CityView Apartments Master Plan

There is a huge difference between living on a street and living on a parking lot. It is that simple.  When built in 200 plus unit apartment projects, multifamily housing projects can quickly become brutal in their lack of a sense of place.  The design strategy of creating a gated community or a cul-de-sac project that has no connection to the city by street grid is often sold as a “secure design.”  In reality, projects are only as secure as the number of eyes on the public areas and streets.  Cul-de-sac designs actually isolate apartments, making it easier for crime to occur.  Connecting to a street grid creates easy surveillance by pedestrians, cars driving through and by other apartment dwellers.  Emergency call response times are faster, discouraging crime.  Connectivity, combined with on street parking slows traffic, creates shorter trips, makes walking or biking to the store possible and promotes economic development.  Street lighting and lighting of sidewalks are a critical part of what makes the street work as a secure, walkable living street.  Most multifamily projects, except in developed urban areas, can’t get by with only on-street parking. At CityView in North Kansas City the combination of on-street, garage, and small lot parking is used to meet the project parking needs.  The on-street parking is always used with the parking lots showing only 50% utilization. In future phases we are increasing density and utilizing the excess parking.

Round About with Parking

As a developer or a tenant utilization of street right of way for parking is a win, win.  The developer reduces costs for parking and is able to build more units. The tenant gets lower rents, more green space and greater convenience.  Apartments are more desirable to people of all incomes without extra burden of parking costs.  Active, vibrant communities develop when the streets are a place of meeting and interaction versus high speed danger zones.  We have found that the typical parking ratios required by municipalities create excess parking. This is true especially in multifamily housing.  Generally, parking requirements based on worst case all units occupied and every adult driving a car creates way too many spaces. One planning tool that is helpful is to designate a planned district where the architect, developer and planner can determine the parking ratio outside of municipal standards with reductions being allowed for adjacency to transit corridors, shared parking analysis and more realistic requirements based on tenant income.

Links to mass transit reduce parking needs

Why has this development pattern for multifamily housing been slow to be accepted?  There are always concerns by adjacent land owners over perceived nuisance and property value degradation.  These predictions typically are not borne out but are merely resistance to change and progressive ideas.  Aesthetic concerns have been cited as the street view would be cluttered with cars. Not every street is a parkway nor should it be.   Often high speed of street traffic prohibits safe parking, as arterial streets dominate the grid with cul-de-sac development filling in the blocks in lieu of connected streets.   Development patterns zoning ordinances and land use planning can segregate apartment development to outlying parcels where no street grid exists, so the developer would be building streets. Well, it is cheaper to build a parking lot and call it good.  Planners need to look at the big picture and allow for mixed housing types, connected neighborhoods and through streets regardless of use.

On street parking with connection to street grid

Sculpture with Carriage house in backgroud.

Multifamily housing rarely sees anything new but more common is that ideas are lost and then found again. The design at CityView in North Kansas City, Missouri, looked to renew or find many lost ideas and update them to a new market and a new tenant profile that was emerging in this near downtown location.  The project was originally designed to appeal to 20 to 30 year olds but has managed to attract tenants over all age groups.  The overall master plan strives to create a livable, dense community by creating a gradient of privacy. The size and location of buildings create a variety of scales and the opportunity for vistas through the project that makes it a real place. Spreading out parking in smaller lots, using buildings as screens and the positioning of on street parking parallel to the buildings prevents the typical headlights in your window that you find in most apartment projects.

Breezeway from Courtyard

One of the more successful and unique units offered is the “City Suite” modeled after a traditional rental room over a detached carriage house. The City Suite has attracted many tenants due to price point but has kept them through appreciation of the design and the convenience it offers.  The idea of units over a garage is relatively new in Kansas City with few if any offering this unit type.  The typical apartment complex has rental garages located throughout the development. These are located for convenience and easy access.  At CityView we saw the garage footprint as an opportunity to add density and to create a distinctive unit type that was convenient and offered a rare advantage of only sharing one wall with an adjacent tenant or no walls and providing daylight from three sides of the unit.

City Suite Studio Apartment Interior

The unit is a studio apartment with a loft-like gabled ceiling, exposed duct work, open kitchen, laundry closet, walk-in closet, and full bath and patio. Units are accessed by a small breezeway and stair shared by two units or a single enclosed stair in the three unit buildings.  The unit is 700 sf with a 65-sf deck.  Each unit has three garages below it. Special care was taken to design the unit floor, the garage ceiling, with sound and thermal insulation in mind. The garage doors and openers were selected for quiet operation.  Sound was one of the major concerns of the owner for these units and while acoustically we took measures to reduce the sound, the units are not totally sound proof.  The presence of other tenants using the garage below has not deterred the City Suite occupancy and typically there is a waiting list for these units.

Entry to Courtyard at Carriage House

These Carriage House buildings were also positioned between parking areas and small linked courtyards to create pedestrian paths and gardens. Windows and outdoor decks face the courtyards while also having two windows facing the parking areas to keep eyes on the parking, creating a safer environment.  Breezeways serve as the entry to the courtyards from the parking, which is not on the street, and also for access to the units.

John E Freshnock – WSKF Architects Inc.

Design Watercolor of Gomers Wine & Liquor

Roadside Architecture is rare in Kansas City even more rare is New Roadside architecture. The Gomer’s Wine and Liquor Store franchise has a long history in Kansas City and when the existing store was slated to be torn down to make way for a new shopping center the owner Tom Stacey wanted to do something different and create a landmark.  The designers at WSKF sat down with Tom in an after hours charrette where, with the help of some samples from the store, the concept for the “Wine Barrel” was born.  The design moved rapidly from concept to finished design but not without a detour when the wine barrel started to look more like a 55 gallon drum.

