Oops, Cordish Company* forgot the African-Americans (Kansas City)

Arnold Imaging. Architectural renderings released Wednesday show details of the $800 million Power & Light District under construction in downtown Kansas City. This rendering gives an aerial view of the seven-block area with the H&R Block headquarters at center and the Sprint Center at right.

I've written about the Cordish Company, based in Baltimore, and the current generation of Rouse-like projects, not festival marketplaces like Inner Harbor, but complexes like the PowerPlant Live in Baltimore or Fourth Street Live in Louisville.
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* And I know that Cordish Company developed the Boulvevard at Cap Centre in Prince George's County, Maryland, which has a predominately African-American clientele.
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One of their coming projects is the Power and Light District in Kansas City. The Kansas City Star has an article on it, "Future comes into focus: With the city’s role in the heavily subsidized project complete, construction starts on 450,000 square feet of retail and condos, and theater restoration." The video I viewed, an animation about the excitingness of the district, didn't appear to show any people of color (see Computer animation of the project video).

KC has the 18th and Vine Entertainment District, which is centered around African-American heritage in jazz, American Jazz Museum, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Even I've eaten at Arthur Bryant's, the famed BBQ joint. (Here is a great presentation about this district, which was given in DC in 2004 during the planning process for the lower U Street NW area: 18th & Vine Presentation*.)

I've written about Cordish because they are one of the companies that won the privilege of developing the "entertainment district" around the Nationals baseball stadium. See this blog entry: Batter up, "M Street Live." Is inauthenticity on the horizon for the Anacostia SE Waterfront?.

It's all about exchange value. And too often, this leads to a focus on manufactured rather than authentic experiences.


Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking