As the largest single
infrastructure project in the
history of Kansas City, the new LEED
Gold terminal significantly
increases passenger capacity with a
design deeply informed by residents
throughout the city.
Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill (SOM) is joining the Kansas
City Aviation Department, the City
of Kansas City, Missouri, developer
Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real
Estate, and design-builder Clark |
Weitz | Clarkson (CWC) for the
opening of the new terminal at
Kansas City International Airport (KCI).
The redevelopment replaces the
existing, overcrowded terminals—originally
built in 1972—with a single, highly
sustainable building that increases
annual passenger capacity from 3.8
million to more than 11 million.
Transforming the travel experience,
the 1.1-million-square-foot terminal
embodies the region’s rich culture,
while elevating the airport into a
place that is inclusive and
accessible to all.
|
Lucas Blair
Simpson © SOM |
“The new terminal is a testament to
the strength of the Kansas City
region’s demand for travel,” said
Pat Klein, Kansas City Director of
Aviation. “SOM has designed KCI to
be one of the most striking civic
destinations in our city, and one of
the most inclusive terminals in the
world.”
The new terminal—designed, planned,
and engineered by SOM with CWC and a
team of consultants largely led by
women—brings KCI far into the future.
The building consolidates all
airline operations under one roof,
with a 6,000-space parking garage
designed by BNIM just steps away, to
create a seamless journey for
arrivals and departures alike. The
building’s 39 gates are used for
domestic and international travel,
and its layout enables the facility
to expand by another 11 gates in the
future.
“One of our main goals was to make
circulation throughout the terminal
an effortless experience,” said SOM
Design Partner Colin Koop. “We
designed an intuitive layout for the
building—one that will make the
terminal easy to navigate and walk
through, while retaining the
flexibility to adapt as air travel
changes over time.”
The I-shaped building encompasses
two levels: the upper for departing
passengers and the lower for
arrivals, each with their own access
road and curb. Check-in and security
occupy the upper level just inside
the entrance, and baggage claim,
customs, and an outdoor public
garden comprise the lower level.
Beyond security, two parallel
concourses, with retail at the
center, are linked by a pedestrian
passage that provides sweeping views
of the airfield. All of these
post-security spaces are on the same
level—a design move that creates an
easier journey for passengers.
“From the earliest stages of our
design process, we worked with the
city to figure out different ways to
make the terminal more inclusive and
accessible, and to open the
possibility of travel to people who
may not have had that opportunity,”
said SOM Managing Partner Laura
Ettelman. “That was a powerful idea
that came directly from the
residents of Kansas City.”
Through dozens of community meetings,
SOM, in collaboration with Edgemoor,
CWC, and KCAD representatives,
engaged with residents of Kansas
City and its surrounding areas to
determine how to create a terminal
that would be comfortable,
convenient, and welcoming to all.
The city issued a resolution calling
for the terminal to be “the most
accessible in the world,” a goal
that became a guiding principle for
the design. Every gate desk,
check-in position, and info desk is
set to a wheelchair-accessible
height. The Kansas City Air Travel
Experience simulator gives
passengers who are unfamiliar or
uncomfortable with air travel the
chance to “test run” in the days
before a trip. A “quiet room”
provides a refuge for all travelers
in need of a calming space. With
All-Gender restrooms, a sensory room
for children, and more, the new
terminal makes the travel experience
welcome to all segments of the
public.
That inviting experience can be
found in every space throughout the
terminal. The entrance is a
welcoming and light-filled space,
sheltered by a generous overhang,
with a glass facade and structurally
expressive Y-columns. Warm materials
clad the interiors—from the hemlock
ceiling to the marble terrazzo
floors. A series of colorful,
locally designed mosaics, cut and
preserved from the site’s previous
terminal, have been placed
throughout the floors of the new
concourses, maintaining the memory
of the original building.
Inside the Check-In Hall, a massive,
732-foot-long Missouri limestone
wall serves as a backdrop to “The
Air Up There,” a kinetic sculpture—designed
by Missouri-born artist Nick Cave—that
is made of thousands of colorful
wind spinners to convey the wonder
of travel. The sculpture is the
first of 27 works of art spread
throughout the terminal, and part of
a program that designated one
percent of the entire project budget
to artwork. Soo Sunny Park, Leo
Villareal, Willie Cole, and a host
of other artists embodied the look
and feel of the city in a variety of
ways—from honoring Kansas City’s
moniker as the “City of Fountains”
to evoking its contribution to the
history of jazz.
The Kansas City Airport is the
first and largest LEED v4 GOLD BD+C:
NC terminal/concourse project in the
U.S. Midwest, and just the second in
the entire United States. The
building also has goals in place to
run on renewable energy in the
future. It runs entirely on
electricity, and in the coming years,
a solar farm will be built to
convert all airport operations to
green energy. Many of the materials
were sourced locally, and its wood
finishes are FSC-certified. The
master plan also includes a
comprehensive conservation strategy
that maintains native trees and
grasses from KCI’s original
construction.
“All the ideas we put forward in the
design—the emphasis on inclusion,
accessibility, and sustainability,
mixed with preservation, art, and
natural materials—come together to
express the civic purpose of this
terminal,” said SOM Design Principal
Peter Lefkovits. “It’s a striking
new gateway that prepares Kansas
City for the long run.”