The Next American Dream : Kansas City : A Documentary Film

How did we get here?

Once in a generation, an opportune moment arrives in the life of a city. It may be the result of a number of factors: economic trends, technological changes, social and demographic shifts, and a great deal of hard work by many people over a long period of time.

All of these reasons are behind the current historic moment for Greater Kansas City since it began a most important chapter -- revitalizing its urban core.

Over the last three decades some of the most blighted urban areas in the United States have been significantly improved. Urban planners and ordinary citizens alike have come to recognize that the downtown of a metropolitan area is crucial to a city’s economic, political and social fabric.

"What happens when downtowns come back is what I refer to as the upward spiral of value creation taking place. Basically, more is better.
You have more people on the street. You have more restaurants. You have more people living there. You have more offices. And things just come together and spiral upward, and as I say, more is better. "

CHRISTOPHER B. LEINBERGER
Urban Land Strategist & Developer
The Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C.

Until 50 years ago, Kansas City had one of the most vibrant downtown areas in the country. Prosperity and population boomed in the postwar years. As more people bought automobiles, the abundance of rural land in the immediate vicinity lured many of them to beautiful new suburbs. Kansas City’s historically magnificent boulevard system was gradually complemented by a far-reaching freeway system that has resulted in a relatively low density of population, with all these areas easily accessible and therefore prospering.

In the mid-1970s, far-sighted civic leaders looked beyond political boundaries at city, county and even state levels and at the single metropolitan area it was becoming. They seized that historic moment, and the vision resulted in the KC International Airport, the Truman Sports Complex, and an investment in the city’s core with Crown Center, Kemper Arena, and several downtown office towers.

The direct result has been the continuing development of several outstanding areas gracing what is now a true metroplex:

The expanded Country Club Plaza; the Overland Park/College Boulevard corridor and Corporate Woods,
The booming cities of Lee’s Summit, Gladstone, Leawood, Blue Springs, Olathe, Lenexa, Liberty, and St. Joseph.
The charming diversity of Parkville and Weston, the Eighteenth and Vine and River Market districts, Lawrence, Independence and Martin City.
Our magnificent Union Station, supported with a one-of-a-kind,
bi-state tax, and high-profile Northland developments like Zona Rosa.
And more recently a vibrant renaissance in Wyandotte County, the exciting new developments around KCI and points south.

But the core needed help. While the automobile had done so much for the rest of the area, it had hurt downtown Kansas City, Missouri, immeasurably. The bold moves of the 1970s have fostered a strong renaissance in Quality Hill, the government district, and the Crossroads and Freight House areas. But much blight had remained, and the development of downtown Kansas City has fallen behind the central areas of many of its rivals.

However, this city is now poised to build on – literally and figuratively – these many positive trends.

Now, as in the mid-70s, a group of civic and corporate leaders have stepped forward to put in place a major stepping-stone for the future of the Greater Kansas City area. The most exciting element is the recent development of a major office/entertainment mixed-use area in what is the new center of the downtown core that includes:

New H&R Block
World Headquarters

Sprint Center Arena

Cordish's Power & Light District

Performing Arts Center

Kansas City Star building

IRS Complex

Federal Reserve building

Bartle Hall Expansion

It’s time to tell our story…

An hour-long documentary film will chronicle the story of how this city has been and is continuing to turn itself around, highlighting the new development as it came into being. The fascinating process of design – both architectural and landscape – and the master planning that lies behind every successful public space, will be intertwined with views of the ongoing construction as a wide variety of craftsmen, architects, artists, bankers, planners, corporate executives, engineers, builders and visionaries are interviewed and then followed by the camera as they bring to life the new, vibrant urban environment.

Through the course of the film, some of the nation’s most prominent designers in both Kansas City and other cities – including the Brookings Institution and the Urban Design Department at the University of Pennsylvania, the Kansas City Design Center and Sasaki Associates – will also comment on-camera about this project. They will acquaint the audience with basic principles of successful design and hard-learned examples from both Kansas City and other major cities. They will bring a national perspective to how this downtown redevelopment has developed into a truly collaborative effort, how it will feel “all of a piece,” as Kansas City strives to create one of the most enduring mixed-use downtown revitalizations in the country.