It has been almost 3 1/2 years since the Kansas City Ballet decided on the Union Station Power House as the site of its new Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity. Now the organization is ready to start transforming the dilapidated historic structure, at 400 W. Pershing Road, into an airy work and performance space.
When the $31 million renovation is completed in July 2011, “it will be one of the best dance buildings in the country,” said Jeffrey J. Bentley, the Ballet’s executive director.
“This will say a lot about the city’s place in the arts,” Bentley said.
The Ballet’s announcement that construction was under way amounts to an upbeat signal in the current period of economic caution and a strong statement of the company’s intention to raise its profile. Just in recent days, the Ballet and the building’s owner, DST Realty, pinned down financing for the project, including about $11 million in state and federal historic tax credits. The Ballet has signed a 65-year lease for the building.
The 22-month construction schedule will bring the project to fruition about the same time as the $405 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts gets ready to open about four blocks north. The Ballet will be a major performing tenant in that project but will house all its other activities in the new Bolender Center.
After years of searching and considering several other sites, including a block adjacent to the Kauffman Center, in April 2006 the Ballet settled on the old Power House as the place to create its new home.
The 60,000-square-foot brick building, north of Pershing and just east of the Broadway viaduct, will feature seven rehearsal studios, up from four at its current location at 1616 Broadway. A main studio will double as a 180-seat theater for informal performances and for programs put on by other arts groups.
The improvements will enable the ballet to nearly double its present enrollment of 600 students and to serve as a community resource. The school will offer an expanded menu of pilates, salsa, ballroom and other dance classes for the community, and will also make space available to small dance companies and groups.
In addition to practice and rehearsal space, the new Bolender Center will feature a full dressing area and, for the first time, showers for the company. It will also house offices, an expanded costume shop, an archive and a physical therapy area. There will be more than 180 free parking spaces adjacent to the building.
The new center honors Todd Bolender, a former Balanchine dancer who was artistic director of Kansas City Ballet from 1981 to 1996. He died three years ago at the age of 92.
BNIM Architects is designing the renovation.
The structure at present is a leaky wreck filled with old boilers, rusted pipes and pigeon droppings. But architect sketches show what it will look like in 22 months — with 30-foot windows on the north and south sides, a lofty 700- to 800-square-foot reception area, and studios on all three levels. The most radical change involves lowering the first floor eight feet on the north side, where the main studio/theater will be.
Bentley said the architects were trying to keep as many of the original elements of the building as possible.
The Power House, designed by Union Station architect Jarvis Hunt in 1913, supplied coal-powered energy to the surrounding buildings. The new scheme preserves the huge funnel-shaped coal chutes over the reception area, where they hover like industrial chandeliers. The coal chutes will be sandblasted and painted, and will serve as changing rooms for young dance students.
Large rectangular openings where the coal was lowered through the floor will be filled in with glass brick.
On the north side, the architects plan to keep the big gantry crane with a hook to pull equipment.
A long “Texas skylight,” which spans much of the top of the building, has been in danger of collapse and will have to be rebuilt to simulate the historic profile, David Lovetere, a project manager for DST’s MC Realty Group, said on the recent tour.
Extensive soundproofing will eliminate the clank and rumble of the numerous trains that pass close by the property.
The renovation is being financed from a $38 million capital campaign, which also includes a hoped-for $7 million endowment. The tax credits, private donations and a $2 million challenge grant from the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation are helping offset some of the costs.
To date, according to Ballet officials, pledges and fundraising have brought in all but $6.5 million. Still to be raised are about $3 million for construction and $3.5 million for the endowment.
By ALICE THORSON and STEVE PAUL
The Kansas City Star
