The Belgian art and engineering team proposing a large-scale installation around the rebuilt Barney Allis Plaza came up with a brilliant plan. Of seven appealing finalists for the $2.18 million public art project, the firm of Gijs Van Vaerenbergh was the only one to incorporate a sense of Kansas City history, a key factor that led to its selection and summertime approval by the Municipal Art Commission.
Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh, who presented their concept, process and renderings to the commission in an online meeting, said the team was impressed by the site’s connection to an important historical moment. This is where the city’s original major Convention Hall was built in 1899, burned in 1900, and rebuilt in 90 days, in time for the Democratic National Convention, giving birth to the idea of the “Kansas City spirit.”
The firm’s design echoes the original two-story building’s arched façade in a series of skeletal fragments along the perimeter of the block-long, four-acre site. The arches provide welcoming entry points, which put me in mind of the dramatic classical arch that fronts the central entry of Washington Square Park in New York City. The planned arrays of tubular steel, like three-dimensional sketches in the air, are intended to offer ever-changing visual views of the surrounding cityscape and to blend with the landscaping and activated spaces designed for the park by a team including HOK Architecture and McCownGordon Construction. Nighttime lighting will increase the dramatic effect.
Optional elements, such as a climbing vine envisioned for one corner section of the fragments and a second-story viewing platform on another, will depend on budget questions and potential fund-raising beyond the proposed bottom line.
The park, art project, and the reconstructed parking garage below ground are expected to be completed toward the end of 2026. (For more background on the One Percent for Art project, read our coverage from Jul/Aug issue.)
