Reinventing the whole- West Bottoms in three Parts

I-70 Focus Area

The I-70 focus group is working to create a continuous connection between KCK and KCMO while capitalizing on the identity that defines the West Bottoms by reimagining infrastructure as an urban scape. The relationship between the two cities is demonstrated through the linear design of I-70 but overlooks the characteristics that the West Bottoms has to offer.

As the academic year has progressed the I-70 project is gaining momentum. To reiterate, this study applies adaptive resuse to show how reducing I-70 to business traffic on the northern deck and converting the southern deck into a linear transit park strengthens the connection between KCKS, KCMO, and the West Bottoms. In addition to providing new multimodal connections, the park will provide opportunities for affordable urban housing, public amenities, expanded green infrastructure, and an expansive public realm, unlike anything in the city.

The upper deck design provides an expansive green park contains areas acting as a pollination zones catering to the bees and monarch butterflies or a blooming orchard to provide areas of shade along the path. The park has areas where it opens up, providing additional amenities to the residential towers and streetcar stops.

The I-70 underside program caters more to the current and future residents of the West Bottoms— providing zones with recreation, soft play, dog parks, and a flexible retail space. Additionally, there are zones that are experience based such as the large concert stair near the caboose park and a train watching structure on the west end near the riverfront.

To strengthen connections to Kaw Point and the KCK riverfront, a third vertical circulation tower has been added, allowing pedestrian access from the upper deck down to the ground level and riverfront, and further activating and providing a missing connection from the riverfront to Strawberry Hill. This scheme re-routes third street down and under the bottom deck of the I-70 bridge at the riverfront along the rail line which allows for the underside termination point to be uninterrupted by freight traffic (previously, pedestrians had to cross two separate busy lanes of traffic going from I-70 to the Fairfax District.) This area is being further developed as a monumental space serving the existing and future residents of downtown KCK.