Early Architecture
The first skyscraper/highrise in Kansas City was the New York Life Insurance Building (Kansas City), completed in 1890. It stands twelve floors tall at a height of 180 feet (54.8 m) and was the first local building with elevators. After the New York Life Building was completed, Kansas City followed the national trend of constructing a plethora of buildings above ten stories. Within fifty years of the building's construction, over fifty buildings over ten floors were built in and around downtown.
Louis Curtiss, among Kansas City's most innovative architects, designed the Boley Clothing Company Building, which is renowned as "one of the first glass curtain-wall structures in the world." The six-story building also features cantilever floor slabs, cast iron structural detailing, and terra cotta decorative elements.
Read more about this topic: Architecture Of Kansas City
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