It has been an incredibly engaging and interesting experience to get to know and understand and plan for the Valentine neighborhood. Through our work with the past, present and future, I was able to create a design for the future of this little North Western corner of the neighborhood that takes what we know and have, and creates a plan for its future that honors those things.

Inspired by what I know about the area already, I created a site analysis that represented what exists there. Unfortunately, there are only two used structures in the area. They are single unit homes. Outside of that, the existing buildings are abandoned. To the North, MCC is an asset that could be better used in the community and boasts itself as Kansas Cities favorite vocational school. There is a lot of green space and potential in this area.

I know that climate change will impact this area, and the entire country so being prepared for that is critical. Working with MCC will create cohesiveness and highlight trade programs, and hopefully carry over into the neighborhood and creating more housing will only help the potential influx of people having to move because of climate change and people already experiencing houselessness in Kansas City.

There are several plans in place in Kansas City already that support potential for the future. With trade schools on the rise, it would only be beneficial for MCC to be more engrained in the community. The East West transit study wants to bring more public transportation to the area. Bridging the Gap and the KC Spirit Playbook both embrace a climate forward future by adopting an Urban Forest plan that would help fight against heating and heavier rains in our future.

The site plan and implementation steps are listed above. With all of the room on the site, I recommended adding in multiple at cost, affordable and transitional housing options. At least 200 units total. The implementation steps will take 5- 20 years to complete and should cost around $200,000,000.00.

Finally, making emphasis on climate change adaptation, housing necessity and working with MCC to create community between the school and neighborhood, I believe that North West Valentine can prosper and become a hub for all of midtown and benefit everyone who lives and comes there.

In my study of Valentine in Kansas City, I focused on everyday elements of the public realm walls, fences, and bollards, that often go unnoticed but strongly shape how space is experienced. These features act as physical and visual boundaries within the city, quietly organizing movement, access, and behavior.
Walls and fences clearly separate private property from shared or publicly accessible space, signaling where entry is restricted and where control shifts from collective use to individual ownership. Bollards, while less visually dominant, serve a similar function by managing movement and preventing certain types of access, often guiding how pedestrians, vehicles, and public space interact.
Together, these elements reveal that the public realm is not completely open or neutral. Instead, it is carefully structured through boundaries that define who can enter, linger, or pass through. In this sense, walls, fences, and bollards become more than physical objects they are indicators of the ongoing division between private and public space.

In the end

From 1950 through much of the late 20th century, marriage was widely viewed as an expected part of adulthood in the United States. Social norms strongly encouraged people to marry young, start families, and follow a heteronormative lifestyle. During this time, being unmarried later in life was often uncommon, and heterosexual marriage was considered the social standard. Census data from the 1950s and 1960s reflected this expectation, with the majority of adults listed as married.

Over the decades, attitudes toward relationships and personal identity gradually changed. The women’s rights movement, increased access to higher education and careers, changing economic conditions, and greater acceptance of different lifestyles all contributed to shifts in marriage patterns. By the 1990s and 2000s, people were marrying later in life, and more individuals chose to remain single, cohabit without marriage, or pursue nontraditional relationships.

Today, marriage is seen more as a personal choice than a social requirement. Society has also become more accepting of different sexual orientations and family structures. Because of these changes, modern census data shows a more balanced distribution between people who are married and those who have never married. Unlike in the 1950s, where marriage was expected for most adults, current trends reflect greater individual freedom and a wider variety of life paths.

 I’m presenting my proposed site plan for the Valentine neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. My project is centered around one big idea: creating a mixed-use neighborhood market that brings together housing, local business, and community opportunity in one place. This project is about more than just buildings, it’s about creating a system where people can live, work, learn, and grow together. It brings together culture, opportunity, and thoughtful urban design to strengthen the Valentine neighborhood.

There’s a very specific feeling you get driving through Midtown Kansas City.

One moment, you’re admiring historic shirtwaist homes, Tudor-style architecture, and the beautiful colonnaded apartment buildings that give the area so much character.   

Maybe you’re stopping at Costco or passing charming storefronts cruising down Main Street. Then suddenly, you’re fighting for your life in traffic on Kansas City’s unofficial version of the Indy 500 “Southwest Traffic-way”. There’s always that one street in every city that feels like it’s having an identity crisis.

And that my friends, is what urban planners call a disconnect in the built environment. 

If you’re coming in from the Westside, Southwest Trafficway becomes your dramatic introduction into a quaint neighborhood called Valentine. A neighborhood with incredible bones, undeniable culture, and just enough urban chaos to keep things interesting.

And honestly, the area tells the story of Kansas City itself.

Valentine wasn’t originally designed around speeding traffic and oversized roadways. It was built during the era of streetcar urbanism, back when cities were organized around people instead of parking minimums and emotional support vehicles like SUV’s and oversized trucks. Neighborhoods were designed to support everyday life. Homes, businesses, transit, and public spaces all existed within walking distance of one another, creating a stronger sense of connection between people and place.

For decades, Valentine existed as one of Kansas City’s most connected urban neighborhoods, until infrastructure priorities shifted. Like many American cities, Kansas City eventually embraced auto-oriented planning and urban renewal strategies. Roads widened, highways expanded, and pedestrian experiences slowly became an afterthought. Southwest Trafficway transformed from a connector into a divider. What was once part of the neighborhood fabric became a fast-moving corridor that fragmented the surrounding community.

Today, Valentine exists in a strange in-between condition. It’s walkable, until it isn’t. It’s connected, except where giant corridors have been sliced through the neighborhood like someone handed an urban renewal planner too many Red Bulls and a ruler in 1963.

And yet, despite fragmented infrastructure and inconsistent development patterns, Valentine still feels alive.

That’s the fascinating part.

The neighborhood still has identity, culture, energy, and a strong sense of place. Which means the issue is not a lack of potential, it’s a lack of integration. The systems surrounding the neighborhood were never designed to work together. Transit operates separately from housing. Housing operates separately from ecology. Public space operates separately from mobility. Everything is disconnected, like a group project where nobody checked the shared Google Doc.

So what does Valentine actually need? Just a little love, betwixt the current stakeholders. Not another isolated development project. Not another oversized apartment block with luxury in the name for no reason.  

The neighborhood needs an approach rooted in Urban Ekistics, a planning framework that views cities as interconnected living systems shaped by people, society, nature, networks, and the built environment. Instead of treating transit, housing, ecology, and public space as separate conversations, the goal should be to reconnect the neighborhood at every scale; physically, socially, ecologically, economically, and culturally.

Because honestly? American communities work best when people not vehicles are the priority.