Kansas City, Missouri
SCOPE OF WORK: National Register Nomination; Federal & Missouri Historic Tax Credit Applications
CLIENT: Cold Storage Housing Partners, LP
INVESTMENT: $30 Million
COMPLETED: Fall 2008
AWARDS: National Housing & Rehabilitation Association J. Timothy Anderson Award for Excellence in Historic Rehabilitation, 2008
The Kansas City Cold Storage Building is a massive, 6-story brick warehouse facility constructed by the US Cold Storage Company. The east arm was built in 1922 and the shorter, west arm was added in 1929. As its name implies, the building was a cold storage facility and also housed an ice-making operation. It served these functions continuously until 2004, when the operation moved to a modern, one-story facility that better-served modern distribution and operational needs.
Indicative of its use, the building had minimal fenestration. Windows facing the interior of the L-shaped plan ran along elevator halls and provided natural light to the offices on the 6th floor. On all other elevations, thick layers of cork insulated the brick walls of the cold storage chambers. Pipes filled with ammonia chilled the building. On the ground floor there were loading docks for trains on the north elevation and for trucks on the south elevation.
The building’s specialized use and form posed a difficult fit for an adaptive reuse without destroying its character-defining features, particularly the lack of windows. Its location near Kansas City’s popular City Market suggested that conversion into residential lofts would be a good option, but new fenestration would be necessary to accommodate this new use.
The addition of windows initially triggered a denial of historic tax credits for the project because the numerous new openings altered the character-defining blank walls of the building. To overcome the denial, Elizabeth Rosin helped the developer respond to the concerns of the National Park Service, travelling to Washington, D.C. to make the case for window installation that was sensitive to the historic character and appearance of the building. The plan included adding no windows to the primary elevation to preserve intact that key historic view. Rosin guided the project architects as they placed windows on the secondary elevations in a manner that met with the NPS approval. With the tax credits secured, the project moved forward.
Today, the Kansas City Cold Storage Building houses 220 apartment units. The primary façade is preserved and the new windows mesh with the historic character of the building. While the addition of windows may not have been an ideal preservation approach, as a rehabilitation strategy it will enable the building to remain economically viable for many years to come.