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Think about the last time you were in any urban environment. What did you see? Chances are, aside from the traffic, residential buildings, micro breweries, empty lots and abandoned buildings hanging around, you also saw some kind of planned artwork sprawled across the entire side of a building (extra credit if it was a brick building). In the broadest way, it probably qualified as urban artwork. These large scale pie

We’ve been focusing on the Troost corridor for quite a while now, and one of the biggest stopping points for us in exploring the area and imagining “what could be” has always come back to a critical set of questions: Who would actually invest in development in the area? Can one project act as the catalyst for change? Does the size and scale of the project dictate the success of the catalyst (does it

On February 4th, the Urban Neighborhood Initiative (UNI) (part of the KC Chamber of Commerce’s Big 5 Ideas For Kansas City) released a video about it’s progress in their first target area: the Troost Corridor. Take a gander at the video below. I’m curious to hear what you think. After watching the presentation, I found myself feeling a bit let down at the “progress” being reported. What

I’ve often said that adventuring down the Troost Corridor (particularly the northern part) reminds me of some kind of post-apocalyptic movie scene. This has largely been the case because of a non-existent population, and windowless industrial buildings set far away from the street, surrounded by barbed wire fences. More recently we saw another section of Troost that isn’t plagued by far-flung buildings (t

Disclaimer: this is purely speculative, and probably quite the undecided voter opinion. My own experience in urban development is extremely limited, but that won’t stop me from throwing out random ideas and thoughts. Here goes. Back when I lived in the middle of nowhere Before I moved to Kansas City, I spent a lot of time here as a tourist, fixated on certain examples of cool architecture and good eats. When I

This building laughs in the face of any attempt at urban revitalization. It sits back, behind its fences and concrete walls, mocking anyone seriously considering changing the street. It’s heinous, and probably the ugliest building on Troost. It’s at least the worst building we’ve seen so far. Last weekend, Troost 90 / GUD Troost continued to study and search for urban revitalization possibilities al

If you asked me what I was doing this morning, I’d be tempted to reply that I was taking a tour through one of the sets of the Walking Dead. Wait. What? Today was the kick off to our new project, the Troost 90 / GUD Troost – aimed at studying the possibilities for urban revitalization along the Troost Corridor, which meant that Sara and I walked the first five blocks of the corridor. We spent part of the