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Clashing or complementary?
New townhouses and tower sport different styles.
Kansas City Star
October 14, 2005
Kevin Collison
The developer converting the former BMA Tower into luxury condominiums is planning a townhouse project next door, and not everyone is pleased with its aesthetics.
The 24-unit townhouse development would be just east of the 19-story landmark, which overlooks Penn Valley Park near 31st Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The townhouses would be built above a parking garage that served the former office building. The garage now is slated to be used by the future residents.
In architectural style, the two-story townhouses are being described as French provincial with stone and stucco exteriors and steep-pitched slate roofs. At issue, though, is whether that design is compatible with the BMA Tower, a crisply modern structure that is one of the city's most honored buildings
The glass tower with its distinctive white external frame was designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill of Chicago. The structure received the Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1964, the only building to receive such national recognition in Kansas City. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
"It's one of the best-known examples of the International style of modern architecture," said Trudy Faulkner, an architect at Helix Architecture and Design who is active in historic preservation. "It's a great building."
The tower, which has been rechristened One Park Place, is being converted into 106 high-end condominiums ranging in price from $422,000 to $4 million. Thirty units have been reserved so far, including a $3.7 million penthouse unit, and the first two models are expected to be ready for touring by early December, said Bob Adams, project manager for SWD Communities of Newport Beach, Calif.
Construction on the townhouse part of the development, along with a 6,000-square-foot restaurant and deli, is expected to begin next summer. The City Planning and Development Department and State Historic Preservation Office have signed off on the design by Nearing Staats Prelogar & Jones Architects of Prairie Village.
The townhouse project and tax abatements required for its financing also were approved recently by the Kansas City Council. In an unusual situation, though, the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority, a city agency, has asked the Kansas City Design Center to review the plan.
The redevelopment authority asked for the review by the design center, a private group, at the request of Tom Levitt, a real estate developer active in the Crossroads District of downtown.
"I'm concerned that this brownish stone and stucco peaked-roof design will be discordant with the modern landmark character of the tower," Levitt said.
SWD Communities has agreed to discuss its project with the design center, but whatever comes out of the process apparently would have no legally binding effect on the project, because it already has the necessary city approval.
"We're not here to get in the way of anything on either side," said Daniel Serda, executive director of the design center. "We're hoping to elevate the design sensibility about these kinds of things."
Adams said SWD pursued more contemporary designs for the townhouses but was discouraged by the State Historic Preservation Office, part of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
"One of the orders was that 'We don't want to see anything that would duplicate or mimic the tower,'" he said.
Because the BMA Tower is a historic landmark, associated development must follow the state guidelines to qualify for historic tax credits. Those guidelines require new construction to be distinct from the historic building.
Angelo Logan, the state official who Adams said reviewed the project, could not be reached for comment.
Larry Stice, the city planner who endorsed the townhouse project when it was reviewed by that agency, agreed with Adams' appraisal. Stice said he looked at the nearby Coleman Highlands neighborhood and found the townhouse architectural style compatible with that area of older homes.
"There is a restriction that it can't come close to approximating the BMA Tower," he said. "I kind of understand what Tom is saying, but I find the townhouses in keeping with the neighborhood in general."
But other architects say that while trying to imitate the BMA Tower would be wrong, other more compatible solutions could have been found.
"In this case, the townhouse design sits 180 degrees apart from that modern element," said Adam Cohen, an architect at BNIM and a board member of the Kansas City chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
"It's not uncommon to see a design that tries to mimic, to build little BMA Towers, and it wouldn't be appropriate either. But in this situation, it doesn't look like there's any relationship, whether mimicking it or not."
Howard Nearing, the architect who designed the townhouses, described their look as being a suitable evolution in style from their high-rise neighbor.
"What we're trying to do is create a village effect around the tower," he said. "The style of the buildings is contemporary with a European flavor. I didn't want them to be traditional. I believe it's transitional."
The 24 townhouses, called One Park Place Villas, will range in size from 1,527 to 2,124 square feet and average about $350,000. The developers said the units should appeal to people who wanted to live near Penn Valley Park but weren't interested in the high-rise living offered next door.
They're also being marketed differently. The tower, which features a saltwater indoor lap pool and cigar lounge among its amenities, is being pitched to a more upscale audience. The townhouses are expected to be more middle class in their appeal. The facilities in One Park Place won't be available to residents of the townhouses.
"The tower is over and above what we think anyone has done in the marketplace," said Christine Kemper, who is helping market the project. "There are lots of fabulous urban lofts downtown, but this will be more like a Ritz-Carlton. That's the environment we want to keep."
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