a vision for the west bottoms
REFRAMING THE CITY
KANSAS CITY DESIGN CENTER URBAN STUDIO 2011 The University of Kansas & Kansas State University
contents This studio publication, generated during the 2010-2011 academic year at the Kansas City Design Center, was written and designed by Jesse Husmann and Alyssa Parsons with the support of Leandra Burnett and Sarah Murphy in collaboration with Vladimir Krstic, Studio Director and Instructor. This publication is not intended for retail sale and cannot be sold, duplicated, or published, electronically or otherwise, without the express written consent of the College of Architecture, Planning & Design at Kansas State University. The purpose of this publication is academic in nature and is intended to showcase the research, scholarship, and design work of the students of the College of Architecture, Planning & Design.
foreword the west bottoms
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ANALYSIS + RESEARCH the city in time city scans
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URBAN VISION DESIGN INTERVENTIONS woodswether district historic core multi-modal transit hub stockyards district james street development
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APPENDIX: URBAN SOLUTIONS streetscape land use water management industry
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CREDITS
FOREWORD
THE PROJECT PRESENTED IN THIS PUBLICATION IS A RESULT OF A yearlong study on generating an urban vision proposal for the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. It marks in more than one way a significant step forward for the Kansas City Design Center in meeting its academic mission as an outreach and community service-oriented learning institution. The project was initially conceived and made possible through collaboration with and sponsorship by the Central Industrial District Association, Kansas City Industrial Council and subsequent sponsoring participation of the Planning Department of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, KS and the City Manager’s Office, Kansas City, MO. The post-industrial urban landscape of many American, and in particular Midwestern cities represents a sobering ‘morning after’ moment where in the wake of the departed industrial development party goers all that remains is an uncontainable state of vacancy. The vacancy of land is stripped of its use and structures, and the vacancy of remaining structures emptied of their purpose and function – the ghosts of the former city reconstituted into an unknown and uncharted urban territory. The West Bottoms area is no exception to such a fate yet its fractured fabric resonates with the power to draw and hold. Facades deep with the will to build the city, walls weighty with texture and memory, and raw spaces spelled into vacancy of time like De Chirico‘s scenes mark the grit of the place that feels more real that any other part of the city. What makes a city and what can make the city when vestiges of its past don’t quite add up, its objects and spaces remain opaque to a simple grasp and the deployment of normative planning and design ideas feels hopelessly out of place? In order to pursue the question we had to learn how to dissect what it
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is, both in space and time; learn to see by inhabiting and experiencing (even if it meant occasional trespassing); and above all come to know the people who make the place. We hope that our analytical work has added to the knowledge of the place and produced a picture of the West Bottoms that did not quite exist before and that our urban vision proposals have brought into focus an engaging perspective for the pursuit of the future. The city that confronts us today stands in opposition to our preconceptions and disciplinary boundaries through which we look at it. The vacancy of land and infrastructure demands are no longer transient and invisible conditions; they are the actual substance of the city form, and it is imperative that we find a way to urbanize them as such. The extremes of these conditions embodied in the West Bottoms have allowed us a glimpse into that ‘other’ city and its latent dimensions that hold a spectrum of discrete possibilities yet to be engaged. We tried to uncover and reframe them into an idea of urban order that is true to its place and circumstances and free of normative preconceptions. The students and myself are deeply grateful to our stakeholders for their trust and support and for extending us such a profound learning opportunity. We hope that this publication and the studio work produced in the past year justify their belief in us and that our bond will endure, as in this process we have all become owners and custodians of the generated ideas that wed us now to the place, its draw and its future. Finally, the work presented herein is a testimony about an extraordinary group of students I had the good fortune to work with. For many of them the project, given the enormity of its scale, complexity of issues and group work methodology, was outside previous experience yet they have taken both individual and collective ownership of it and in due course mastered their own learning. This publication aims to be more than a summary studio record; it is an attempt to further systematize, order and edit processes, findings and propositions generated in the studio and make a case for a specific approach to urban design. Except for the credited historic archival maps and photographs, the students are sole authors of all other work presented in this publication, including photographs and writings. I am deeply indebted to my former students Jesse Husmann, Alyssa Parsons, Leandra Burnett and Sarah Murphy for their perseverance and dedication in conceiving, designing and editing this publication, and to a number of their studio colleagues who helped the process along. Jesse in particular was a staying power that made this publication possible. Thank you.
