[KCskylinelover]

Bernstein-Rein Advertising Inc. will anchor a 205,000-square-foot development one block west of the Country Club Plaza.
The $100 million West Edge project will include the Bernstein-Rein headquarters, a 103-room boutique hotel, a fine-dining restaurant,
retail space, a 261-seat auditorium and the Advertising Icon Museum.

The museum, designed by Pentagram Inc., will showcase the largest-known collection of three-dimensional advertising icons. The museum will also house the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame, temporary exhibitions, a two-story sculptural centerpiece and a gift shop. The museum’s lower level will represent the interior of a home, showing the advertising icons in various rooms that their corresponding products were used.

The 2.4-acre project, which is being designed by Moshe Safdie and Associates, is described as a “hillside village” that will feature two
buildings of descending levels with terraces of lushly landscaped gardens. The 10-story office building on the north will include 203,000 square feet
of office space, of which

Bernstein-Rein will be the major tenant. The lower level will offer retail
space including a fine dining restaurant. A 261-seat auditorium beneath
the atrium will be available for community use. The south side of the development has been designed for the 103-room boutique hotel and will feature a four-story atrium. The project also integrates three existing apartment buildings built in the ornate brick style of the Plaza area.
The project is scheduled for completion in fall 2007.

This project will be built in the grass area in the lower-left part of this Plaza photo.

 

[historybuffer]

Moshe Safdi? Wow I haven't heard that name for a while. His most prominent work
for L'Habitat en Montreal back in the 1960s. The idea then, modular, prefab. housing units. That's a coup, that KC landed Safdi for a project. Does this new development adhere to his principles of modular housing?


Also remind people on the boards that this is not downtown KC but the area around Country Club Plaza.

 

[Expat]

I used to live a block from this location. Too bad they knocked down the buildings that used to be there. Anyway, I hope this new development is of a caliber that makes that loss worth it. I don't understand what I am seeing. What is the silver supposed to be? I would like to see more details.

 

[historybuffer]

Safdi designed something similiar to this I think in Israel, the topography dictated that sort of Pueblo styled approach. And from the cardboard model you cannot discern the aesthetic treatments/details of the facades, to truly know if "this new development is of a caliber that makes that loss worth it." like you said, Expat.

 

[Expat]

Not only would I like to see the details, but I would like to see how it meets the street.

 

[historybuffer]

I wonder if the street access exists mainly at the highest elevation in the site?
I can't tell which street that would be. Safdi, creates communities through
this idea of modularity, you can't help but benignly, interact with your
neighbors, at least on the site.

Developers rule the city grid, so it's very hard to find, in all this nationwide, downtown CONDO building frenzy, a name as internationally known as his. I'll see if his group has a web site, maybe there are some more detailed renderings of the project there.

http://www.msafdie.com/a.html

Just three views of the cardboard models.

 

[historybuffer]

I figured out why I like the KC Performing Arts Center, I made a drawing very similiar to this for a student competition to design a church, about six years ago.
I based it off of the "Streamlining" trend of the 1920s which influenced car, train, and airplane design. Art Deco was also an influence, specifically the Chrysler building.
And the GM building in the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago along the lakefront (Meig's field.)

I am glad this design will get built even if I had no hand in it. I am 100% certain Safdi would have no knowledge of my design, especially since it was for a church. It will be worth a trip to KC just to see his three projects get built ("West Edge," "KC Ballet Center," "Metropolitan KC Performing Arts Center.")

 

[Angelo2219]

This is a tight project, looks middle-eastern in context.

Are there other new construction projects on the drawing board for this Plaza area?