Kansas City Fugly

There is a page on Facebook with this very title--Kansas City Fugly.

I think you get the idea.

It shows ugly, really ugly, new buildings all across the city. I've posted at least several there in the last several months.

Sadly, companies and corporations want to, yes, understandably, keep their costs down but they do so with their new buildings by stripping them bare, calling them "modern" and honestly making them monstrosities.

I happened upon this one, below, going up on Westport Road diagonally across from the Quik Trip--which, itself has become even more of a monstrosity in the last year. But I digress.

So here it is, some shots.

This is right along Westport Road so it is the front of the building.

This is the part going down the side street by Mike's Liquors.

Nice, huh?

I've never seen more gray, concrete blocks. Well, no more than if I went to a hardware store and saw their inventory.

The only thing worse than the companies buying and building these things are the architects that create them. It is stunning. And they're pervasive. Look around.

We've had thousands upon thousands of years of development and education and advances, we humans. And this is where we're headed? This is our future? This is what we all have to look forward to?

Really?

I hear people say they won't bring children, babies into the world because of the way we're all headed, we humans, this human race.

This seems very clearly like one more indication. 

And that it won't be pretty.

Far from it.

Link:

KANSAS CITY FUGLY

Great Kansas City News!!

Yes! Great Kansas City news!

Tomorrow, Friday the 13th at 8:45 pm they will be turned back on!

How cool is that?

Photo credit and source:

Kansas City's Original Hex FX Aerials

They're Going to Remodel the Folly Theater's Lobby?

From the Star today.

Folly Theater closed until September for $2.5 million renovation

So they're going to remodel the lobby of our venerable, loved Folly Theater. We're told it's to give it more room.

All well and good. Fine. Okay.

But one of the reasons we love the Folly is because it's traditional and older and beautiful.

From the looks of this diagram from Helix Architects, above, it seems they're going to strip all that away, strip it bare, and make it modern, if not very, very modern. To the point of stark.

And this is an improvement?

Really, Helix?

To the Folly Board of Directors, if you can't do it right and fully and completely and in keeping with the building and its original architecture...

why do it at all?

Abomination much?

Sacrilege much?

Living In the US vs Elsewhere

A friend's post yesterday said what I've been thinking for some time:

A comment from a friend who moved to Europe a few years ago: 

"it is absolutely incredible. We've been here (several) years now...the life style for my family is spectacular. The kids are happy, my wife is happy, we're experiencing people/culture/travel that we'd never see in the US. My kids are growing up in an environment with such cultural/international awareness that we never experienced as kids.

The longer you live outside the US, the more obvious the divide becomes. Education, healthcare, and environment are top priorities in Europe. Nudity is allowed and you see it on billboards, magazines, etc., but no one cares because it is natural. Violence, on the other hand, isn’t dramatized or publicized and broadcast throughout the media. When people commit crimes, they don’t even publish their full names in the paper (it shows as 'Matt H. was found guilty'). Europe allows nudity and minimizes the broadcasting of violence, while the US takes an opposite stance"

Additionally, they have far fewer guns so far fewer shootings and killings.

And universal health care.

And then there's all that architecture. We tear our "old" buildings down after 50 years.

All that, just for starters.

WWI Memorial in Washington, Too

Seems the Federal government in Washington, DC just can't keep from spending money or creating a second World War I memorial. This broke today.

Chicago architect, 25, wins design contest for World War I memorial in D.C.

It's not a huge surprise. Maybe a bit of a local disappointment, for us, certainly, not that people would come here instead of going to Washington for one of these memorials.

We'll just know ours is better.

Check that. 

Best.

This will put solar energy in warp speed

Recently, I wrote about the invention and development out of UCLA that allowed solar photovoltaic cells to be transparent. It would make the laying on of these clear cells as sheets, very likely, on existing glass and windows to create electricity quickly, far more clean and far less expensive.

Now, today, I found this and its prediction, mirroring mine but far more precisely:

Foster's Solar-Skinned Buildings Signal Market Tripling

From the article:

From stadiums in Brazil to a bank headquarters in Britain, architects led by Norman Foster are integrating solar cells into the skin of buildings, helping the market for the technology triple within two years.

Sun-powered systems will top the stadia hosting 2014 FIFA World Cup football in Brazil. In Manchester, northern England, the Co-operative Group Ltd. office has cells from Solar Century Holdings Ltd. clad into its vertical surfaces.