VLADIMIR KRSTIC
foreword
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THE WEST BOTTOMS
THE WEST BOTTOMS IS AT THE HEART OF THE GREATER metropolitan area of Kansas City. It lies at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers and occupies land in both states. It is a triangular district bounded by the two rivers and the bluff to the east.
It was once the economic center of the city, when the railroads and stockyards were the lifeblood of Kansas City. The flat terrain of the floodplain was ideal for the railroads to come through, and with the advent of the stockyards, the West Bottoms became an essential regional and national link. This same floodplain, while prime for the networks of railroads, also created the threat of disastrous floods. By 1908, the economic center had moved uphill to the current downtown, and what was left in the West Bottoms was largely stockyards and other industrial uses. Even today, the threat of the floodplain affects development and prospects in the the west bottoms
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West Bottoms; despite the recent revitalization of Downtown, the River Market, and the Crossroads, very little of that development has moved westward, into the West Bottoms.
Now, locals and visitors alike drive through or pass by the West Bottoms. The interstates cut across the site above most buildings, well above the street level. The traffic moves by, appearing neither to notice nor impact the area below. The impacts, however, are present in the form of highways creating new barriers and borders, further fragmenting the West Bottoms from the rest of the city and fracturing within itself. There are now several distinct districts within the West Bottoms, each with its own character and potential for growth.
The West Bottoms clearly differs from the larger context of Kansas City. This constant rush of traffic above, paired with an active industrial, freight and train traffic creates a constantly changing, dynamic environment. The buildings form a unique density and urban texture. The area is vibrant and has a life all its own. The combination of these elements yields surprising spaces: some temporary, some accidental, but all distinct to the area. Even though the sense of abandonment and neglect is strong, the sense of life, character, spirit and potential is far stronger.
Today, the area is referred to as the Central Industrial District. The industrial element is a huge part of the heritage, character, and
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life of the area, but there are presently opportunities to allow for more residential and retail development and growth in the area by rezoning much of the district as mixed-use. This opportunity has the potential for creative interventions, emphasizing the West Bottoms’ continuing relevance for Kansas City.
Our approach was to first analyze the site in order to understand and identify the unique qualities and character of the West Bottoms as an urban environment. In doing this, we gathered an immense volume of data about the area, and created new analysis and documentation from this raw information.
The analysis was developed without preconception, prejudice, or affiliation. We combined information from both cities and both states, eliminating the state line to redefine the area of the West Bottoms as one united neighborhood. We sought to define the essential qualities and site experiences representing these intangible qualities through graphic and spatial studies.
the west bottoms
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ANALYSIS and RESEARCH
Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
THE PROMINENCE OF THE STOCKYARDS AND RELATED industry are historically signiďŹ cant for both the West Bottoms and Kansas City. The stockyards and the rail industry were the lifeblood for development and commerce, making it a regional and national crossroads between the West and the East, the South and the North.
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the city in time
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THE CITY IN TIME
THE WEST BOTTOMS IS SIGNIFICANT IN TERMS OF ITS location and history as part of Kansas City. Time became one of the primary areas of studies that was analyzed in order to form and inform our understanding of the area.
There is a wealth of historical maps, photographs, and official documents that have recorded the growth and development of the West Bottoms. In order to analyze trends and study the history of the area, these raw documents were used to create a series of maps spanning from the 1860s to the present. This series provided an effective “time-lapsed” view, allowing us to more objectively study the history of the area. It reflects the grids, structures, and entities (like the stockyards) that organized and defined this city. The analysis brings clarity to how the city developed over time and maps its deterioration, providing some explanation for its now fragmented form.
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Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri. The Missouri Valley Collections were the primary resource for the historical documentation used in this analysis. The most valuable was the series of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. These maps provided accurate, regularized, and detailed information about each building and parcel, from which the majority of the ďŹ gure ground maps were generated.
the city in time
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1878
1895
1939
1950
1895 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
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historical presence
1963
1977
1991
2011
1939 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
the city in time
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forces of change
THE FORCES OF CHANGE THAT BOTH DETERIORATED AND formed the building stock of the West Bottoms are drawn and shown on equal level with what has remained. The urban fabric of the West Bottoms is inseparable from the transportation infrastructure that cuts through it. The built environment developed parallel to the rail lines that served the area; the decline of rail traffic combined with the construction of the interstate system led to the recent general neglect of the West Bottoms.
