Functional Office Conversion

The 22 acre Kansas City Terminal Railway Company Roundhouse Historic District in Kansas City, Jackson County Missouri is located southwest of the Union Station terminal building on a site bounded on the south and southwest by Southwest Boulevard, on the north by a retaining wall for an elevated rail which roughly parallels 25th Street, on the east by what would be a southward extension of Jarboe Street and on the west by the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad tracks. The teardrop-shaped district incorporates a parcel south of the main trunk lines extending eastward toward the Union Station that historically incorporated the coach yards and roundhouse facility.

Originally built by the Kansas City Terminal Railway around 1900, these historic roundhouse buildings along Southwest Boulevard originally served as a maintenance and repair hub for the company’s locomotives. The current owner sought to re-purpose the complex as an office and production facility. Now one of the last remaining examples of this architectural typology in the country, International Architects Atelier, the design architect, worked to preserve and restore the original building envelope to its original condition, while converting the interior space to a functional workplace for the client.

Again, preserving the original character of the existing building shell was paramount to the success of this endeavor. However, recurring fire damage and vandalism had left most of the wooden roof and column framing damaged beyond repair. In addition, excessive heat from years of servicing locomotives within the building, left many of the timber columns singed, charred, and eroded to the point where the remaining core material was incapable of supporting its loads. Due to this widespread and extensive deterioration of the original structure, all heavy timber frame construction had to be replicated and replaced. In an effort to maintain as much of the building’s original skeleton as possible, nearly all of its connective hardware was restored and reused. A clerestory and other large windows throughout bring light to the otherwise heavy timber structure. Nodding to its historic roots, the original hoisting equipment was cleaned and left in its original locations amidst a modern office workplace. As guests leave, they see original train tracks, a USPS rail car and tall, fluid prairie grass adorning the landscape, and giving a nod to the facility’s rich past.