The figure ground maps above are of the Northwest corner of the UMKC campus as the neighborhood adjacent to UMKC West of Brookside BLVD. In the 1925 map we can clearly see that the area was a mansion district with few mansions and a private all girls school, The Barstow School for Girls, as well as some houses in the South Plaza neighborhood just West of Brookside BLVD. As we progress in time to the figure ground of 1970 we can see there is a lot more development on the campus grounds and the surrounding areas as well. What we now know as “The Quad” is being formed, one of the old mansions was repurposed into a university building and we now see the dorms and student union on Cherry Street, as well as a dorm between Cherry Street and Oak Street and the Administration building along with on 51st street we can see the addition of Swinney Recreation Center, the Miller Nichols Library, and the Student Success Center. All in the Span of forty-five years we can see the growth of the campus and the surrounding area. Then jumping forward fifty-three years to 2023 on the figure ground we can see more of the land being filled in by university buildings as the school grows as well as businesses being added in next to campus. The Midwest Research Institute and Russel Stover to the North of campus. As for the UMKC campus growing, the student union grows in size, the Bloch School of Business is added as well as our Law school building.

Being able to visualize the growth of the UMKC campus and the addition of business to the North helps us to see how an area grows, expands, and fills out over time and how the addition of a higher learning institution next to or around a city center can help to provide useful space as well as promote growth of the areas surrounding.