This is compounded by the tenuous relationship between economic activity and the floodplain. Catastrophic flooding periodically devastated the site and led to a persistent exodus of economic activity. These two forces and their ramifications have combined to give the West Bottoms both the industrial and deindustrializing character it has today.
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TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE STOCKYARDS EXPANSION LAND RECLAIMED FROM RIVER FLOODS Infrastructure, stockyards, the rivers: each color depicts the change that has most affected the West Bottoms in a different form.
the city in time
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Missouri Valley Special Collections Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
The analysis of the river began with tracing the changing river boundaries. This shows how the river affected the development of the West Bottoms, either through shifting currents and adding land, or temporarily subtracting it by inundating the district.
at the confluence
THE WEST BOTTOMS IS TIED TO THE RIVERS. ITS POSITION AT the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers defines much more than just this physical site. The impact of the rivers permeates the history, culture and perception of the West Bottoms.
Each river has its own character. The Missouri River to the north was the original source of discovery and commerce for this region. It is a waterway that extends from Montana to the Mississippi. It is wide, fast, and known for its ever-changing course. The Kansas (“Kaw”) River is smaller in reach and size, and more stable.
Like many river towns, the West Bottoms has a tenuous relationship with the rivers. Though they bring vitality, they can also wreak havoc through flooding or by radically changing course. Though there were many floods in the history of the West Bottoms, the flood of 1903 was the first to cause real damage to the city in time
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the burgeoning development there. At that point in time the West Bottoms was the economic center of Kansas City, but after this flood, and the subsequent floods in years soon after, the residential, retail, and passenger rail services that had been in the West Bottoms relocated to higher ground. Kansas City’s economic center began to move to the current downtown, and the West Bottoms was left as largely rail, stockyards and industrial uses.
The 1951 flood was the most damaging in Kansas City history. The stockyards suffered immense losses and never recovered. As a result of the 1951 flood there was a larger exodus from the area; the West Bottoms was all but abandoned by Kansas City.
Even today, the threat of the floodplain affects development and prospects in West Bottoms. The 100year floodplain in the West Bottoms is formed by Turkey Creek, which has been engineered to empty into the Kansas River further south, near the 7th Street Trafficway. When it floods, however, Turkey Creek will divert to its historic course, and inundate the lowest-lying areas in the West Bottoms. This flooding occurs behind the seven
Missouri Valley Special Collections Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
The threat of flooding remains in the consciousness of those in the West Bottoms and Kansas City. This diagram maps three major flood stages: 100 year, 500 year, and the extents of the 1951 flood.
the city in time
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Kansas City Seven Levee System. Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
The West Bottoms is physically and experientially deďŹ ned by its infrastructure. A duality exists in the fact these infrastructures tend to create barriers themselves, even if they serve to connect. The photo at left shows the disconnection that the levee creates between Kemper Arena and the Kansas River. the city in time
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levee system that serves as the flood control infrastructure for both the West Bottoms and Kansas City as a whole.
This Seven Levee System (originally authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944) is designed to protect denser development by allowing farmland on the outskirts to flood, linking Kansas City’s protection to a much larger system.
The levee system and the levees around Kansas City were actually in place by the time of the 1951 flood. However, the critical dams and reservoirs upriver had not been constructed due to resistance and controversy in the communities that were slated to be flooded by reservoirs.
After the devastation caused by the 1951 flood, pressure mounted to complete the entire flood protection system. The levees in Kansas City were able to withstand the flood of 1993 with inches to spare, but the danger of flooding and the fear of breaches in the levees are of perennial concern. This is a huge development hurdle for the West Bottoms and anywhere in the floodplain.
the city in time
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The volume of rail lines and rail yards in the West Bottoms reached a peak in 1950. Much of the area once occupied by these lines is still railroad property today.
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rail industry
THE GROWTH OF KANSAS CITY RAN PARALLEL TO ITS RAIL network. In 1869, Hannibal Bridge became the Missouri River crossing point, and sparked immediate growth; the West Bottoms emerged as the main rail center of Kansas City, becoming a national crossroads. This led to the creation of the Kansas City Stockyards, packing houses, and the Live Stock Exchange-creating a livestock industry second only to Chicago’s. In 1878, Kansas City’s first major passenger rail station, Union Depot, was built in the West Bottoms. The area was fast becoming the economic heart of the growing city.
