My project is over Valentine’s Neighborhood area. This is the first housing type designed in the area. This is an attached townhome. It is located below W. 33rd St and above W. 34 St and can be found between Jefferson St and Southwest Traffic-way . It has 60 units. It has two halls one east and one west. The majority of the parking lot is located on the east side of the east hall. It has an attached balcony and exterior hallway in the center. The entrance is located on W. 33^rd St. 

The Second housing type is a multi- unit building. It is located at the edge of Southwest Traffic way, W. 35^th St, and Jefferson Street. It has 41 units. The entrance is located on Jefferson Street. Its parking lot surrounds the building. The parking lot is in the front of the building. It is a commercial multi-unit building and can be found adjacent to Southwest Traffic way.

Finally, I have a pickleball court. It has two courts and it includes a parking lot. The pickleball court is designed on a limited standard and it is designed to fit with parking deviation. The court is found at Pennsylvania Ave, Jefferson St, and below W. 34^th Street. 

So, what drives my design and development plan? 

The townhome is there because there is massing in that area and other historic buildings near the area can also be found and as well as featuring grandfathering. The other housing types are called multi-unit buildings, and they are there because of the open area and other incentives like the density of fewer residential houses. Finally, the pickleball court is there because it could alleviate the energy in the new building and other health facilities near Broadway Blvd. 

I believe that there is massive room for development in this area AND the ability to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood that once was, and is still admired by the people who live there and around it.

I propose that there are three different kids of infill in this neighborhood. The first is duplex housing that is offered at market rate and runs along Southwest/ Summit. This housing would reflect single unit homes across the street, but would be multiple unit homes in disguise. I see room for 10 of these units in this area.

The homes would be stacked and easily accessible. The would match existing brick in current buildings in the area as well.

I believe that there is room for the missing middle to exist here too, and those developments would be within the core of the neighborhood. There are two existing multi unit buildings in the neighborhood that are not being use and I believe that mimicking those styles throughout the inside of the neighborhood would create consistency, while making more room for more people at a more affordable rate.

The Detiz building is a six plex on Jefferson Street that could easily be replicated in the neighborhood enough times to create a hundred new units within the core of the neighborhood.

Finally, I recommend some sort of higher rise, multi unit housing that can serve as student or transitional housing for people attending the school or trying to get back on their feet with access to public amenities in the urban core that supports them doing so. This structure should have at least 50 units.

The valentine neighborhood is in the unique position of being a walkable neighborhood sandwiched between two bustling streets and continued points of access. This makes the neighborhood susceptible to visitors, explorers and neighbors alike.

In my exploration of the public realm, I was tasked with identifying signage. While there was no shortage of beautiful, whimsical signs along the busier streets showcasing long standing institutions, like The Uptown Theater, I felt more called to investigate the signs being created by the people who represent this area.

On either side of this street, you can see the sings placed in these yards by the people who live there that are anti KC Life Insurance company. Their views are being shared in this community and it demonstrates their wants.

To some, this may seem like trash put on a post, but in my eyes, this placement is a testament to a time in the neighborhood and what someone coming through here was carrying with them.

There are also public art instances that I suggested could be used as signs to show who is in this area and what they represent.

It was also interesting to me the way that the color orange was so frequently used, how it is attached to the feeling of happiness, according to my research and how its counter part, the color blue, was used to convey feelings of hurt and sadness ( see the first image of the KC Life Insurance signs in the yards).

My work on the existing conditions report for The Valentine neighborhood included not only my research on poverty in the area, but the environment as well. I worked with a team that investigated the neighborhood above and below for the quality of the area.

This image shows the two different soil quality types that exist in this area. These urban soils are highly draining, making it difficult for water to be absorbed, especially when the west side of the neighborhood is at a significant slope compared to the east side. Water is able to collect there potentially leading to flooding on the street or in what would have been houses along that side.

This image shows the topography of the area, supporting concerns for flooding that may occur.

Together, my team also found a brownfield just north of valentine on the MCC campus that needs mitigation, as well as 8 underground tanks that should be inspected. These tanks could impact water quality in the area.

The Valentine neighborhood occupies several blocks in West Midtown. From the North it starts at 31st st, to the East is Broadway Boulevard, to the West it is Summit/ Southwest Traffic way and to the South it is bordered by 40th street.

Within this area, we studied the different demographics of people and many things about them to understand where they were coming from and what they were working with.

It was my responsibility to gauge the amount of people in the area who were experiencing poverty in ages 65 +, poverty in Children and people who are requiring public assistance to live compared to the surrounding areas of Midtown and Kansas City, MO as a whole.

The data above shows a dip in poverty for people over 65 in the 1990’s, but it consistently shows rates of poverty in people over 65 in Valentine as being in poverty compared to people in the other comparable areas, if only by a small amount.

Surprisingly, children in the area (which according to some of my colleagues studies, there are not many) show that many kids in the area, especially currently, are living in poverty. This includes all children 17 and under living at home.

The households receiving public assistance total have shown quite a bit of movement over time, but show a rapid increase after the dip in the aughts.

Overall, there is enough evidence to support that these demographics of the area are in need of assistance. It is my hope that through this work, we can figure out exactly why these groups are needing so much more support to live in Valentine.

Before fully understanding what has led to the current day Valentine Neighborhood, I knew it as a coffee shop. A beautiful section of homes lining Southwest. Specifically the mediterranean style home on the corner of Southwest and Valentine Rd. I remember coming down southwest as a kid, hoping that someday I should live in that terracotta corner home.

