The Plaza Was the First of Its Kind
From stunning Art Deco skyscrapers to a wealth of elaborate Arts and Crafts style mansions, Kansas City is one of the country’s architectural gems. What many consider to be its architectural focal point — the Moorish-revival style Plaza — came about thanks to the forward-thinking vision of J.C. Nichols, Kansas City’s most influential real estate developer.
Brief History of the Plaza
Known fully as “Country Club Plaza”, the Plaza was planned in 1922 as a way to augment Nichols’ previous work, including for the controversial Tom Pendergast in the nearby Country Club neighborhood — another one of Kansas City’s most prominent residential areas. Per Nichols himself, the goal was to “develop whole residential neighborhoods that would attract an element of people who desired a better way of life, a nicer place to live and would be willing to work in order to keep it better.”
With that said, part of his philosophy was building with the future in mind. At that time, about one in 10 people owned a motor vehicle — but Nichols had a hunch that more Americans (especially the well-to-do folks) would eventually adopt the mode of transportation. Thus, the Plaza was among the country’s first automobile-friendly outdoor mixed-use spaces. Nearly 46% of the land was used to accommodate automobiles.
In 1921, he spent $1 million (about $13.4 million in today’s money) to purchase 40 acres of land just four miles south of downtown and employed architect Edward Buehler Delk to execute his then-$5-million vision for the high-end Moorish-revival shopping and dining destination.
Architecture of the Plaza
Critics at the time of the development called the Plaza “Nichols’ Folly” since it was well beyond the cable car’s reach, but history has proven his vision to be ahead of his time. Over the years, the Plaza has long been a draw for tourists and locals — thanks in large part to its unique Moorish-revival architecture.
Nichols’ vision was heavily influenced by Seville, Spain, as he thought the European city was the pinnacle of architectural beauty. As a result, the Plaza is uniformly styled after the Moorish buildings in Spain, like the bell tower of the Seville Cathedral, albeit with a modern and automobile-friendly twist.
The Plaza Today
Today, the Plaza remains one of Kansas City’s most popular attractions and for good reason. Not only does it offer 784,000 sq. ft. of retail/restaurant space and 219,000 sq. ft. of office space in an architecturally unique setting, the Plaza is recognized in the 60 of the World's Great Places list by the Project for Public Spaces. In fact, many might go so far as to say Kansas City just wouldn’t be the same without the Plaza.
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