The series of floods in the late 19th century damaged many rail areas and prompted Union Depot to relocate to higher ground. The catastrophic 1951 flood and subsequent demise of the Kansas City Stockyards and other industries has contributed to the large scale decline in rail yards and traffic in the late 20th century. the city in time
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1869
1895
1939
1963
THE PROGRESSION AND GROWTH OF THE RAIL INDUSTRY, starting with the construction of the Hannibal Bridge in 1869. The rail maps reect a livestock industry boom and later the decline in rail distribution. The map at right shows current active tracks, marking railroad property and right-of-ways.
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1991
industry + distribution
SINCE THE CONSTRUCTION OF HANNIBAL BRIDGE IN 1869, the West Bottoms has contained a significant portion of Kansas City’s network of industrial distribution. The network of rail lines have attracted industrial program with the ease and adjacency of distribution. In fact, the majority of Kansas City’s floodplain and low-lying areas have all developed in a similar way—creating a riverfront completely devoted to industry.
At most points during the history of the West Bottoms, the stockyards, railyards and other industries have filled the majority of the land area. Even now, rail and truck distribution industries define the area, making the industrial element a huge part of the heritage, character, and life of the area.
The industrial nature of the West Bottoms has changed with distribution trends. As highways have gained traffic and volume
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of truck distribution, they have also gained more space on the ground. Steel warehouses, loading docks, storage yards, fenced parking lots, truck routes, truck traffic, and diesel engines, have become a new kit of parts for this industrial city—affecting the site and experience in sensory and spatial terms.
There are also many parts of the West Bottoms that are postindustrial. The old multi-story, brick warehouses are obsolete in this new industrial city. Many rail lines lie inactive. All three port facilities on the Missouri River have been completely abandoned. The right-of-ways and speciďŹ c use of these obsolete structures and infrastructures have created a waste landscape--posing a big question for the future of the West Bottoms as to whether or not development will occur after industry has left.
the city in time
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CITY SCANS
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SCAN THE CITY? PROGRESSIVE views, separated into sections or elements, form a definitive understanding of the city. In an attempt to develop a program for the city, we scanned topography, infrastructural systems, the elevated experience, and figure ground voids.
The existing site condition in the West Bottoms is comprised of interconnected systems, both natural and built, that order urban space and its use. Placing the systems into defined scales provide a means of analysis for each series on its own terms as well as in relation to others, forming a base understanding of individual layers, systems, and the complex interactions between them. Each series focuses on a single element at a certain scale of context. Using each series as a reference to a single element can determine where connections are present within the local and regional context. city scans
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The sections, taken every 150’ through the site, emphasize the relationships between the rivers, the West Bottoms oodplain, the bluff, and downtown Kansas City, MO.
city scans
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The elevational scans focus on what occurs at given elevations, pulling instances of information out of the volumetric whole, and showing how the landscape builds upon itself. Taken every 10’ the scans emphasize elevational relationships between regions and building heights.
city scans
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CONNECTIONS CORRIDORS PRIMARY SECONDARY INTERSTATE
automotive city “Infrastructure increasingly provides the public spaces of our cities, and the infrastructure of movement is an essential presence in the developed world. Whether for cars, bicycles or people, it is the connection of elements to one another that is the foundation of urban and suburban life.” --Elizabeth Mossop, Landscapes of Infrastructure
THE INTERSTATES AND HIGHWAY SYSTEMS DOMINATE THE map of Kansas City. It is an automotive-centric city, with more miles of highway per capita than any other city in the nation. The infrastructure of these highways creates a new public space. These are critical “connecting elements that are the foundation of urban and suburban life.”
Even before these interstates and highways, George Kessler’s system of Parks & Boulevards organized the urban fabric and experience of Kansas City. These boulevards have more connection to the surrounding site and urban environment than highways. As speeds and traffic volumes increase, roads become increasingly specialized—eliminating this traditional street-city relationship, instead becoming a mechanism and corridor for transit only.
city scans
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THE WEST BOTTOMS AS VIEWED FROM I-670 REVEALS another level of the city. The speed and elevation create a completely different experience than from the ground level.
elevated experience
KANSAS CITY IS A CITY WITH A CAR CULTURE; VIEWS OF THE city from the car influence our perception of the physical city. The West Bottoms is particularly affected by this phenomenon as major elevated arterials cut across it connecting East and West. This creates a stark difference between the perception of the city by those passing through and by those moving at groundlevel. In a way, two different but parallel cities exist in the West Bottoms: the one that is viewed from ground level, and the one viewed from above.
