From Wikipedia...

 

The Country Club Plaza (often referred to as The Plaza) is an American upscale shopping district and residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile. The 55-acre site is about four miles south of downtown, between 45th and 51st streets to the north and south and between Broadway and Madison Street to the east and west. The Kansas state line is one mile to the west. Established in 1922 by J. C. Nichols and designed architecturally after Seville, Spain, the Plaza comprises high-end retail establishments, restaurants, and entertainment venues, as well as offices. The neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza consist of upscale apartment buildings and mansions, especially those of the Country Club District built along Ward Parkway on the Plaza's southern and southwestern side. The Country Club Plaza is named in the Project for Public Spaces' list 60 of the World's Great Places.

 

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The basic design of the Country Club Plaza reflects classic European influences, especially those of Seville, Spain, yet it curiously does not include a traditional open plaza. There are more than 30 statues, murals, and tile mosaics on display in the area, as well as major architectural reproductions, such as a half-sized Giralda Tower of Seville (the tallest building in the Plaza). The Plaza also includes reproductions of San Francisco's Path of Gold streetlights. Other works of art celebrate the classics, nature, and historical American themes such as westward expansion, and a magnificent fountain featuring four horses rearing up on their hind legs, designed by Henri-Léon Gréber.[citation needed]

 

Although the Plaza was designed and built to accommodate visitors arriving by automobile, it is unlike modern shopping malls with sprawling parking lots: parking is concealed in multilevel parking garages beneath and behind the shops, or on the rooftops of buildings.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_Club_Plaza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

its great, but such a funny and uniquely american developer mishmash. bonus points for having a chuy's!

Gee! Just like Easton, or Crocker park, or the Greene!  :roll:

Never knew it existed. Thanks for the tour!

Gee! Just like Easton, or Crocker park, or the Greene!  :roll:

 

Retail-wise, yes, but if you compare parking/transit, surrounding density, location in the metro, etc., this is a much better development.

^ not to mention construction quality and design, which is leaps and bounds ahead and would be very hard to top today. take just the tile alone for example.

Gee! Just like Easton, or Crocker park, or the Greene!  :roll:

 

Looks similar to those developments from today, but I'd like to see historic pictures too.  Remember Ink's post states this development opened in 1922, so unlike the flavor of the day lifestyle centers, this development was WAAAAYYY ahead of its time, predating America's fascination (and later abandonment) of the indoor mall. 

 

Beautiful neighborhood and development.  As a Shaker Square resident in Cleveland, I've always wished the same upscale nature of Country Club Plaza existed here, because I see many similarities, especially the presence of both well designed historic retail and well designed historic multi-family structures. 

Gee! Just like Easton, or Crocker park, or the Greene!  :roll:

 

Retail-wise, yes, but if you compare parking/transit, surrounding density, location in the metro, etc., this is a much better development.

I'm new to emojis, but I thought my sarcastic eye-rolling made the point. Easton, the Greene and Crocker Park are designed as destinations separate from, rather than integrated into, any other development. What's amazing is that, almost a century later, our developers have not learned the lesson that Country Club Plaza's long success has got to be due, in large part, to its integral connection to the rest of the city.

I had hoped that the Avenue District in Cleveland would become something like this.  Alas, Crocker Park is running away with the game.    Can't wait to see the next round of complaints and exit ramp widening for the residents of Westlake.

Beautiful neighborhood and development.  As a Shaker Square resident in Cleveland, I've always wished the same upscale nature of Country Club Plaza existed here, because I see many similarities, especially the presence of both well designed historic retail and well designed historic multi-family structures. 

 

I was thinking a lot about Shaker Square when I was at Country Club. Both are in very similar environments, with high density apartments immediately surrounding and 1920's/30's-era high end housing just beyond. Ward Boulevard in Kansas City is very similar to Fairmont in Cleveland Heights, although Ward is a broader boulevard and Fairmont has better architecture.

 

Shaker Square itself (the retail area) is smaller, however, and is transit oriented instead of being built for the automobile. Shaker is still neighborhood retail while Country Club is a regional destination.

