A Trail System in the East Bottoms

Since last semester, the KCDC has begun to establish order in the East Bottoms while addressing the ecological, social, and connection needs of the area. However, after our most recent review, our team has been asked how we can better simplify our approach.

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With this new information, we strive to add hierarchy to the proposed trail and loop system. The overall trail and folly system act as ordering elements while creating connectivity and wayfinding for each of the different areas of the site. These unique areas are comprised of:

  1. Riverfront Park; which protects the East Bottoms by acting as a levee but also provides an active and engaging waterfront for Kansas City.

  2. The urban core currently home to J. Reiger & Co., Knuckleheads Saloon, and Electric Park which connects Guinotte Ave. to the Riverfront Park Trail.

  3. The education hub which is home to many educational establishments and can engage with nearby manufacturing businesses.

  4. The eastern most part of the East Bottoms which has several wetlands that serve as retention basins. These retention basins remediate water and soil and serve as a crucial wildlife habitat for the site.

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As we move further into the semester, we are excited to meet with and hear from the residents of the East Bottoms at our upcoming community meeting (which is Tuesday, March 3rd from 4:30pm-6:30pm at J.Reiger & Co!). We hope to learn new and insightful information from the community to better understand how our project can make the East Bottoms a better place for both visitors and current residents.



A New Semester in the East Bottoms project

End of Year Re-Cap

Since December, the KCDC studio has made many discoveries that have influenced our designs for the Spring semester. As our final review neared, our team began to create solutions to some of the intrinsic obstacles in our site.

Our biggest challenges are as follows:
Flooding: caused by groundwater and runoff retained in the bowl-shaped geography of the site
Intra-disconnection: disconnection within the system of the East Bottoms, especially in local connections for pedestrians and vehicular traffic
A fragmented sense of site identity

The solutions manifested in the form of a unified and systematic trail and bioswale loop. Water from the swales will collect in the lowest geographic area, in this case, an area of the site we have named the ‘working landscape’. In order to reinforce the identity of the East Bottoms, the studio proposed a trail system with the goal to unify and celebrate the identity of the area rather than assimilate them. With these overarching solutions in mind, we are now investigating ways to facilitate them in focused design areas.

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Final Reviews

With our design strategy in place (and nearly every square inch of wall space occupied with designs), we held our final reviews. Our reviewers had valuable advice for the project, which encouraged a fresh set of ideas and gave the project a nudge onto a more defined trajectory

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Along the proposed trail, there is a series of modular, multi-use shelters that we call ‘follies’. Different types of follies exist along the trail, functioning like small cafe’s, bicycle repair stations, and rest areas. During the review, it was suggested that each loop of the trail system could have different uses that could be specific to the identity of the loop area. It was also recommended that we tidy up this system and make it much more focused and refined.

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The trail/folly system and green infrastructure systems mostly operate individually. The question quickly became ‘how can we braid the separate strands together in a way that makes them stronger together than they are independently?’ In other words, the studio needs to reconcile the systems in a way that maximizes synergy.

Open House

Just a few short days after the review, we hosted our Fall Open House. Bustling with attendees, their advice and encouragement allowed us to see the full effects of our efforts. The evening was a nice blend of formal presentation and fun; we were able to talk to many local professionals without the rigidity of a critique or review.

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As we wrapped up the year, the studio saw there was much left to do and look forward to in the new spring semester. We are grateful for everyone that has supported the studio and the project so far, from giving advice to words of encouragement. Below is a rare photo of the whole studio in one place, we know if will be a cherished memory of this year.

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The Final Week/ Open House!

The students at the KCDC are officially in their final week of production for the semester!

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Our Open House for the East Bottoms project is next Wednesday, December 18th from 5:30-8:00pm. The students are currently pushing towards their conceptual designs for the three areas of focus (Riverbelt, Working Landscape, and Social/Industrial Hub) to present at the Open House. We hope you can stop by on Wednesday to see all of the work the students have done this semester.

