Municipal Auditorium (1935), Kansas City, Missouri
Completed in 1935 as the first project of Kansas City’s Depression-era Ten-Year Plan bond program, the Municipal Auditorium at West 13th Street — designed by Gentry, Voskamp & Neville in Streamline Moderne and Art Deco — was called one of the ten best buildings in the world by the Architectural Record in its opening year and one of the 500 most important architectural works in the United States by Princeton Architectural Press in 2000.
At a glance
The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium stands at 301 West 13th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, one block south of the Power & Light District. The building combines the Music Hall (2,400 seats) and the Arena (7,300 permanent seats) within a single Streamline Moderne and Art Deco complex. Designed by the lead firm of Gentry, Voskamp & Neville (with Homer F. Neville as lead designer) and constructed by Swenson Construction Company at a cost of $6.5 million, it opened in 1935 as the first building completed under the “Ten-Year Plan” — a $40 million bond program approved by Kansas City voters in 1931 at the depth of the Depression. The Architectural Record ranked it one of the ten best buildings in the world in the year of its opening.
Key facts
- Opened: 1935
- Style: Streamline Moderne, Art Deco
- Lead architect: Gentry, Voskamp & Neville (Homer F. Neville, lead designer)
- Associated architects: Hoit, Price & Barnes (mechanical systems)
- Builder: Swenson Construction Company
- Cost: $6.5 million (1935)
- Music Hall capacity: 2,400 seats
- Arena capacity: 7,300 permanent + 2,687 temporary
- Recognition: Architectural Record Top 10 buildings worldwide, 1935; Princeton Architectural Press Top 500 US architectural works, 2000
- Part of: Kansas City Ten-Year Plan ($40 million civic bond program, 1931)
- Address: 301 West 13th Street, Kansas City, Missouri
- GPS: 39.09835, −94.58642
History
In 1931, at the depth of the Great Depression, Kansas City voters approved the Ten-Year Plan by a four-to-one margin — a $40 million bond program to build a cluster of civic buildings that would employ workers, modernize the city’s public infrastructure, and demonstrate civic confidence at a moment of national economic crisis. The Municipal Auditorium was selected as the first project of the Ten-Year Plan; its completion in 1935 preceded the construction of the Kansas City City Hall and the Jackson County Courthouse, both of which were also Ten-Year Plan buildings. The program was championed by Boss Tom Pendergast, the Democratic political machine leader whose influence over Kansas City in the 1920s and 1930s was absolute, and who saw the Ten-Year Plan as both a genuine civic benefit and a source of construction contracts for allied firms.
The architectural commission for the Municipal Auditorium was divided by city manager Henry F. McElroy between two firms: Gentry, Voskamp & Neville (whose principal Alonzo H. Gentry had family ties to the Democratic machine) took the lead design role, with Hoit, Price & Barnes (known for the Kansas City Power & Light Building and other Art Deco commercial towers) responsible for the mechanical engineering. Homer F. Neville served as lead designer. The decision to divide the commission was controversial — Hoit, Price & Barnes were considerably larger and more prominent — but Neville’s design was allowed to proceed without political interference. The Architectural Record called the result one of the ten best buildings in the world in 1935; sixty-five years later, Princeton Architectural Press included it among the 500 most important architectural works in the United States.
What you see
The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium combines the Streamline Moderne’s emphasis on horizontal massing and smooth-surfaced volumes with Art Deco decorative accents in the entrance bays and cornice work. The Music Hall facade on 13th Street — the portion visible in most photographs — presents a horizontal composition organized around the main entrance, with a pronounced horizontal banding of the window openings and smooth-surfaced stone above and between the glazed bays. The decorative program at the entrance level includes Art Deco carved stone reliefs and metalwork; above the main block, the roofline is handled with the clean geometry characteristic of late-Streamline civic architecture.
The interior of the Music Hall is one of the finest surviving civic Streamline Moderne interiors in the Midwest: the stage and auditorium are designed with an eye to acoustic performance as well as visual effect, and the lobby spaces preserve the material palette of 1935 — polished stone floors, metal banisters, and the decorative details in brass and bronze that characterize the period’s civic interiors. The Arena portion, immediately adjacent, serves a different program — sporting events, large conventions — and its interior reflects that more utilitarian character.
Practical information
- Active municipal performance and event facility; the Music Hall hosts the Kansas City Symphony, touring productions, and civic events.
- The building exterior and the Music Hall lobby are accessible on event days; the building connects via skywalks to the H. Roe Bartle Convention Center.
- Tickets for Music Hall events through kc-symphony.org and various ticket platforms; the Arena hosts separate events on a different schedule.
Getting there
The Municipal Auditorium is at 301 West 13th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, one block south of the Power & Light entertainment district. Kansas City International Airport (MCI) is approximately 18 miles northwest. The KC Streetcar runs along Main Street one block east, connecting the auditorium to Union Station and the Crossroads Arts District. By car, I-35 and I-70 provide the main highway approaches to downtown; the Grand Boulevard exit provides the most direct access to the 13th Street civic corridor.
Nearby
- Kansas City City Hall (1937) — a 30-story Art Deco skyscraper one block north on 12th Street, also a Ten-Year Plan building
- Kansas City Power & Light Building (1931) — an Art Deco skyscraper designed by Hoit, Price & Barnes, the associated architect of the Auditorium, visible from the Auditorium’s main entrance
- Union Station Kansas City — the 1914 Beaux-Arts train station and science/history museum complex, approximately 1.5 miles south at Pershing Road
Sources
- Wikipedia: “Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City, Missouri)”
- Gray, Meghan L. “Forgotten Landmark: The Municipal Auditorium of Kansas City, Missouri.” M.A. thesis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2013
- Architectural Record: “Ten best buildings of the world,” 1935
- Kidder, G.E. Smith. Source Book of American Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press, 2000, p. 381
- Wikimedia Commons: Kansas_City_Music_Hall.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0, Syaffe93
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Diventa un fotografo di Cultural Heritage Online
Condividi le tue foto dei luoghi: restano pubblicate con la tua firma come autore. Più vengono viste, più ti fai conoscere — e presto un concorso premierà le foto più apprezzate.
Accedi o registrati gratis per aggiungere una fotoDo you manage this place?
This page is read by travellers and heritage enthusiasts who find it on Google. Keep it accurate — and make it work for you. Free for non-profit heritage institutions.