This study manipulates mass, density, and time to achieve a perspective capturing the essence of this “other” city. These composite images show the city as a function of time. When passing through an area, time does not appear linear but time becomes embedded in both a frame and in memory.
IN ORDER TO CAPTURE THIS “ESSENCE� WE SCANNED the city using video. Stills were selected at even intervals and converted to simple forms. The resultant images were arranged into single and compressed comprehensive frames. These composite views convert the elevated experience into an abstract landscape.
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city scans
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THESE COMPOSITE ABSTRACT images describe the character of interaction between urban elements and the elevated viewer. The elements rise up in an effort to be visible or compress themselves to become a new ground plane; they spread out and change or obscure themselves altogether. These landscapes are separated by texture, generating a smeared effect, such as the silo moving through an otherwise low, spreadout industrial surrounding.
city scans
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fragmented space
THE WEST BOTTOMS CONTAINS MANY CHARACTERISTIC and accidental spaces that create dramatic views and scenes often used as photographic stage sets. This study is intended to identify and analyze these spaces in order to understand the urban conditions and spatial relationships that create them. Breaking down this intangible experience into a tangible spatial study allows an objective analysis of an ethereal experience.
Space cannot be understood in one view or one diagram. Photographs were used initially, in order to capture a series of views that spoke of the essence of the spaces. These photos were then used to establish spatial maps, drawing out the perspective to deďŹ ne the extents of the space and deďŹ ning buildings bounded within the selected space. The study became concentrated on establishing the space as void and city scans
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EACH SERIES OF SPATIAL STUDIES EXAMINES A SINGLE ‘ad hoc space’ found in the West Bottoms. This excerpted study makes an intangible quality tangible. Singular experiences of the space developed from singular views. They combine to create a complete view of the spatial quality.
representing this volume three-dimensionally. Digital spatial studies and physical spatial models extruded the boundaries of the space that had been previously determined, and also included detailed articulation of building mass and height that were critical in defining these spaces.
This study created a process for identifying these spaces in other places in the West Bottoms. They are often found as anomalies within the grid. Either formed by overlapping and opposed grids, or by foreign, non-rectilinear paths (i.e. railroad lines) slicing through and disrupting the grid. These overlaps created the impetus for unusual urban constructs and spatial qualities. Many of these ad hoc spaces in the West Bottoms have also been created by deletion or deterioration of the original building stock—which creates new oblique views and extensions beyond “traditional” gridded space.
Overall this study created a process for identifying spaces with this desirable quality or areas that have the potential for it. But it also points to ways to develop new rules for infill, so that the fabric with these characteristics can be preserved or enhanced, defining ways to treat these spaces in the vision for the West Bottoms.
city scans
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THE TEXTURE OF THE URBAN fabric is augmented by its material texture: haphazard and deteriorated development is made functional and exaggerated by signage.
URBAN VISION
identifying potential Developing an Urban Vision for the West Bottoms through Strategic Interventions
RESPONSIVE URBAN DESIGN LOOKS FOR NEW MEANS TO approach, connect, strengthen, and activate parts of the city. Precedent theories of what constitutes a contemporary city reinterpret existing urban structures and recognize the existing city as a point of departure rather than a passive condition to act upon. The proposal for the West Bottoms recognizes and responds to the qualities of the existing site, and looks for design solutions born of its potential. By developing an understanding of the existing city—its form, and its capacity for modifications or transformations—we are restructuring and reforming the city based upon its primary systems and internal logic.1 This allows the proposal to be tied to the city and to realize its place within it.
Contemporary urban projects must be “cognizant of the whole, (while making) partial interventions, strategic moves which might incite loops of non-linear change throughout (the) system.”2 This
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forms the foundation of our masterplan framework and approach. A design approach through strategic, catalytic interventions allows us to preserve and enhance the quality of the existing city. It leads to a design that is minimal in its affected area but powerful in its impact. It responds to the needs and potentials of the area and considers the site for what it could become.
The West Bottoms is a vacant, underutilized, and seemingly abandoned urban area. Given current economic and development trends, it is improbable that it will recover its previous density. This poses the biggest question for our studio: How do we approach the design for this incomplete city—recognizing its incomplete state as a new form of urban order and the new model for contemporary cities?
