We have been continuing our work on designing the final master plan for the Bethany Park site. Our focus has been on incorporating individual housing units and typologies into the site, with the aim of creating an affordable community that embraces the culture within our master plan - this includes integrating walkable features and enhancing amenities within the park space.

On Monday, we had the opportunity to present our master plan to Jeremy Knoll from BNIM and Maria Isabela Pineda, an architect at Cota Arquitectura in Maracaibo, Venezuela, who is currently a fellow in the YLAI program through Global Ties KC. During the presentation, we discussed steps to further develop our master plan and create spaces within the housing units and typologies to foster a walkable community. As a team, we explored various design and organizational strategies for placing our housing units and typologies within nodes to provide the community with convenient access to shared amenity spaces. Their input was greatly appreciated and has been instrumental in guiding our team towards valuable advancements in our updated master plan.

We are excited about the significant benefits this master plan can bring to KCK. Please stay tuned for future updates on its progress!

Since the Fall semester, we have gained 8 new students in our studio! We have been hard at work designing the final master plan for the Bethany Park site and are working on the individual housing units and typologies that will be used on the site. Our goal is to create walkable, affordable, and safe housing that fits in with the surrounding neighborhood, building upon the rich culture and fostering a sense of community with our masterplan, while also adding new amenities to the park space. 

We had the opportunity to present our schematic designs to a guest panel including architects from BNIM and DRAW Architects. Additionally, we had the opportunity to present to leadership and staff of the UG's Planning and Urban Design Department of Wyandotte County at the Neighborhood Resource Center in KCK. We discussed organization strategies for our new housing around the site, what amenities we would add to Bethany Park (additions to Bethany Park are shown in the masterplan legend), and connections our site has to KCK as a whole. Their input was immensely valuable and has made our studio’s updated masterplan better than it was before. 

We are excited about the great benefits this masterplan can provide for KCK. Stay tuned for future updates on its progression! 

We're thrilled to have the physical copies of the West Bottoms in Three Parts in hand! Two KCDC students, Jacob Bandy and Haley Combs, worked on the publication to ensure that it encapsulated the in-depth research, analysis, and design development that occurred during the 2022-23 academic year. We will be dispersing the publication to our project partners and have added a link to view the book digitally on our website. We are so proud of the students for putting so much thought into the project and are immensely grateful to our community partners for supporting us and providing critical feedback throughout the year. We hope you enjoy learning about the West Bottoms and the surrounding area and the possibilities for its transformation as you look through the book (and maybe buy a copy for your collection!)