KCDC Receives the AIA Design Excellence Award

We are thrilled to announce that the KCDC’s 2016-2018 project West Bottoms Reborn: A System of Public Spaces, has received another award. Last Friday, the project received a citation award at the AIA KC Design Excellence Awards. The jury’s comments were as follows:

This project was very interesting to us as the perfect example of a process for the community to look at revitalizing their downtown neighborhood and also for the way that the designers developed proof of concepts around the sites-- they used a very imaginative way of looking at a city, and it brought an interdisciplinary team together to look at the opportunities within the downtown area.

Congratulations to all of the students and team artists that worked on the project, your hard work made the project what it is. Lastly, thanks to all of the community members, stakeholders, and supporters that invested their time and interest in the project!

Project Advisory meeting #2

This week, for our second advisory meeting, the studio had eight individuals with distinct insight on the East Bottoms area at the KCDC to review our findings. These individuals included professionals from Port KC, KCMO City Planning, and local sustainability experts to help guide us in the right direction. With half of the semester down, the studio is focusing on analytical studies to narrow down potential sites. The materials we are using to do this includes drone footage, precedents, slide shows, and vignettes to help guide our reviewers on the character of the site. For this advisory meeting, we were looking for insights on the possibilities of each section and how they connect.

The discussion started with us considering water management, such as the levee expansion, and how to work with the challenge of potential flooding. Since the site is on a floodplain, the reviewers recommended looking at the Houston Bayou system. Houston has many of the same flooding problems as the East Bottoms and to remedy the issue they created a bayou system that is designed to flood while continuing to serve public needs through green space. This system successfully solves two problems with one solution and the studio is now investigating this precedent in relation to our site. The challenge of restoration and protection was brought up again later in the review— is it possible to use our site when it is saturated due to flooding?

Above: Houston’s system of Bayous that are designed to handle flooding

For the ‘Identity’ section of the project, it was advised that we map out the current activities of the area. Since the East Bottoms is made up of multiple identities, could this be a strength that we can capitalize on? We found that could elaborate further on the five types of sites we have discovered in the East Bottoms.

When investigating ‘Connections’, it is important to note that our site is 990 acres and has the third largest levee system in the country. Could these be used as opportunities to create more public green space? Again, the Houston Bayou project is a good precedent for how to examine potential connections. The studio is also looking at the ports and economic qualities of the East Bottoms— there are precedents around the world for port revitalization that could be beneficial for the site.

Map of current levee system along the Missouri, Kansas, and Blue Rivers in the Kansas city Region

The reviewers were enthusiastic with their feedback and we are excited to expand on our analysis in preparation for the next review!

KCDC Receives the AIA Central States Merit Award

The KCDC is thrilled to announce that we were awarded the 2019 AIA Central States Regional Merit Award for our project West Bottoms Reborn: A Vision Study for a System of Public Spaces. We’ve been keeping it a secret ever since we found out in August and now we finally get to share! Vladimir and two former students that worked on the project (Fiona Bhuyan and George Aguilar) traveled to St. Louis this past weekend to attend the awards ceremony. To see more about the project you can visit the West Bottoms Reborn project page.

Studio Reviews and Revelations

It’s been a busy two weeks at the KCDC! The studio made great progress on the East Bottoms Study and completed our first studio review. Leading up to the deadline we had three guests visit the studio to provide insight on sustainability and water/flood management in the East Bottoms.

For our second pin-up of the year, we had the privilege to discuss our project with Lead Planner Bo Williams and Sustainability Coordinator Gerald Shechter with the City of KCMO and Green Infrastructure and Stormwater Specialist Andy Sauer from Burns & McDonnell. They provided intel on the growing use of wind power in western Kansas, the emergence of electric charging stations provided by KCP&L, and the importance of re-claiming surface parking. We also learned about the East Bottoms history as a flood zone. Due to its proximity to the river, the soil is primarily sandy and acts like a sponge. This presents some challenges for the visioning of the East Bottoms while encouraging the use of innovative green infrastructure solutions.

We had our first studio review last week and hosted Alyssa Parsons and Aaron Ross from BNIM, Tim Duggan from Phronesis, Lauren Cano from Vireo, and Regan Tokos from My Sidewalk. The studio introduced the project and discussed Urban Fabric, Connectivity, and Restoration & Protection. Each category was presented with a series of analytical diagrams developed from our inventory of diagrams created in phase 1 of the project. Urban Fabric focused on the identity of our site; responding to morphology, programming, site boundaries, and relationships to industrial businesses. Connectivity studied transportation volume and connectivity to natural amenities such as freight, trails, and the accessibility of city parks to the East Bottoms. Lastly, the restoration and protection category focused on ecological diagrams mostly consisting of air pollution and soil quality, river flow and sewage systems, and the regional watershed.

Following the review, the studio discussed the direction of the project and re-established its goals based on the feedback received during the review. We noted that the key challenges are the lack of coexistence for pedestrians and cyclists on roadways; limited or inconsistent way-finding; presence of gateways and railway barriers; and flooding/standing water on the site. As a result, our studio goal is to create a sustainable living system in the East Bottoms that encompasses a work, play, and living space while also embracing the existing characteristics of the area.

Lastly, on the coldest day of the week, part of the studio visited the site to gather more images of the public right of way and gateways in and out of the East Bottoms. With this information, we will be able to develop a better understanding of our site as we prepare for next Monday’s second project advisory group meeting!

Abandoned Spaces→ Public Realm

Advisory Meeting #1
Our first advisory meeting was on September 11th, where we had the of sharing our findings with Joe Perry from PortKC, Tom Jacobs from MARC, Scott Brown from Faultless Starch, and Susan Brown from Platte Valley Bank. We received great feedback, information, and enthusiasm for the potential in this area.

The studio began research by studying two main documents: The Riverfront Industrial Plan and the KC Blue Valley Plan. As we continue to inventory our research and data of this area, we have put our findings into five main categories: physical, history, demographics, transit/connections, ecological, and regulatory.

Physical elements— includes figure ground maps, parcel map studies, topography, and the creation of a new digital 3D model of the site.

History— includes how this area originally developed including over-time maps of railways and roads, the river, occupation density, and building type.

Demographics— includes information on the area’s race, age, schooling, and commuting statistics.

Transit/Connections— includes regional connections via rail and highways, local bus routes, bike and recreation trails, major connections/intersection points, dead-end streets, and high volume streets. We have also been looking into freight volume, ownership, and what is being transported to and from sites in the East Bottoms.

Ecological— includes vegetation, pervious vs. impervious land, levee placement, watersheds, brownfields, flood zones, current green infrastructure developments, noise and air pollution, and wind/sun studies.

Regulatory— includes zoning, land use, building use, land ownership, out of state ownership and incentives.

Land Ownership parcels

Topographic Sections 700’ apart

Findings

From our research, we are starting to discover the distinct characteristics, challenges, and geographic roots specific to the East Bottoms. The character of the site includes a strong industrial fabric, heavy rail use, and disconnected way-finding. We believe this area has great potential and we are interested in finding ways to link the major thoroughfares in and out of the East Bottoms that employees can utilize and that minimize industrial traffic, reclaiming spaces that are currently unusable. The resulting efforts would develop a ‘Kansas City’ urban design model that looks at abandoned spaces to be utilized as continuous public realm.

Lastly, our project is live on the website! Check out the project page here. We’ve got drone footage coming and will be updating our findings as we continue the project.