ohio, the new building is sheathed in blue glass and green metal, its roof swooping from the equivalent of four stories on the south up to eight stories on the north where it faces the downtown skyline.

The curtainwall supplier, Sota Glazing Inc., Toronto, partnered with Architectural Wall Systems, Inc., Des Moines, on the project. A 72,000-square-foot four-sided structural customized curtainwall system was used for the enclosure. The curtainwall features 57,000-square-feet of Azurlite glass (a warm-edge insulating glass unit with two lites of 1/4 inch glass with a 1/2 inch Argon filled space). AWS engineered, furnished and installed the unitized curtainwall for this massive printing facility.

5 Delaware
5 Delaware is a small boutique mixed use condominium project in the heart of the River Market area nearby the new HOK Sport building at 300 Wyandotte. 

The design of the product is contemporary and its unique architecture was utilized as a selling point for prospective residents. While the use of glass gave it a contemporary feel, the usage also enabled the new structure to complement the older historic projects in the area.

The architect for the project, El Dorado Inc., which is based in Kansas City, utilized 1-inch insulating low-E glass in the loft windows and porch doors, as well as the entry storefront. Manko Window Systems of Manhattan, Kan., supplied the glass for the storefront, sliding windows and porch doors. It is 1 inch insulating, low-E glass. The bottom 3-6 inches (from slab to mullion) is tempered. The facility’s guardrails at all the left balconies, as well as the dividers on the roof deck, are 1/4-inch tempered, acid-etched on one side, supplied by A2MG of Kansas City, Mo. The awning is 1/2 inch laminated glass, acid-etched on one side, also supplied by A2MG. The frames of the guardrails and awning are galvanized tube steel.

Charles Cumpston is the editor of Architects’ Guide to Glass & Metal.

USG
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