Luxury Living in Downtown Kansas City

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

Actually, Kansas City looks like what Detroit would look like if half the city didn't get torn down. What had been, in 1900, a very compact and river-oriented city (while the city is primarily a railroad city, the railroads themselves lay in the river flats) rapidly sprawled south. The Country Club Plaza, what is today essentially the city's center in terms of urban life, was well south of town when some land speculator decided to build a Toledo-themed shopping village in the 1920s. Like Detroit, Kansas City developed auto-oriented urbanism early and was already incredibly sprawled as early as 1950. (That said, the part of the city that predates WWII is the most urban and beautiful part.)

I've said this before....KC is totally like a smaller, much more intact Detroit. That description really doesn't compute with people I guess because people often think "Kansas" when they think of Kansas City, and not so much the "City." Of course the other problem is that lots of people have never been to Detroit. They don't get the comparison because what I mean is what the art deco downtown, streets houses, and apartment buildings look and feel like and not some allusion to urban decay.

I think both Detroit and Kansas City had a more robust middle class during the time in which they boomed (compared to other Midwestern cities), people had cars and lived in single family homes before WW2.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

never been to KC, but I've always imagined it's a place with a huge supply of large, midwestern style victorian homes. Wrap around porch, gables, and all that. Is this the case?

As others have said, there is not a huge stock of Victorian left in KC. A large portion of them have been lost to "urban renewal", redevelopment, or neglect/fire over the years. One of my favorite (or most heart-breaking) examples of lost Victorian homes is what used to be just a couple short blocks from my home, in what was "Millionaire's Row". None of these homes are left:


The area with the most remaining, intact Victorian homes is the Northeast area of KC - particularly Pendelton Heights and Scarritt Renaissance. Here are some examples:











The most common housing stock in the core of KC is Craftsman. This is where I think the similarities to Detroit come in. Detroit seems to have many American Foursquare, and KC is filled with it's own variant - the Kansas City Shirtwaist which is basically a Foursquare with the first level and porch being a stone material (generally limestone which is ubiquitous in KC), with a wood siding on the upper levels. There are blocks upon blocks filled with these houses throughout KC's urban core (with craftsman bungalows and KC Colonnades sprinkled in).:











As for multi-family housing, the signature style is the KC Colonnade - generally a six-plex with large porches in the front, flanked by columns:

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Back on the original topic of luxury living in Downtown KC, the One Light apartment building is nearing completion, with move-ins starting at the end of November. The rents are some of the highest the usually-affordable KC has seen at $1.70-$2.00+ a square foot, yet the 25 Story, 315 unit building is expected to be 90% rented at opening, with a waiting list of 3,000 people. Construction of Two Light is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year:

Take a look inside One Light as move-in nears

[mhays]

That suggests the market can handle much higher rents. As for $2/sf, that sounds dirt cheap compared to much of the country!

[kcexpress69]

Nice beautiful pics, KCtoBrooklyn!! I agree that the Victorian homes are harder to find in Kansas City outside the Northeast, but having said that, it's great to see a variety of housing types in different parts of the city. The Craftsman houses you will find in the more central part. The Tudor houses you will find in the Southwest part.

Two Light will be expected to start breaking ground pretty soon. Three and Four Light are in the planning stages, and if all goes as planned, should be completed before the end of the decade.