Knockout design at Power & Light District

A warm afternoon. The sound of laughter wafts from the open portals of a nearby bar. On the street outside, workmen occasionally outnumber visitors on the wide sidewalks. The Power & Light District opened for business several weeks ago, even though it remains unfinished. Many of the venues are still under construction, notably those in the blocks west of Main Street. It may be a work in progress, but the district has already transformed a once-crumbling part of the city. While it must prove its long-term financial viability, from an urban-design standpoint the project is an outstanding success, a fine example of effective civic art. Designed largely by the locally based firm 360 Architecture, Power & Light employs an impressive array of techniques to create a place that caters to the comfort of users on foot. Why is the design so effective? I can point to at least four reasons. Narrow streets, wide sidewalks. Pedestrians can stroll free of the subtle fear one feels when walking close to high-speed traffic. Instead, the traffic is “calmed.” Curbside parking and attractive planters provide additional barriers separating sidewalk from street. Overhangs. Many of the storefronts, restaurants and bars have awnings and overhangs to provide shelter for pedestrians. Pleasing proportions. The buildings aren’t so tall that they loom over the streets, nor are the streets too wide for the height of the buildings. Compare these proportions with those of Grand Boulevard a few blocks to the south, where the street is too wide and the buildings too low to properly frame the public space of the street. Multiple entry points. The block between 13th and 14th streets has a central cutaway, creating what amounts to a pedestrian mall from Grand Boulevard to Baltimore Avenue. This nifty touch allows many more entry points for coming and going than in unbroken, conventional blocks. This encourages more pedestrian traffic. In some locations, the district feels like a network of interlocking nooks and crannies. For example, an Italian café still under construction on 14th could be entered from the street or from the rear, via the pedestrian mall. From the latter, one climbs the stairs under a clock tower, which brings the visitor to the café’s rooftop lounge. Power & Light functions as a series of outdoor rooms, enticing the visitor deeper into the complex by beckoning — what’s around that corner or beyond that partition? — without revealing the whole. And all is assembled using a rich palette of textures — paving bricks, flagstones, stucco, tiles, acrylics, glass, steel. “It’s really nice,” said Ryan Manning, who moved back to Kansas City from Orlando, Fla., a couple of years ago. “There are places to walk, talk and grab a drink. Seeing this come up from nothing was pretty impressive.” The nucleus of the project is the Kansas City Live! “living room,” an open-air space where patrons can relax in overstuffed chairs around a fire. On one of the days I dropped by, four boys were playing an energetic game of tag among the sofas and chairs while several adults sat with their drinks. The atmosphere was a cross between a park, a public square and a sidewalk café. The slow revival of Kansas City’ central core turned a corner several years ago. It was confirmed when those who could afford to live anywhere began snapping up six-figure condominiums and lofts. But until Power & Light, the change was spotty and often invisible to those unfamiliar with downtown. Now, there’s no denying it. Power & Light is more slick and corporate, oriented more closely to the visitor-and-conventioneer market. Like the Country Club Plaza, it is a single-ownership project with a tightly controlled tenant mix. (A colleague wonders: Where’s the bookstore?) If we’re lucky, it may also provide a menu of techniques for other architects faced with the challenge of building pedestrian-friendly places. The effective options are all here. What remains is for more architects — and their clients — to put them to wider use.