There is tremendous potential within the existing vacancies. Though they are seen as waste landscapes, they are a prevalent and natural part of the city, reflecting its growth and transformation. “Cities are not static objects, but active arenas marked by continuous energy flows and transformations of which landscapes and buildings are not permanent structures, but transitional manifestations.”3 The contemporary city is no longer a condensing or place-making medium; instead it is fragmented and chaotic, escaping wholeness, objectivity and public consciousness—terra incognita.4 The city’s vast stretch of urbanized landscape exists as an inconsistent fabric, appearing
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parking
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storage
EMPTY
vacant lots
AREAS IN THE WEST BOTTOMS are vacant, seemingly abandoned, and underutilized. It is improbable that they will recover their previous density given current economic and development trends.
right-of-ways
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Population Density
basics cs (laundry, dry cleaners, rs, e drug store, liquor store, market, grocery, hardware, thrift)
shopping ng (nail salon, jewelry, ry, s clothing, electronics, home decor, beauty, shoe, pet, boutique)
arts ts rt, (museum, art, craft, gallery) ry)
ry industry (scrap, tool, auto, to, lumber, truck) k)
entertainment nt (music, club, video, eo, taxi, adult, tobacco, gentlemens’ club)
ty hospitality (hotel, bar, restaurant) nt)
ey money (bank, atm, payday loans, ns, pawn) n)
Density of Amenities
incomplete with holes, empty interstices, and large obsolete spaces left over time.5 These holes act as interruptions in the continuity of the urban fabric and are dominated by a peculiar sense of ongoing struggle between urbanization and nature.6 The contemporary city is defined by these voids and inconsistencies. The city has become impermanent, incomplete, and complex. Our intent is to allow the city to remain authentic in this complexity, to embrace these latent urban qualities, these incomplete and non-traditional urban spatial and formal prototypes, and to form a new urban order from them.
The foundation for our studio position, intent, and approach is formed by the following points: 1.
Recognize the significance and identity of the place.
2.
Build off of the existing assets and potentials by augmenting, strengthening and activating them.
3.
Connect to and participate in the wider city, rather than existing isolated from the whole.
Despite its former significance, the West Bottoms exists as a void within the wider downtown areas of Kansas City.7 Future development must reconnect and reestablish the West Bottoms on the map of Kansas City. The West Bottoms will not succeed without a place in the larger region, and the larger region would greatly benefit from active and sustained use of this area.
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THIS PLAN OPERATES ON SEVERAL
scales, and the interventions must respond to not only the West Bottoms but also the two Kansas Cities. This plan participates in the city; it does not isolate itself from it.
SYSTEMS LOCAL FABRIC REC. + RIVERFRONT REGIONAL CONNECTIONS
The “urban (environment) is the sum of successive dwelling periods on the land.”8 The fragmented urban fabric in the West Bottoms has developed over time, creating a spontaneous, ad hoc, unplanned, and incomplete city, with certain complexities and an authenticity that is desirable to maintain. Thus we must discern where to intervene—in what capacity, and over what area?
This master plan must be strategic—a light, agile framework that is made up of surgical interventions; this is not a blank-slate masterplan. Instead, these interventions are concentrated along the most critical lines of connection between significant urban elements and at crucial points within the urban fabric. The design philosophy and proposed changes we are creating leave a large portion of the area free to develop independently, providing for organic growth and development that is true to the character of the West Bottoms.
THREE ORDERING SYSTEMS The strategic interventions can be organized into three major ordering systems. The first is a riverfront recreational system that reclaims the underutilized and unprogrammed riverfront to provide a natural amenity in the heart of the city. It ties into the wider regional system of trails and parks. The second capitalizes upon the existing infrastructural connections and spaces (civic networks, systems, connections that serve the greater region, and their resultant spaces). They are essential for access and future
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Urban Design of West Bottoms.
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development of this area. The third emphasizes the local fabric. Through the creation of a local corridors, we seek to connect and strengthen existing activity centers. This last system also creates a set of underlying ordering systems that prepare the area for future development and ensure its development as a coherent whole.
FIVE REGIONS The West Bottoms is twice the size of the downtown loop. Thus it has several truly distinct areas within it. We identified five such districts based upon their current characteristics and potential— and developed these as regions or study areas for our design interventions. By approaching the masterplan at this scale, we are able to study the design of the larger ordering systems in relation to local context.