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After the new year the students will continue to create focused design suggestions for the East Bottoms and we will begin our public meetings to get feedback from those living and working in the East Bottoms area. Be sure to watch for the finalized dates and locations at the start of the year!

Reconnecting to the East Bottoms

For almost three months, the Kansas City Design Center studio has been tirelessly mapping, analyzing, and gathering quantitative and qualitative data in order to better understand the East Bottoms. As architects and urban planners, it is our responsibility to make rational decisions backed by research and analysis.

Over the last two weeks, the studio has had a couple of reviews of our progress by local design professionals and our advisory group.

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At our studio review we welcomed Alex Ogata from Populous, Tim Duggan from Phronesis, James Pfeiffer and Alyssa Parsons from BNIM, Amanda Santoro from Hoerr Schaudt, Lauren Cano from Vireo, and Michael Frisch from the University of Missouri-Kansas.

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Our second review was with our Project Advisory group— we had Joe Perry with PortKC, Jeff Williams, Gerald Shechter, and Lisa Treese with the City of KCMO, Kristin Riott from Bridging the Gap, and Christina Hoxie of Hoxie Collective at the KCDC to share their time and knowledge to help us move forward with the project.

There are a few key issues that we currently know about the site:

  • Despite having a riverfront park that is bigger than Central Park in NY, the Riverfront Park — totaling 955.45 acres— is underutilized and unaccessible to the public

  • While considered a historic area with the best physical connection to both the Missouri River and the Blue River, the East Bottoms is mostly disconnected from both of the rivers.

  • The entire East Bottoms is a flood plain and even though it is mostly flat, the eastern section still floods due to it being slightly lower in elevation.

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  • The East Bottoms is not only in a state of blight, but it also has problems with water runoff not being managed, resulting in standing water throughout the site.

  • The area is industry and traffic heavy which results in air, soil, and water pollution. The East Bottoms has a number of brownfield sites.

  • The East Bottoms utilizes both a combined sewer and a separate sewer system. During rainfall, water fills up the combined sewer system causing overflow and sewage back ups into the Blue River.

  • Despite being directly adjacent to the downtown area, intersected by major highways and in proximity to prime locations such as downtown, Cliff Drive, the Rivermarket, and Columbus Park, the East Bottoms is disconnected from the rest of the city.

  • 15,000 people commute to work in the East Bottoms but are offered no amenities surrounding their work place, effectively turning the East Bottoms into a no man’s land.

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The East Bottoms is very well connected regionally, making it a thriving industrial area. As a result, the area sees over 80,000 vehicles a day and there is a constant threat of getting stuck in the site due to the large amount of train traffic that blocks off streets.

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After examining these issues, the studio came up with a vision:

We hope to strengthen the relationship between KC communities and the water by improving the public realm while taking advantage of the East Bottoms’ natural geographic roots.

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From this vision, we formed our overarching project goal:

To create a historic linear park that not only connects you to both rivers and takes you on a journey through the city, but also builds resiliency for the East Bottoms.

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The linear park would transform infrastructure into recreation, connecting the East Bottoms to the West Bottoms to create a natural green loop that acts as an alternative method of transportation— ultimately connecting to George Kessler’s Parks and Boulevard System. This green loop not only has societal benefits, but also serves as a line of defense against flooding and drought because of its design as a living machine that harvests, treats, and stores stormwater.

Over the next month we will be busy with studio work before leaving for the holidays, but tune back in after the new year to see more focused conceptual plans for the East Bottoms!

Problems to Possibilities

After our recent Project Advisory group meeting, we used the feedback to start brainstorming ways in which we can reach our next conceptual design phase of the project. As a class we’ve decided to focus on five main categories that will aid in our understanding of the problems of the East Bottoms and the possibilities that can grow from the findings.

