Envisioning a Cultural District for Kansas City

Although Weiss/Manfredi's design won't be officially debated until mid-October, when partners Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi will hold a public discussion about a possible Kansas City cultural district, the Kansas City Star has released some initial renderings that reveal what the architects and their client are considering for the area. Primary are pedestrian connections running north-south and east-west, paths that intersect at the southwest corner of the Nelson-Atkins' expansive sculpture garden. Some of the connections, as the rendering below indicates, are envisioned as dedicated paths that bridge over roads and waterways.

According to the Star, "concepts to expand the art museum’s green space and outdoor sculpture park ... have been discussed for a half century or more," and this latest vision is the product of Nelson-Atkins director/CEO Julian Zugazagoitia, who commissioned Weiss/Manfredi to give the museum a stronger presence in its midtown locale and link it to the popular Country Club Plaza to the west and various cultural institutions just beyond its borders. Zugazagoitia says: "We’re trying to dream a future for the Nelson-Atkins and for Kansas City in which art and our institution play a more intrinsic role in people’s lives. This is first renderings, a crystallization of dreams that have been discussed for many years by many, being brought to light for public discussion by these great architects."

While the outcome of this preliminary plan is far from determined, the museum's decision to hire Weiss/Manfredi is a promising start, given projects like the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, which bridges a roadway and train tracks to connect the waterfront with the city above, and the Sylvan Theater on the National Mall, a project that likewise knits buildings and landscape through green space and pedestrian pathways.