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Country Club Plaza
USINFO | 2013-05-20 13:47
The Country Club Plaza (often referred to as The Plaza) is an American upscale shopping district and residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri.
It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile. The 55-acre (223,000 m²) site is about four miles (6.44 km) south of downtown, between 45th and 51st streets to the north and south and between Broadway and Madison Street to the east and west. The Kansas state line is one mile (1.6 km) to the west. Established in 1922 by J. C. Nichols and designed architecturally after Seville, Spain, the Plaza comprises high-end retail establishments, restaurants, and entertainment venues, as well as offices. The neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza consist of apartment buildings and upscale houses, especially those of the Country Club District built along Ward Parkway on the Plaza's southern and southwestern side. The Country Club Plaza is named in the Project for Public Spaces' list 60 of the World's Great Places.
The basic design of the Country Club Plaza reflects classic European influences, especially those of Seville, Spain, yet it curiously does not include a traditional open plaza. There are more than thirty statues, murals, and tile mosaics on display in the area, as well as major architectural reproductions, such as a half-sized Giralda Tower of Seville (the tallest building in the Plaza). The Plaza also includes precise light fixture reproductions of San Francisco's Path of Gold streetlights. Other works of art celebrate the classics, nature, and historical American themes such as westward expansion.
Although the Plaza was designed and built to accommodate visitors arriving by automobile, it is unlike modern shopping malls with sprawling parking lots: parking is discreetly concealed in multilevel parking garages beneath and behind the shops, or hidden on the rooftops of buildings. Thus the Plaza does not suffer from the sprawl that afflicts modern shopping centers, and this design makes it friendly to pedestrians.
The Plaza was also the first shopping center to use the percentage lease, where rents are based on a percentage of the gross receipts of tenants. This concept was novel when Nichols invented it, but it is now a standard practice in commercial leases. The fountain with four equestrian statues, designed by Henri-Léon Gréber, was purchased from a Long Island Gold Coast estate, Harbor Hill.
Several companies are based in the Country Club Plaza area, including American Century Investments, Russell Stover Candies, Inergy and Gates Bar-B-Q. The Kansas City Board of Trade is also located in the district.
It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile. The 55-acre (223,000 m²) site is about four miles (6.44 km) south of downtown, between 45th and 51st streets to the north and south and between Broadway and Madison Street to the east and west. The Kansas state line is one mile (1.6 km) to the west. Established in 1922 by J. C. Nichols and designed architecturally after Seville, Spain, the Plaza comprises high-end retail establishments, restaurants, and entertainment venues, as well as offices. The neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza consist of apartment buildings and upscale houses, especially those of the Country Club District built along Ward Parkway on the Plaza's southern and southwestern side. The Country Club Plaza is named in the Project for Public Spaces' list 60 of the World's Great Places.
The basic design of the Country Club Plaza reflects classic European influences, especially those of Seville, Spain, yet it curiously does not include a traditional open plaza. There are more than thirty statues, murals, and tile mosaics on display in the area, as well as major architectural reproductions, such as a half-sized Giralda Tower of Seville (the tallest building in the Plaza). The Plaza also includes precise light fixture reproductions of San Francisco's Path of Gold streetlights. Other works of art celebrate the classics, nature, and historical American themes such as westward expansion.
Although the Plaza was designed and built to accommodate visitors arriving by automobile, it is unlike modern shopping malls with sprawling parking lots: parking is discreetly concealed in multilevel parking garages beneath and behind the shops, or hidden on the rooftops of buildings. Thus the Plaza does not suffer from the sprawl that afflicts modern shopping centers, and this design makes it friendly to pedestrians.
The Plaza was also the first shopping center to use the percentage lease, where rents are based on a percentage of the gross receipts of tenants. This concept was novel when Nichols invented it, but it is now a standard practice in commercial leases. The fountain with four equestrian statues, designed by Henri-Léon Gréber, was purchased from a Long Island Gold Coast estate, Harbor Hill.
Several companies are based in the Country Club Plaza area, including American Century Investments, Russell Stover Candies, Inergy and Gates Bar-B-Q. The Kansas City Board of Trade is also located in the district.
