Cultural Institutions
Contractor Selected for Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Expansion in Kansas City
Plans for the project include an expansion of Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and a boutique hotel, totaling $90 million
A $35-million expansion of The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and a 144-roon adjacent, $55-million boutique hotel are planned in Kansas City.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) has chosen Russell Construction and a joint venture of Vazquez Grayson as the construction team to build a planned $35-million museum expansion in Kansas City's historic 18th & Vine District, part of an on-going revitalization effort in an area that was a hub of African-American cultural activity during the first half of the 20th century.
Russell, with offices in Davenport, Iowa, Springfield, Mo., St. Louis, and Kansas City, has also been selected to build a $55-million, 144-room Pennant Hotel on the museum campus adjacent to the historic Paseo YMCA, where Andrew “Rube” Foster formed the Negro National League (NNL) in 1920.
A construction timeline has not yet been set for the projects. MBE-owned Vazquez Commercial Contracting is located in Kansas City, Mo., and Grayson Construction is based in Hoover, Ala.
The expansion would more than triple the size of the current museum, which is 10,000 sq ft and welcomes about 70,000 visitors a year, the museum says.
The addition will allow for expanded galleries, flexible event spaces, rotating exhibitions and will be built adjoining the YMCA, which will house the new Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center, named after the NLBM’s late founding chairman.
"The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum tells a story that belongs to Kansas City and to the nation," Ryan Schroeder, president of Russell’s Kansas City office, told ENR in an email. "Its expansion and the Pennant Hotel carry expectations that go well beyond the buildings themselves, As the construction partner, our job is to listen to the museum, development partners, the design team and the community, then work through decisions together as the project takes shape.”
Multistudio is leading the architectural design for the museum and hotel as well as the master plan of the full block in partnership with DRAW Architecture, who will design multifamily residential units and the parking garage also planned in the district. The development group is Grayson Capital.
In 1997, Multistudio—then known as Gould Evans—designed the current Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum, both located in the district.
Design elements for both the museum and hotel include sandy, clay-hued concrete and steel and high arches and columns reminiscent of vintage stadiums, Multistudio says.
The museum is 10,000 sq ft and has welcomed about 2 million visitors since it located to its current location in 1997.
