Kansas City – City Hall Interior

        Meeting the Diverse Needs of a Historic Building Built in 1936, the City Hall building in Kansas City, Mo., stands as a tribute to the city’s history. Known for its neo-classic architecture and Art Deco detailing, the 29-story building dominates the skyline. Over the decades though, the building’s interior spaces became outdated. So the city undertook an effort to renovate several floors, making them more efficient and accessible. The city’s Capital Improvements Management Office oversaw the renovation of the first, fourth and 22nd floors, enlisting the help of Piper/Wind Architects and KI. “We studied the space allocation for each of the departments,” said Jenny Harriman, the city’s project manager on the renovation. “KI worked with us to find solutions based on how each department operated.” Primarily used for general services, City Hall’s first floor needed to accommodate the comings and goings of city contractors, officials and the general public. It also needed to project a professional image. “We wanted to give it a corporate look, while accommodating the offices and meeting areas,” said Harriman. The solution was to use KI Genius® architectural walls to create a lean and straightforward floor plan. Private offices were placed around the perimeter of the floor, but with ample glass to allow natural light to pass through to the center where support staff works.

        The fourth floor, which housed the city’s Human Relations Department, presented a different challenge. “They do a lot of work with sensitive information,” said Harriman. “We had to make the work areas as private as we could.” Some private offices were created using Genius walls, but the floor was not large enough to accommodate private offices for everyone. Therefore, the interior workstations were custom-designed, using the WireWorks® panel system, to allow maximum privacy. Finally, the 22nd floor, which houses the city council, had a new set of challenges. The floor required a secure perimeter to control access to visitors and yet provide an inviting space for city officials to conduct their everyday public business. Again, KI’s Genius walls were chosen for their ability to complement the design of the building and to be reconfigured. Another challenge was that the power and data lines were in the exterior walls and did not reach to the interior spaces. To solve this, KI specified WireWorks for the interior workstations, which allowed the lines to be run throughout the floor while staying neatly hidden. Renovating old buildings like City Hall in Kansas City often presents two conflicting challenges: accommodating the needs of the tenants and maintaining the architectural heritage. Meeting those challenges required Harriman to work closely with KI to create custom solutions. “We were able to do more to match the design of the building,” she concluded. “Using KI, I didn’t feel limited by any color or texture
choices. I could do anything I wanted.”

Description from architects.