Bryant Building (1102 Grand)

Designed in the Art Deco style and now known as 1102 Grand, the Bryant Building (built in 1931) is a fine example of modernist commercial architecture that was popular during the early 20th century. The 26-story building embodies this through its restrained use of decoration and emphasis on verticality. Notable features include its smooth surfaces, brick piers, recessed brown terra cotta spandrels in between the piers, setbacks in the upper stories, and decorative stylized reeds and floral and geometric ornamentation. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, the Bryant Building now operates as a "carrier hotel," which is a building used as an internet datacenter housing web servers.

The Bryant Building was constructed by the Kansas City Star newspaper, which announced the decision to erect a new home in 1929 to replace its existing seven-story building. The newspaper hired Chicago firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White to design the new building. Work began in the summer of 1930 and was completed the next year. It was the tallest building on Grand Boulevard and the fourth tallest in the city at the time. In recognition of its design, it received awards from the Kansas City Business League and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1931. Its completion also signaled the end of a period during which many high-rise office buildings in the city were built in the central business district.

While the building boom may have ended, construction projects continued despite the Great Depression, which did not hurt Kansas City as it did to other parts of the country. These projects, including City Hall and the County Courthouse, were built using funds provide by the Works Progress Administration and all designed in the Art Deco style. Interestingly, the Bryant Building is as an adaptation of Finish-American architect Eileel Saarinen's proposed design for the new home of the Chicago Tribune, which ran a design competition. Saarinen's proposal came in second place.

It appears that law firms mostly occupied the Bryant Building for much of its history. This came to an end in 2006 when it was converted into a carrier hotel. Now owned by Netrality Data Centers, dozens of companies use it today including AT&T, Google Fiber, Neflix, and Sprint.

Anderson, Charlie. "Former Bryant Building checks in as carrier hotel." Kansas City Business Journal. October 16, 2006. https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2006/10/16/story1.html.

Lazarski, Andrea J. "National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form." April 24, 1989. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Bryant%20Bldg.pdf.

"Welcome to 1102 Grand." Netrality Data Centers. Accessed September 12, 2022. https://netrality.com/locations/data-center-kansas-city.