Kansas City, MO | Spring 2010

This studio explored a strategy of incremental infill as a solution for the commercial revitalization of Kansas City. The Troost Avenue Corridor is one urban area of Kansas City that has seen better times. Improvements have been initiated on Troost, but the majority of the development has been to areas outside the 39th Street to Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard, a section that needs immediate help in reestablishing its identity. Once an eclectic and active main thoroughfare for Kansas City, Troost Avenue is now littered with abandoned buildings and vacant lots that further tarnish the community’s historic past.

Essentially, the idea behind incremental infill is that Troost is not an appropriate site for some type of “top-down” master plan to gentrify the area. There is too much history and local culture to ignore and it becomes necessary for a designer to think in terms of a “bottom-up” development strategy. By considering the communities in the area first, revitalization efforts can come from the people themselves and create a local identity for the Troost Community.

The work of this studio can be viewed in greater detail at troostmanheim.com.