There is a stunning range of homes in the area, and there were many more, I imagine, before I learned of the harm that the Kansas City Life insurance company has brought to the area with the removal of many of these homes, including the most recent 23 that have been demolished within the last three years.

https://savevalentine.com/demos%2Fbefore-and-after

After being assigned this project, we were asked to do a simple investigation and this site was not hard to find. Members of the community as well as people in Midtown and throughout the city, are documenting the process in which homes are being removed from this area, seemingly without warrant. The site Save Valentine is a compiling of the homes that have been demolished, and what the community is doing to try and save the remaining ones.

These homes have been demolished because KC Life Insurance Company, one of the main stakeholders in the area, had purchased the land these homes are on quite some time ago. They are now using that power to tear them down as they please, without any confirmation of what they plan to do with the vacant land. This leaves large swaths of field in the neighborhood where we could be putting housing as we face a crisis in this country.

The Save Valentine effort is challenging this by trying to gain a historical designation for the area surrounding The Norman School, already on the historical registry, as a means to protect some of the remaining housing in the area.

As we progressed through this project, we were given the chance to understand more about the area, but really came to no other conclusions about why this major stakeholder is taking away all of the opportunities for people to live in this area. It is my hope that we soon find out what their intentions are, and in the meantime, to shed light on how the community has come together and how it intends to fight back against things it does not want to see happening in its community.

Looking at w 42nd, east Roanoke Rd and south Westport Road, all the years from the 1800s through 2026 now the changes in this area when it comes to living spaces have increased, but open areas in transportation has decreased. As a population of Kansas City increases throughout the years. The total amount of space increased as well for living and other outside activities. right now Valentine is going through an issue of losing homes due to property being bought out and no plans for development. 

Starting with the amount of living spaces in 1891 during those times there weren’t a lot of people in the Kansas City area, but enough for them to create streets and train lines . Same thing goes for 1990 as well, I’m not increased people making that increase with space but during that time there wasn’t a lot of housing or development there. Going through 1990s and 2026 we can see a boom of businesses and housing options have spread, but the catcher is the way how the streets are designed has changed over time. All of this is important as a future planner and for other community people so they can know their history of where they live or their neighborhood.

The first set of graphs based on the environment underground. The first map shows us where the points of gas  tanks, the single brown field, and protentional hazards,  this tells us that the street that has majority of tanks are mainly along the Broadway. As the second map is  a lay out of the typographic map that tells us about the flood zone areas. Knowing where those flood zones or brown areas are located it can help build that picture of what all will need to be done during the excavation process during any new development.

For the second board, my job was to locate all asset parts of this area, in volving all business. The asset map like the LGBTIQ and music map this is showing the locations of the business in valentine, including  the home business that happen in this area. What I found really cool was that there are a lot of home business/ other business are located on the ground floor. Tying this all together, this lets us know what might be missing in the valentine area when it come to other amities.

Looking at the public realm in areas like Valentine and throughout Kansas City, parking lots have become one of the most dominant features of the urban landscape. Kansas City has long been shaped as a car-oriented city, where people depend on vehicles to move from one destination to another. Because of this, many developments are required to provide large amounts of parking regardless of the actual activity or community need. In Valentine, there is a noticeable balance between green open space and paved parking areas, showing how much land is dedicated to storing cars rather than creating spaces for people. While areas like Westport and the Country Club Plaza use parking garages more frequently, much of the surrounding area still relies heavily on surface parking lots. Along streets such as 33rd Street to Knickerbocker Place, several companies control large blocks of parking, including some of the largest lots owned by Kansas City Life Insurance Company.

Urban theorists such as Jeff Speck and William H. Whyte discuss the importance of the public realm and how cities function when spaces are designed primarily around people instead of automobiles. A successful urban environment is not just about providing parking; it is about creating a mix of uses, walkability, social interaction, and memorable public spaces that give people a reason to return.

Cars remain necessary in many parts of Kansas City, especially in suburban areas like Parkville, where developments are designed differently because of location and lower density. However, the overall objective remains the same: creating environments where people feel comfortable gathering, walking, relaxing, and spending time outdoors. Parking lots do serve a purpose, but they also represent opportunities. These large paved spaces could incorporate green infrastructure, public gathering areas, recreational uses, temporary markets, or safer pedestrian connections that accommodate not only the people who drive cars, but also the people who do not. The goal is not necessarily to eliminate parking, but to rethink how these spaces can contribute more to the community and create a healthier, more connected public realm

What sets this park area different from others that we have in Kansas City is an interactive leading trail separation from Park activities to our activities, a waterfront design complementing the apartment complex’s. Looking closely in to this park, the incentive is to give people different opportunities . There are more than 10 small parks (that are smaller than a mile) that are in Kansas City, Missouri and each of those parks just have a lot of open area. keep it in mind Green areas are very important to Metropolitan areas because of a lot of pollution due to highways and factories. There are other cities in the US that have examples of great urban parks, urban trails that protect open space ,pedestrians, Bikeriders and other small forms of transportation. Kansas City is one of those places that have ample opportunities to make this happen and have but it’s missing a few things. (Name of valentine park) will be enclosed by the people who live int this area, (making their aprtmant number feel Ike a real community), connecting parts to other areas with open space (connecting pennvally park and MCC), as well as connecting other areas with high volume of people ( Main Street, old Westport, plaza, ) keep in mind of the people who use to live in that area keeping them together and giving them a space( loosing homes to kc life, buying property, no plan of new ideas). 

Having an enclosed park that is sounded by those who live in this area like mentioned before.