All of the five study areas apply the initial concepts and wider ordering systems to their individual sites; these systems (riverfront, infrastructure, urban fabric) change, adapt and develop based upon the needs of each region. Simultaneously, we recognize the West Bottoms as a whole district. Our intent was to mitigate physical and perceived barriers and to unite the five districts into a whole. Together, the designs proposed by these five regions create a composite framework where the affected area is minimal and critical connections between existing nodes are established. The result is a variable, dynamic scheme of connected parts.
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URBAN FABRIC The West Bottoms exists as a working city. The industrial nature of this district is embedded in the urban fabric and the character of this place.9 The position to maintain industry in this area implies the intent to maintain the authenticity, character and integrity of the West Bottoms. Industry and later deindustrialization have impacted the underlying structure and fabric of the West Bottoms itself. There are huge parcels and lots—some still devoted to industrial uses, others to public right of way, and others lay vacant, leaving vast amounts of open space.10 These vast spaces exist in contrast with the dense fabric of small lots and parcels in the core—but even these have degraded to the point where there are significant voids and vacancies. These vacancies characterize the West Bottoms; both the ad hoc voids within the formerly dense urban grid and the large, vast, expanses in the heart of the city exist as a unique asset.
The size of the vacant spaces indicates the underlying potential and scale of intervention possible. Some areas are only capable of being developed through large-scale action, by a large entity, or through public domain and replatting. Others have a predisposition to dense development, even if this is not their current state. The accidental urban environment should be recognized for its quality and potential for creating the impetus for re-inhabiting the West Bottoms area. Design actions must have a strategic impact and define these spaces—preserving or
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Parcels are coded to show size/ density--lighter parcels represent a more urban precedent while darker parcels are more industrial.
enhancing them, and providing them as public space to be used and inhabited.
There is potential to create a vibrant, populated city within this industrial fabric. The incorporation of mixed-use development would create a unique juxtaposition of city life against the fabric of industry. This juxtaposition can propel the development of the West Bottoms. Areas of current overlap and contrast create life and underscore activity. The constant interaction with rail and truck traffic is part of the nature and pleasure of inhabiting this city. The traffic itself changes the map of the West Bottoms, cutting off through streets and creating thoroughfares out of alleyways. Industry is a dynamic force in the West Bottoms. Introducing more mixed-used development and adding resident and visitor pedestrian traffic alongside the truck and distribution traffic has the potential to create a dynamic city.
Twenty-ďŹ rst century patterns of urban industry include a range of low impact, high performance, or mixed-use industries. These low-impact industrial uses may intermingle with commercial and residential uses in varying degrees,11 creating several variations and combinations of commercial-industrial-residential use, as well as a ďŹ ne-grained, diverse, and vibrant urban environment that is distinctly West Bottoms.
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Industrial
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Other Commercial
Retail
Residential
Artists Gallery
Seasonal
Through the detailed analysis of current building use and program, we aim to identify the needs and current realities of the area. Two critical conclusions were developed through this analysis. First, recent rezoning legitimizes the trend of deindustrialization taking place in some areas of the West Bottoms. Vacant industrial lots and buildings are being replaced by more residential, retail and cultural uses/functions. Second, the West Bottoms still has a signiďŹ cant number of seasonal uses. Events and seasonal attractions serve to populate the West Bottoms temporarily. These trends and current realities point to qualities of the identity of the West Bottoms that should be fostered in future plans. They may serve as catalysts for larger change.
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“THREE MAIN FORCES -degeneration, permanence and transformation -- physically and ideologically act on the city, repeatedly contradicting each other.” --Christophe Girot, “Vision in Motion: Representing Motion in Time”
TIME Deindustrialization and degradation of the West Bottoms over time has created an issue of perceived vacancy, abandonment, and obsolescence, which serves to create a vacancy of time itself. This is a city that has been left behind—its spaces and construct testify to the previous successes of the area and establish a design challenge for recapturing this success.12 However, the issues of vacancy, abandonment, and contamination of the West Bottoms in both spatial and temporal terms indicate that it will be neither immediately nor wholly occupiable.13 Rather, a more tenuous and temporary inhabitation of the city must be planned for. There is a need for a strategically phased design that accommodates intermediate conditions. The remediation of contaminated sites prepares (waste) land for future development. Systems for water management and passive energy harvesting allow for new, and different kinds of urbanization to occupy and give function to vast open spaces. These types of reclamation become integral to the process and have inuence on later forms and design thought.14
Currently, when large scale events occur, they temporarily and spontaneously create an active, lively city in the West Bottoms. This demonstrates the resilience of the urban environment; a viable city can exist through cycles of temporary events. We should design for and foster this potential (though temporary) inhabitation and create a system of supportive spaces that will accommodate and adapt to this inconsistent urban environment.