Finished Building Roadside!

The building is a pre engineered structure with tilt up concrete panels.  The straps of the barrel are rolled steel shapes with sheet metal covering.  I have tried to recall examples of Roadside architecture in or around KC and I am having a hard time.   Provincial zoning boards and NIMBY’s have all but eliminated this wonderful element of the built environment.

See below the Tee pee Hotel outside Lawrence, Kansas and sadly now closed the drive through park at Dinosaur World in Beaver Arkansas and the classic Randy’s Donuts in LA.   Take a look at this great site to locate examples of Roadside architecture in your area.  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Remains of Tee pee Hotel

Huge King Kong at Dinosaur World

The big Donut in LA

Adaptive reuse is the cornerstone of green design.  This Hotel in Puerto Rico was renovated to create a greater guest experience. The renovations had several green strategies. First to reuse concrete structure to create balconies by removing the tile roof and forming new patios. Second was connection to the landscape  creating connecting paths and landscape rooms. The third was to connect the guest to the adjacent golf course and Caribbean Sea beyond by opening the facades to the views and creating usable outdoor spaces.

John E Freshnock- WSKF Architects Inc.

History:  I had never heard of “the Igloo” not growing up in Kansas City I was unaware of this much beloved childhood experience at the Kansas City Museum. The igloo had been removed as an exhibit due to changes in focus by the museum and renovations to the building known as Corinthian Hall.  Though the memory of the igloo was still very strong and many longed for their children to have the same experience.  Along comes Zona Rosa, a New Urbanist mixed use development with a sincere desire to resurrect many of Kansas City’s holiday traditions.  Long lost street decorations and the Fairy Princess being just a few, Zona Rosa is creating a shopping/entertainment district from scratch of a type not seen in KC since the country club plaza.  Zona Rosa teamed with the KC museum to bring back the Igloo in combinations with there already successful reintroduction of the Fairy Princess to help the KC Museum attract patrons to the Museum during the holiday season and to boost Visits at Zona Rosa as well. Learn more at www.zonarosa.com/traditions/eskimolandigloo.aspx  .

Design:  The  problem presented to WSKF was to recreate the Igloo but make it demountable so it could be erected at Zona Rosa, deconstructed and moved to the KC museum  reconstructed (within 24 hrs) and then deconstructed moved back to Zona Rosa and stored till the next holiday season.  We had photos of the original exhibit and the outline of the igloo could still be seen on the upper floor of the museum. The diameter was determined to be around 12-13’.  The design was envisioned as a series of interlocking shells in manageable sizes that 2 men could lift into place. The original was lath and plaster over metal framing, hardly demountable. The new igloo would need to be stored and trucked around town in crates and they would need to fit through the doors at the museum.  It would need to be durable and also need to be fire resistant.  The entrance was originally quite low but we designed the new entry taller to accommodate a child in a wheel chair.  We added windows and a bench so children could look out and added an exit similar to the entrance.  There would also be a chimney hole at the top.

Team:  The design was complete in concept but the execution would take expertise not usually found in the building trade. We looked to a reinforced gypsum plaster fabricator with whom we had worked before to provide decorative plaster coves, domes and column covers. Plastrglas of Omaha Nebraska rose to the challenge, www.plastrglas.com./ .  Plastrglas prototyped the connections and fastening systems and then built the igloo panels assembled the igloo at the factory then made the reusable crates to ship and store the panels.  The team from Plastrglas then came to Zona Rosa and with the help of the maintenance crew and WSKF assembled the igloo.  Next came the finishing of the interior and exterior of the igloo, here we  tapped the artistic talent of Donald Ross also known as Scribe. Scribe is a graffiti artist with whom WSKF works with often at the Children’s Mercy Hospital where he is the resident artist.  Scribe hand painted the igloo exaggerating the blocks and creating a pearlescent finish that reflects light.  Scribe was also commissioned to duplicate the mural painting found at the original exhibit.  This he painted using a computer and we then printed the backdrop on one continuous 10’x 40’ long vinyl banner.  To finish the effect we added cool blue LED lights, faux fur rugs, and ice cube seats.  The igloo though was not complete until we added air conditioning.

John E Freshnock – WSKF architects Inc.

Lee's Summit Fire Station 2

The new Lee’s Summit Fire Station No. 2 is a prime example of how current practices in green design and construction can make a new facility highly sustainable while maintaining the budget and meeting its essential functions.

While the station will not be certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, it would likely qualify, according to Rick Kuhl, the WSKF Architects principal-in-charge and LEED Accredited Professional who led the project design team.

Green design features begin with the site, where lighter-colored concrete was used to minimize the amount of solar heat absorbed by paved areas. Xeriscape design (reduced water landscaping) is used while a rain garden helps control and filter stormwater runoff.

The color and material selection of the station’s roof were carefully chosen to reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the building. Inside, the walls and roof were coated with a special open cell spray foam insulation and vapor control membrane to create a high-performance system that reduces the impact of outdoor temperatures on indoor comfort. “The back of the station site is only about 75 feet from Highways 470 and 291 so the insulation also plays a crucial role in buffering the sleeping quarters from the busy highway noise,” Kuhl explains.

A high-efficiency insulation system is also a key element in the roof, walls and doors of the apparatus bays. “The apparatus bays and support areas are essentially large, open spaces that account for nearly half of the total square footage of the station and its potential energy consumption, so it’s an area of focus in terms of reducing the station’s long-term operating costs,” he adds.

Other green elements of Station No. 2 include high-efficiency lighting, use of natural daylighting to light the interior and recycled material in many of the building materials.

With the apparatus bay accounting for nearly half of the station's total square footage, high-efficiency insulation in the roof, doors and walls helps reduce energy use and long-term operational costs