Great photos of a really cool part of Kansas City.  The surrounding historic residential architecture, high rise office, hotels, etc. around the Plaza give the area a very urban feel.  The hilliness of the area is also kind of cool, as is the park that follows the river, and all of the fountains that are scattered about.  I'm a big fan of KC. Would love to see more photos!

Beautiful neighborhood and development.  As a Shaker Square resident in Cleveland, I've always wished the same upscale nature of Country Club Plaza existed here, because I see many similarities, especially the presence of both well designed historic retail and well designed historic multi-family structures. 

 

 

I was thinking a lot about Shaker Square when I was at Country Club. Both are in very similar environments, with high density apartments immediately surrounding and 1920's/30's-era high end housing just beyond. Ward Boulevard in Kansas City is very similar to Fairmont in Cleveland Heights, although Ward is a broader boulevard and Fairmont has better architecture.

 

Shaker Square itself (the retail area) is smaller, however, and is transit oriented instead of being built for the automobile. Shaker is still neighborhood retail while Country Club is a regional destination.

 

Good observations... Remember, also, that Shaker Square was something of an afterthought for the Vans... They were mainly focused on single, detached house development on substantial plots in Shaker Hts... Shaker Sq. initially was a non-descript traffic circle around the Shaker-Van Aken Rapid  junction... but it seems, some developers were already putting up apts in the area... of course, this was reconfigured and Shaker Square, the retail district, opened it's phase 1 in 1929, 9 years after the rapid went through this area...later phases, like the movie theater and the Van Aken wrap-around parking deck came after the Vans were dead in the late 30s through the 40s.

 

I don't know for sure (because I don't know KC's transit history), but I'd think that in 1922, a streetcar or interurban from downtown served Country Club Plaza... Even though it may not be as tightly focused around a rail station like the Rapid's, it is very dense and came on line before freeways were developed in cities.

^I would have expected rail as well, but it seems that Country Club Plaza was always built for the automobile and transit lines ended at least a mile to the north:

 

http://countryclubplaza.com/art-history/one-mans-vision-shapes-the-city/

^Good stuff, Ink... I guess Mr. Nichols was ahead of his time... or behind it... [quoting in part:]

 

"Nichols was indeed a visionary; he saw the importance of the car in middle-class lives at a time when many thought the automobile would only be a fad of the rich. He put together a plan to build entire neighborhoods and shopping centers designed with the automobile in mind. Planning his dream was the easy part, getting people to buy into it took real salesmanship. . . . The rail line ended at 47th and Troost, so to get people to venture out to his new area Nichols met prospective buyers at the end of the line and drove them in a buggy the mile to his new development. Nichols promised what others hadn’t–plumbing, water, trash pickup, miles of tree-lined avenues, neighborhood parks, sidewalks and even front lawns. His persistence and a distinctive master plan paid off, his residential neighborhoods took shape, and people moved south of the city."

 

http://countryclubplaza.com/art-history/one-mans-vision-shapes-the-city/

 

 

^ isnt that interesting? seems it was truly the start of modern auto-centric suburbia mindedness, yet prior to the detached tract housing mindlessness.

^It's interesting that Country Club Plaza was designed for the auto, yet it's surrounded by tons of multi-unit housing, including a number of mid and high-rises along with numerous brownstone walk-ups all of which, of course, encourage walkability. 

 

It's also interesting that Nichols' suburban development contemporaries, the Van Sweringens, were backward looking romanticists who encouraged rapid transit, train travel and even dated Beaux Artes architecture for Terminal Tower when Art Deco design was the rage... Obviously the Vans' mindset had more positives than negatives for Cleveland... CCP of course is a major gem in KC's crown as well... Think of how great it/the city would be if Nichols was similarly motivated by rapid transit... oh well, diversity is the spice of life.

I think it's interesting that some I-35 cities have this similar Spanish shopping center concept stuff going on: Country Club Plaza (KC), The Paseo (OKC), and Highland Park Village (Dallas).  Wichita screwed up the line!

^Interesting. I've been to Highland Park Village, but I did not know about The Paseo. Looks like it was developed by the same family. KCMO has a major north-south street called "The Paseo."

interesting they fall down in chronological order as well:

 

ccp (kc) 1922

paseo (okc) 1929

hpv (D) 1931