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Studio offers an urban option
Architecture students will study at a center in downtown KC.
Kansas City Star
July 10, 2007
Kevin Collison
When top architecture students from the University of Kansas and Kansas State set up shop downtown next month, it will be an academic addition welcomed on both sides of the border.
The innovative Missouri campus, authorized for up to 16 graduate students from the University of Kansas and Kansas State University schools of architecture, will be on the ground level of the Wyandotte Garage at 1020 Baltimore Ave. The 10,000-square-foot space was last occupied by the La Petite Academy child-care center.
The new location of the Kansas City Design Center is expected to become both a training ground in urban design issues for the students from Lawrence and Manhattan entering their fifth and final year of study, and a showcase for exhibits and public access to their work and ideas.
"We're thrilled about this new space," said Dennis Law, dean of the K-State architecture school. "It will put them in the heart of one of the most exciting and active urban environments in the country right now."
John Gaunt, the dean of the KU architecture school, said the downtown facility was the culmination of a joint program that began in the early 1990s on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
"It's really terrific point in the history of the Kansas City Design Center," he said. "It's coming together as it should have in the beginning. The idea was to bring the schools to the urban laboratory to the mutual benefit of the students and the city."
The studio will be led by Richard Farnan, a retired partner at HNTB Corp. and a KU architecture professor. Daniel Serda, the executive director of the Kansas City Design Center, also will relocate to the new space.
Students are scheduled to begin class in mid-August.
"The students will be in an urban context and will have an opportunity to interact with local professionals, planners and civic leaders," Farnan said.
Fifteen students -- eight women and seven men -- were selected for the first semester from a pool of applicants. Most are architecture students, but others are future planners and interior designers. Each will receive a $5,000 scholarship.
Funding for the program is being provided by the William T. Kemper Foundation and the Hall Family Foundation.
"People have been talking for years about the importance of having higher education in the downtown area," said Jonathan Kemper, president and CEO of Commerce Bank and a co-trustee of the Kemper Foundation. "This is absolutely the right thing in terms of regionalism. People are working with the state line instead of against it."
The development of the eight-story Wyandotte Garage, which opened in 1987, was spearheaded by the Downtown Council. From 1991 to 2000, the ground-floor space was used by La Petite Academy, but it has been vacant since then. DST Realty and Financial Holding Corp. now own the building.
"We've worked with several different groups to get a community/downtown use to create something more active than just a tenant," said Tom McDonnell, president and CEO of DST Systems. "It's a positive for that block and in that area."
The south half of the room will be used for classrooms, studio space and the offices of the design center. The other half will be available for exhibits.
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