The projects mark an effort by designers to adopt building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPV, where the power-generating features are planned from the start instead of tacked on as an afterthought. Foster and his customers are seeking to produce eye-catching works while meeting a European Union directive that new buildings should produce next to zero emissions after 2020.

“Building integrated solar in office buildings and factories which generate energy consistently during daylight hours, whilst not requiring additional expensive land space or unsightly installations, is seen as the most obvious energy solution,” said Gavin Rezos, principal of Viaticus Capital Ltd., an Australian corporate advisory company that’s one of the private equityfunds putting money into the technology.
Growing Market

The market for solar laid onto buildings and into building materials is expected to grow to $7.5 billion by 2015 from about $2.1 billion, according to Accenture Plc, citing research from NanoMarkets. Sales of solar glass are expected to reach as much as $4.2 billion by 2015, with walls integrating solar cellsat $830 million. About $1.5 billion is expected to be generated from solar tiles and shingles.

The technology provides a respite for solar manufacturers, opening the way for them to charge a premium for products. Traditional solar panel prices have fallen 90 percent since 2008 due to oversupply, cutting margins and pushing more than 30 companies including Q-Cells SE and a unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co. into bankruptcy.

We are truly, I think, clearly on the verge of an energy revolution that will take the world and rather quickly. A great deal of good will come from this, too, like far less expensive electricity for all and made far cleaner. Energy to our homes could nearly become like water, it seems. Possibly even less expensive than that. 

Imagine how quickly the owners of the businesses in the nation will want to buy up this technology, so they can create their own electricity so they cut their energy bill drastically.  Look at the Kansas City skyline alone:

And it's these businesses and corporations and buildings, doing this first--and likely very rapidly, since they'll save so much money so quickly--that will expedite this transition across the nation and world. Then, once that's forthcoming, it will be available for homes as well.

What's unfortunate is that all the governments across the world should respond to this a bit ahead of time by creating a necessary transition from our coal- and nuclear-based plants, generating power now, the way we're set up, to their being a "back up", which is what we'll need them for.

But governments, by and large, likely won't do that.

Here's hoping we get smart first, before this all takes place.

Solar panels will, very, very shortly, be a thing of the past, an energy dinosaur, as will coal and nuclear power.

Thank goodness and good riddance.

The Plaza, then and now

Our own Country Club Plaza, same building, 1966 and today:

If only the JC Company had, all those years ago, had the wisdom to know they should mandate that all buildings maintain their original Spanish style architecture on the outside.

The properties would all look FAR better now and all this time, from its creation to now, it would maintain the look throughout the Plaza--wouldn't that make sense?--and the property values would unequivocally be even higher than they are now I think it can easily be argued.

So it goes.

Old JC Nichols had brilliant ideas for himself, his company, his buildings and the city but he missed out on this one.

_________________________________________________________
Thanks to Michael Signorelli and the Things and places we loved in Greater KC when we were much younger! page from Facebook, yesterday.

The website and effort I've been waiting for: SAVE KCI!!

Yes, and here it is:

KCI Still Rated #1 in North America | SAVE KCI !

Let's do this.

 

Let's save the original, existing KCI. It makes too much sense. We like it, it works and it would be not only a huge waste, walking away from the buildings there now but it would also be a huge expense.

 

And you know who'd end up paying for it, right?

 

If we need to cut costs for the airlines by giving them easier security access, let's look into making the center, B building for that security and then have walkways out to A and C where we'd go to the gates to board our planes and flights. There ought to be some good way to solve this.

They're on Facebook, too, so you can join there:  Save KCI | Facebook

New "Mind Museum" in Philippines

After getting and opening our own cool new building in downtown Kansas City, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, I was drawn today to an article in Fast Company magazine about a new "Mind Museum" that opens this December. Take a look:

Another view:

It's really an incredible concept, when you think about it--a museum on and for and about the mind. Humankind's tendency has always been to have museums on and about tangible things like trains or natural history. Here is a museum about the mind and how it works and what it can do. It seems the types of displays it could have would be virtually, if not actually, unlimited. They would be only limited by their own imaginations. And their minds. It makes for fascinating stuff, architecturally as well as for and on its subject. Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/161/philippine-mind-museum

Have you seen this tastelessness yet?

