Valencia Place

Opening in 2000, Valencia Place is one of the largest projects ever completed on the Country Club Plaza. To prepare the location, brown brick apartment buildings that originally helped populate the Plaza district had to be razed. Some of these apartments were designed by prolific architects Nelle Peters and Edward Tanner, dating as far back as 1927. J.E. Dunn Construction Company broke ground in November 1997 with excavation of 210,000 cubic yards of rock. The large development has a ten-level office building, six-level parking garage, and an additional three-level retail building. Though Valencia Place is decades newer than most of the Plaza, designers maintained the Plaza’s Spanish-inspired style including a tower, earth toned color palette and a low-pitched, terracotta roof. Two notable features include the 7,000 square foot glass dome and a grand tiled staircase. The brick tower near the base of the staircase serves as pedestrian entrance for the free, public parking garage.

One of the largest projects ever developed on the Country Club Plaza, Valencia Place is a 10-story office building with a restaurant, six-story parking garage and three-level retail space. Groundbreaking for the $51.6 million project took place in November 1997 by J.E. Dunn Construction Company. It included excavation of 210,000 cubic yards of dirt and rock, primarily consisting of shale and limestone. In a commitment to work in harmony with the site and surrounding area, a portion of this excavated rock was recycled into foundation material after being crushed off-site. The 303 foot wide by 349 foot long by 60 foot deep hole was constructed into the underground parking garage and foundation for the large office building. 

Valencia Place is also ranked as one of Kansas City’s largest masonry projects, using more than 900,000 bricks and 10,000 pieces of cast stone for the construction of it’s 271,000 square-foot office building and 86,400 square-foot retail space. The office building and dome opened in the spring of 2000 with the highest lease rate in Kansas City. The new headquarters for Lockton secured the top four and a half floors of the office tower with other business offices below. The top floor of the dome is still home to its original occupant McCormick & Schmick seafood restaurant, and a retail store below. The retail building opened in the fall. Though the price is high for tenants, Valencia Place is a prime location and added just what the Plaza needed, including more free parking for nearly 1600 vehicles in its six-level garage. Upon its opening, J.E. Dunn President and CEO Terry Dunn stated, “Valencia Place represents the continued growth and commitment to the prosperity of the famed Country Club Plaza - a jewel in the heart of Kansas City.” 

While the construction of Valencia Place is decades newer than most of the Plaza, design elements complement the existing and original style used. The building features an ornate facade, an earth tone color palette composed of eight different colors of brick, decorative tile, terracotta roof tiles, and a Spanish-style tower which serves as a pedestrian entrance to the parking garage. Two of the most distinguishing features are the 7,000 square-foot glass dome above the restaurant and the grand, tiled staircase positioned to the west of the tower, between the building's offices and retail space. Kansas City artist Carolyn Payne created the patterned tiles above the windows of the restaurant. 

Prior to the excavation for Valencia Place, several apartment buildings were razed along 46th Terrace, 47th Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue. Many of these were designed by architects Nelle E. Peters and Edward W. Tanner, who helped build Kansas City. Nelle Peters designed five of these apartment buildings on 46th Terrace, including the Santa Ana and Armada, and La Solana which is now the site of Townsend Place condominiums. Built in 1927, these three-level brown brick apartments helped populate the Country Club District early on. Peters was one of the most prolific Kansas City architects and one of the only successful women during the height of her career in the 1920’s. She designed more than 1000 structures throughout her career and has three historic districts named in her honor on the National Register of Historic Places, two of which are in the Plaza. Edward Tanner was the chief architect of the Country Club Plaza since its conception. The partnership of Tanner and Plaza founder J. C. Nichols was nationally known as, “the Nichols towers with that Tanner wham.” Tanner designed the Victory Court apartments along Pennsylvania in 1944-45, which were restricted at the time for tenants employed by essential industries during the war period. Unfortunately these small, multi-family dwellings could not survive the growing needs of the city and the Plaza.

Valencia Place, BUILDINGS. October 1st 2000. Accessed January 11th 2022. https://www.buildings.com/articles/37686/valencia-place.

Betz, Melanie A.. North Plaza Survey, Missouri State Parks. Accessed January 11th 2022. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/KC%20N%20Plaza%20Report.pdf.

Davis, Jim. New Plaza pizazz focuses on Valencia, Kansas City Business Journal. December 12th 1999. Accessed January 11th 2022. https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/1999/12/13/story5.html.