2024 Summer Issue of Urban Land - 86

Adaptive
Use: Kansas
City's Rock
Island Bridge
Aging railroad relic
getting new life as a
vibrant entertainment hub
DENNIS STRAIT
Kansas City, once known for its livestock
trade, has grown into a flourishing
design center and boasts one of the
fastest-growing economies in the Midwest.
Its origin as a " cow town " to one deeply
engaged with the built environment is evidence
of the city's resilience and adaptability.
In
the late 1800s, the city's primary
industry was centered around the stockyards
in Kansas City's West Bottoms
neighborhood. Spanning 200 acres,
170,000 animals were processed daily to
be shipped to 42 states. Today, only a few
remnants of this history remain, including
the Rock Island Bridge.
Commissioned in 1905, the Rock Island
Bridge was a vital part of the stockyard
district's railroad infrastructure. As the
stockyards declined, the bridge eventually
fell into disuse. By the 1980s, it
had become a relic, left to rust with a
forgotten past and an uncertain future.
A common feature of cities throughout
the country, the bridge embodied the
dilemma of aging infrastructure from a
bygone era-a relic of so little apparent
value that it wasn't worth the cost of
demolition.
Anticipated to reach completion in the
summer of 2024, the Rock Island Bridge
is being reincarnated as an entertainment
and dining destination, thoroughly
reimagined and repurposed for the 21st
century-and a showcase of how a city
can put its industrial heritage back to use.
This summer, the Rock Island Bridge will
become the first in America to repurpose
an abandoned bridge into a destination
entertainment district. Its completion
will hopefully inspire other cities to think
about aging bridges and their respective
waterfronts as places worthy of investment.
The
revitalization began when Kansas
City, Kansas, acquired the bridge from
Kansas City, Missouri, in 2022, paving the
way for a unique collaboration that has
allowed the project to come to fruition.
The developer, Michael Zeller of Flying
Truss, worked alongside public, private,
and philanthropic entities-a " 4P " partnership
between the city, private investors,
and 19 philanthropic organizations. His
vision and his ability to articulate it is a
testament to entrepreneurship and faith in
adaptive reuse. Zeller intends to take the
concept to other cities across the U.S.
Spanning 700 feet across the Kansas
River, the bridge links Kansas City, Missouri's
West Bottoms neighborhood
at one end and Kansas City, Kansas's
Armourdale neighborhood at the other.
Through its revitalization, the bridge has
come to symbolize a new era for Kansas
City's riverfront-a convergence of culture,
history, and community.
The Multistudio team's primary goal
was to connect the community to its history
and river system, including a dynamic
Commissioned in 1905, Rock Island Bridge was a vital part of the stockyard district's railroad infrastructure in Kansas City.
86
URBAN LAND SUMMER 202 4
MULTISTUDIO

2024 Summer Issue of Urban Land

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