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INFRASTRUCTURE15 Because
of
topographical,
physical,
and
programmatic
separation, the West Bottoms is easily overpassed on the way to either Central Business District (CBD). The West Bottoms has been redefined physically and experientially by the infrastructure that runs through (and over) it. Paradoxically, even though they serve to connect, these infrastructures tend to create barriers—interrupting the fabric of the West Bottoms. Our intent is to maintain and strengthen all existing connections, mitigate barriers, reclaim residual spaces, and provide for intensified, improved connections. Infrastructure plays a key role in awareness, accessibility, connection, vitality and functionality of this area. These infrastructural systems become primary urban design opportunities, as “these areas are particularly significant—if latent—modifiers of the urban condition.”16
These barriers and utilitarian spaces can be transformed into inhabitable space. There is potential for design interventions that exploit these barriers, no-man’s lands, and residual spaces, and convert them into multi-functional, multi-faceted parts of the formal inhabited city17—designed as a true part of the urban environment. In order to create an interface between the human experience and the structure of the civic environment, these large-scale systems must be made physical/material when they encounter the local.18
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The massive regional infrastructural systems cutting through the West Bottoms create opportunities for multiscalar interventions, which operate on the scale of the West Bottoms and the region simultaneously. Designs must consider the scale, impact and presence of buildings along the interstates; they provide a unique opportunity for the isolated West Bottoms to connect with the larger metro and region. By virtue of its location, the West Bottoms exists as a critical intersection. In designing for the public/civic realm of the two Kansas Cities, this signiďŹ cance of the West Bottoms provides the opportunity to create amenities that are unique to Kansas City, and that provide critical infrastructural connections and amenities on a regional scale.
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THE INFRASTRUCTURES OF THE WEST BOTTOMS ARE fundamentally divisive. There is a strong dividing line along both I-670 and I-70, creating distinctly different districts North and South of these interstates. The railroad effectively splits the West Bottoms North from South multiple times per hour, and the railyards create a constant barrier. 111
RIVERFRONT Kansas City has designated its riverfront as an industrial zone. As it deindustrializes, there is no need to maintain this precedent. Certain areas of the floodway and riverfront can be reclaimed for non-industrial and recreational uses. The West Bottoms is a prime area for this reclamation, because of its location between the two cities and at the confluence of the two rivers. The West Bottoms has large areas of open space along the Kansas River, left over from the previous stockyards and industrial uses.
“In abandoned or otherwise vacant lots created in the wake of floods, deindustrialization, and general neglect in the West Bottoms, we can, through design, recapture a dimension of nature which gives purpose to the vacancy.”19 With some remediation, they could become reprogrammed with recreational uses, creating an amenity and destination that could support and provide for existing and growing downtown population centers and the wider regional area. It would be able to compete with exurban developments, and provide a natural amenity in the heart of the downtown area.
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THE REGIONAL SYSTEM OF PARKS and trails in Kansas City has great
potential. Current proposals plan for a continuous system of riverfront trails in which the West Bottoms acts as a critical link.
PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED PEDESTRIAN PATH
EXISTING PEDESTRIAN PATH DESIGNED REC SPACE EXISTING REC SPACE
AN URBAN VISION The city develops through visions of its future in the mid-term, which are linked to fairly tangible and precise proposals for some elements (i.e. infrastructure, landscape, streetscape). However, it works simultaneously with strategies of improvement and rehabilitation, which are based on the internal logic of the existing construction of its fabrics and neighborhoods.20 In developing this urban vision for the West Bottoms, our studio has worked on both of these levels. The smaller interventions unite the districts at local scale, but also act to connect the West Bottoms to the adjacent downtown neighborhoods and the greater metro.
Above all, we realize that the impetus, energy, and potential for development are latent in the existing fabric. The West Bottoms needs to be organized along a framework that remains true to its identity, and allows for individual actions and organic development.
This
masterplan
of
strategic
interventions
establishes a strong framework that designs for critical areas, yet is malleable, responsive to this place and the city as a whole. It will allow the West Bottoms to transform into a new, unique part of Kansas City, true to its identity and signiďŹ cance.
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