Architecture Program

 

Date of this Version

May 2005

Comments

M. Arch. thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, May 2005

Abstract

This project formulates a new retail center in downtown Kansas City, MO. The project looks at historical records and precedents to help design and program a successful retail center. This project creates an updated and modern version of the retail and gallery malls that once occurred in downtown Kansas City. Issues that many retail projects fail to study, but are necessary in an urban setting, will be considered and developed. These issues include: the pedestrian scale, various types of parking excluding surface, the homeless population, day lighting, dealing with the problems of dead hours, the concept of mixed use and how it can reinforce the mall, and the needs of the city. To help overcome the problems of dead spaces in cities, and the downfalls of past urban retail centers, the program will combine retail with human services such as housing, a grocery store, restaurants, and other services determined to be needed after having discussions and reviewing library research done regarding retail and urban planning. This will create a multiuse and twenty four hour proposal that will respond to both the human scale and city scale. It will create a temporal plan and a building plan so as not to leave times on the site when there are no inhabitants or no needs being satisfied. The site exists at Wyandotte Street and 12th Street in Kansas city, MO. It is currently parking in the middle of a dense urban area. This void space will be utilized for the project of a mixed use building, focusing on retail. the site was selected because is sits between the library and lyric theater, near the Kansas City Convention Center, two major convention hotels, and is seated between the three main throughways of the downtown district, each two blocks away (Broadway, Main, and the interstate). Mentor Nathan Howe.

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