From Seoul, South Korea: "An architecture firm said Friday it “regrets” a bizarre design for two high-rises in Korea reminds people of the twin towers exploding on 9/11. A mockup shows two soaring skyscrapers connected in the middle by a 'pixelated cloud' that evoked the clouds of debris that erupted from the iconic World Trade Center towers after terrorists flew planes into them." Yes, do tell, What were you thinking? Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/design-korean-towers-evokes-exploding-wtc-9-11-architects-mvrdv-apologize-wasn-t-intentional-article-1.989391

Kemper to be razed?

According to The Kansas City Business Journal and local news reports (see links below), Kemper Arena is to be razed and replaced with an "Agricultural Events Center." Well, okay, I guess. But it brings up questions: First, can we, as a city, afford it? (The bad news here? It's estimated to cost $50 million. The good news? The Kemper family is behind the proposal). Second, do you suppose Moshe Safdie is busy? And does he do "Agricultural Events Centers"? Finally, could we make sure this next one, if it has a roof, doesn't collapse? Ever? Links: http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2011/10/25/kemper-arena-will-be-razed.html; http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-report-kemper-arena-to-be-torn-down-replaced-with-agricultural-events-center-20111025,0,3446649.story

KCMO HAS ONE OF "WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS!!!"

Dang!  How cool is that?!

This morning, on Yahoo! News is an article with, as said above, "The World's Most Beautiful Buildings" and lo and behold, our own Nelson-Atkins Art Museum's Bloch Gallery of Contemporary Art!

Right behind Mont St. Michel, in the South of France.

This is what they have to say about it:

Unlike many modern additions to historic museums, Steven Holl’s 21st-century companion doesn’t overwhelm the 1933 Beaux Arts original. His string of iridescent frosted-glass boxes pop out of the grassy lawn—they are absolutely magical at dusk when they begin to glow—and filter sunlight into a series of dramatic underground galleries.

Special Attraction: Check out the Noguchi Sculpture Court, a minimalist space created by the famed Japanese-American artist that cleverly blurs the line between indoors and out.

Yeehaw!

Not a total cowtown, eh?

Now, for the 90% of the people in the metropolitan area who haven't been over there yet to see it, get off your sofa and check it out, now that you know it's "legit".

Additionally, let me make a recommendation to you on it.  That is, go into the Bloch Gallery straight from outside--don't go in through the main, older gallery.  Go check it out, look around and enjoy.  Then, once back at the main lobby, THEN go into the original Nelson;  go up the stairs and enjoy that entrance.  Walk slowly, taking it all in, past the lion sculpture, etc.  Then, on your left, as you're walking through, look into the adjacent room, at an angle, and see the St. John the Baptist piece by Caravaggio.  Not only is the work itself magnificent but the placing of it here, where they have it, is very nearly breathtaking.

Now let's wait until November, when we get our 2nd extremely cool architectural wonder, when the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opens.  More great headlines for our burg.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Links:  http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-38095356
http://www.nelson-atkins.org/
http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase.cfm?id=1130&theme=euro
http://blog.ericbowersphoto.com/2011/03/brandmeyer-great-hall-at-the-kauffman-center-under-construction/

In case you'd care to help fight the new Polsinelli building on the Plaza

This entry is for just that--in case you want to help fight the new Polsinelli building proposed for the Plaza. If you're on Facebook (come on, admit it, you are), search for this group: Save the Plaza 2010 Then join, of course. They're having an organizational meeting this Friday evening at 5:30 pm, you'll find. You can also reach them at their email address savethe Plaza@yahoo.com. You are recommended to attend the rezoning hearing on oct. 5 at 12:30 at City Hall, too, if you can. Finally, if you can, listen in today on KCUR 89.3 FM, 11am as Steve Kraske will be talking with Kansas City Star development reporter Kevin Collison, Polsinelli Shughart chairman and chief executive W. Russell Welsh, Historic Kansas City Foundation president Scott Lane and others about the proposed project and why it's creating so much controversy. Side note: I'll bet the Polsinelli people are regretting now that they are immediately known as "The Law Firm That Wants to Tear Down Part of the Historic Country Club Plaza, Only to Build a New, Irrelevant, Contemporary Structure." Just bad PR, all the way around, huh? Too bad. Here's hoping. Have a great week, y'all.