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Kansas City gets a facelift with a redeveloped downtown, a new arena, exciting museums and improved hotels.
Lacey Mackey
Courtesy Sprint Center
ENTERTAINMENT GALORE
The Power and Light District is completely transforming downtown Kansas City. The $850 million, nine-block development boasts new restaurants (ChinaBAR, Lucky Strike Lanes and Gordon Biersch Brewery to name a few), upscale shopping (think New York’s Soho—hip boutiques, concept stores and art galleries), high-end housing (1,200 new lofts to be exact) and the 1.3 million-square-foot H&R Block Headquarters. Within one block will be Kansas City Live!, a multi-level complex with dining, entertainment and a covered atrium that hosts concerts and festivals. The first phase of the Power and Light District is scheduled for completion later this fall.
Nearby, the $276 million Sprint Center takes entertainment and sporting events to the next level. Slated to open October 10, the 18,500-seat arena is the city’s first new arena in more than 20 years. The Sprint Center will hold concerts, shows and sporting events. Already more than 80 events are scheduled there, including Disney’s “High School Musical” on ice, next year’s NCAA Big 12 Tournament and home games for the Kansas City Brigade, the city’s Arena Football League team. The arena also showcases the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, which honors players, coaches and unforgettable hoops moments. Visitors can visit a locker room, step onto the court, dribble through obstacles or try out their dunking skills.
To increase space for conventions and special events, the Kansas City Convention Center added 135,000 square feet to the building as part of a $135 million expansion and renovation. The improved convention center’s main highlight is a new grand ballroom that can hold up to 6,000 occupants. State-of-the art technology creates the appearance of ripples and waves on the floor and ceiling of the ballroom, an appropriate theme for the City of Fountains. The expanded convention center is hosting Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, World Team Tennis games and Comedy Central’s Carlos Mencia “Live.” The building also connects to downtown hotels and underground parking lots by skywalks and below-ground walkways.
MUSEUMS
This summer, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art stretched out to showcase more of its world-renowned artwork collection. In June, developers completed a $200-million expansion that doubled the museum’s size (imagine a 67-story office building lying on its side to picture the scope). As the first renovation to Nelson-Atkins since the museum opened in 1933, the improvements included an entry plaza, a reflecting pool and the latest addition—an ultra-modern adjoining structure christened the Bloch Building. Designed by renowned New York architect Steven Holl, the additional gallery space showcases a collection of African art, photography and post-WWII art.
The Bloch Building’s sleek design utilizes natural light to create a flow of space different from most museums. The structure also houses a court and fountain dedicated to famous art sculptor Isamu Noguchi. The new building is topped off with a grass-covered roof. “It’s unlike any building or place you’ve ever seen,” says museum director Marc Wilson. During the opening weekend in June, more than 15,000 visitors visited the Bloch Building to see the Nelson-Atkins Museum’s new look.
Besides roaming the rooms at Nelson-Atkins, art lovers can drool over modern works at Kansas City’s newest art venue, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, slated to open this fall at Johnson County Community College. Designed by architect Kyu Sung Woo, the museum consists of 36,000 square feet for permanent collections, temporary exhibits and a gallery dedicated to Kansas City artists. The museum also has a media gallery for multimedia and installation works.
But art isn’t where Kansas City’s new museums stop. Last December, the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial opened near Crown Center. The museum houses more than 49,000 artifacts, the world’s second largest collection of World War I items behind Britain’s Imperial War Museum. Living archives, a large-scale timeline and interactive stations offer visitors the opportunity to delve into the history of the Great War. It’s one more way K.C. is boosting the arts and enriching citizens’ lives.
HOTELS
To accommodate all of the development, the city’s premiere hotels are sprucing up in a major way. The city’s largest hotel, the Marriott Kansas City Downtown, is undergoing a multi-million dollar makeover to its 983 guestrooms in the hotel’s two towers. After closing its doors for 25 years, the historic President Hotel reopened last year as the Hilton President. The interior maintains its classic charm from the 1940s and features 213 boutique guestrooms and the famous Drum Room, a destination restaurant and nightclub. The Aladdin Hotel reopened in May as a boutique hotel by Holiday Inn. The renovation of the 193-room hotel is described as “vintage hip” and included the reopening of the Zebra Room restaurant. And the InterContinental Hotel’s $15 million restoration, scheduled for completion by November, includes a new look for the Oak Room Restaurant, lobby and 366 guestrooms. With billions in renovation to downtown Kansas City, there are plenty of places to play and stay the next time you visit the city for a weekend.
Coming Attractions:
Just when you thought Kansas City couldn’t undergo any other big changes, there’s more. Here are three major projects slated for the next two years.
West Edge & Advertising Icon Museum
~ Opens spring 2008
Where can you find Tony the Tiger, the Jolly Green Giant and the Maytag Repairman? Soon, they’ll reside in western Kansas City. The West Edge project, a $100 million development scheduled to open in spring 2008, includes the Advertising Icon Museum, a museum that houses the largest known collection of three-dimensional ad icons. The West Edge also includes advertising agency Bernstein-Rein’s headquarters, a boutique hotel, fine dining and plenty of retail. Architect Moshe Safdie designed the 2.4-acre project to resemble a hillside village.
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
~ Opens December 2009
Scheduled to open in December 2009, the 1,800-seat performance hall in downtown Kansas City (near the new Power & Light District and the expanded Kansas City Convention Center) hosts theater, ballet, classical music and opera. International architect Moshe Safdie designed the center, which is estimated at $326 million.
Schlitterbahn Vacation Village
~ Opens 2009
In 2009, ride a wave to the Schlitterbahn Vacation Village, near the Kansas Speedway. One of the largest tubing parks in the world, the $1.2 billion village connects miles of rivers with signature water attractions like Torrent River and Master Blaster, a six-story water coaster wonder. The village also features a mile-long river walk with shopping, dining, entertainment and an interactive marine park that has salt water lagoons for snorkeling, scuba diving and interacting with aquatic animals.