Site Challenges:

  1. Green Infrastructure and Resiliency
    Flooding has been the biggest problem in the East Bottoms in the last century and before, which resulted in almost no permanent residents living in the area. The lack of amenities means that even if people use the East Bottoms for a specific purpose, they have limited places to live and enjoy the area. Those that live and work in the area are not supported by the current amenities.

Above: precedent study— the Big U  We looked at the following projects as examples of successful Green Infrastructure and Resiliency projects. Both projects come from ONE Architecture.

Above: precedent study— the Big U
We looked at the following projects as examples of successful Green Infrastructure and Resiliency projects. Both projects come from ONE Architecture.

Above: precedent study— Islais Hyper-Creek.

Above: precedent study— Islais Hyper-Creek.

2. Transit and Connectivity
One of the other challenges in the East Bottoms is the lack of connections to Kansas City and the surrounding areas. There are many natural and built barriers that create congestion within the site such as railyards, the Missouri River, and the bluffs of Kessler park. There is also a lack of safe pedestrian and bike paths within the site, and those that do exist are in poor condition.

Above: precedent study— Loop City The studio examined BIG’s Loop City and the Atlanta BeltLine as examples of incorporating trails and connectivity in an urban environment.

Above: precedent study— Loop City
The studio examined BIG’s Loop City and the Atlanta BeltLine as examples of incorporating trails and connectivity in an urban environment.

Above: precedent study- Atlanta BeltLine

Above: precedent study- Atlanta BeltLine

3. Urban and Cultural Promotion
As an industrial area that is also located in a floodplain, the East Bottoms has many problems with blight and neglect. Silos and railways surround the existing residential community which results in its isolation from the rest of the city. The volume of rail to vehicular traffic on East Front Street and the regional interstate dictates the internal street system, making way-finding difficult. Homelessness has also visibly risen in the area, with a large homeless population that takes advantage of the neglected spaces of the East Bottoms. All of these factors have kept small businesses and retail from settling in the East Bottoms which means that the 15,000 commuters that travel to the East Bottoms for work do not use the area for any other activities.

Above: precedent study- Superkilen

Above: precedent study- Superkilen

Above: precedent study- North Wharf Promenade

Above: precedent study- North Wharf Promenade

4. Adaptive Reuse
The East Bottoms’ continual use as a heavy industrial area that is isolated from major amenities, the building stock is crumbing. There are many abandoned buildings, overgrown parcels, and underutilized public amenities. As a result, lack of safety becomes an issue for those that may want to visit the East Bottoms.

Above: precedent study- SteelStacks The studio looked at examples of projects that reused abandoned or underutilized infrastructure for different kinds of amenities.

Above: precedent study- SteelStacks
The studio looked at examples of projects that reused abandoned or underutilized infrastructure for different kinds of amenities.

Above: precedent study- Japanese reuse of overpasses

Above: precedent study- Japanese reuse of overpasses

  1. Stormwater and Sewer Management
    The East Bottoms is a high risk area for water and sewer back ups during storms. Untreated sewage from overflows can cause serious water quality problems and health issues from pollutants. These overflow problems can also cause damage to the river, land, structures, and amenities within the site as well as the systems that are meant to take care of the runoff.

Above: precedent study- canal restoration projects

Above: precedent study- canal restoration projects

Above: precedent study-Vancouver green rainwater initiatives

Above: precedent study-Vancouver green rainwater initiatives

Possibilities:

With the environmental challenges in the study area, we found it necessary to study other projects that had similar problems in order to brainstorm concepts. While looking for solutions, we wanted to make sure not to sacrifice the public right-of-way and the natural amenities that the site provides. With balance being a key factor, the solutions to the five focus areas revolve around sustainability and urban growth. We have also learned that design is not the only thing that revitalizes an area— other methods such as community engagement, tax incentives, and zoning will play a crucial role. We are now moving into the conceptual design phase of the project; we look forward to sharing our designs and findings in our next review!