Kansas City, Missouri
Program: A two-story, 60,000-square-foot home for the Kansas City Ballet. The project, an adaptive reuse of a coal-burning power plant from 1914, includes a performance theater, dance studios, locker rooms, administrative offices, a prefunction space, and a basement wardrobe workspace. A ballet school operates in some of the studios, offering classes to children and adults.
Design concept and solution: When BNIM started work, the steel and masonry structure had been abandoned since the 1970s and was battered by structural deterioration and standing water. Since the building no longer needed to support heavy coal-processing equipment, the architects were able to brace foundation walls and columns without having to restore the structure to its former capacity. In order to fit the dance center's program into the framework of the old plant, the architects needed to find creative ways of organizing the program and make the most of the plant's industrial remnants. The former engine room, a voluminous, triple-height space on the north side of the building, provided a column-free area just large enough to accommodate the theater. To house practice space, BNIM added a second floor with a row of four studios above the old engine room. The new floor plate floats within the larger volume and stops short of the exterior wall, allowing light from the large wood-frame windows to filter in through the glazing on the elevated studios. To bring more daylight into the studios, the architects re-created the plant's old Texas skylight, using metal framing to match the profile of the original fitting. Also on the second floor, between the north and south halves of the structure, BNIM inserted a catwalk connecting the studios with the locker rooms to the south. The catwalk passes through the plant's old chimney base, which the architects transformed into a meditative, cupola-like space by replacing the smokestack above with a skylight. To keep the interiors from looking too cluttered, they painted the exposed steel structure a neutral light gray and highlighted a few leftover fittings in bright orange. Steel coal chutes in the south hallway, repurposed as supports for hanging lights, punctuate the ceiling with loud pops of color, while a large orange crane perches high in the theater.
Location: 500 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108
Completion Date: August 2011
Total construction cost: $32 million
Owner: Power House Properties
Architect:
BNIM
106 W. 14th Street, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64105
Tel: (816) 783-1500
PeopleOwner: Architect: Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit: Engineer(s): Consultant(s) Ballet Consultants: General contractor: J.E. Dunn Construction; Photographer(s) [please include phone number and email address] and credits as they should appear: CAD system, project management, or other software used: Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD |
ProductsStructural system: Basement level approx. 18” below static water table at site. Extensive repairs and waterproofing to existing foundation walls. Existing basement slab entirely replaced. Structural steel framing required extensive corrosion damage repairs and strengthening from basement level to roof level. Exterior claddingMasonry: JE Dunn Construction Company - Existing multiwythe historic brick & terra cotta masonry restoration, 100% repointing of all exterior brick Built-up roofing: TPO – Great Plains Roofing - Firestone Building Products Other: Chimney base extension feature with supplemental louvers WindowsWood: ASI Review GlazingGlass: A2MG - Insulite Entrances: A2MG -Manko Locksets: Sargent Manufacturing Acoustical ceilings: E&K of Kansas City - Armstrong Office furniture Supplier: Contract Furnishings, 3129 Main St., Kansas City, MO (Proj. Manager Jean-Paul Wong; Specified by Jim Southall) Theatrical Lighting: Harvest Productions Inc. ConveyanceElevators/Escalators: Kone Plumbinginclude water fountains and water-saving fixtures as applicable: Add any additional building components or special equipment that made a significant contribution to this project: |
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