Architecture A-Z: ‘F’ is for Faultless Starch, Fidelity Security, 4646 [The Kansas City Star, Mo.]

April 27--Here's another entry in our elemental, alphabetical guide to Kansas City's built environment.

Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Co.

This venerable Kansas City company traces its roots back about 125 years. After its first West Bottoms building was destroyed by flood in 1903, the company built a six-story brick structure, at 1025 W. Eighth St., employing the noted architectural firm of Shepard and Farrar. The company added buildings as it grew over the next century. After the great flood of 1951 filled its first floor, the company rebounded and was back in business within two weeks. Following a fire in the 1990s, Faultless planned another expansion, to the tune of $17 million, and helped spark a new era of stewardship and development in the bottoms. The interconnected additions included a 125,000-square-foot warehouse across the street.

Fidelity Security Life Building

A company associated with Forrest T. Jones built this six-story, marble-clad office building, at 3130 Broadway, in 1965-66 at the time of an insurance industry boom in Kansas City. The architect was Dow Gumerson of Oklahoma City. "That was one of my favorite projects my dad ever did," said Bill Gumerson, the architect's son and owner of a design-build firm. The younger Gumerson was in architecture school at the time and recalls helping his father build a model of the building. The clean, articulated lines and the deep entryway reflected modern styles of the day, but many interior details, including ash urns and decorative ceramic reliefs, stemmed from the elder Gumerson's passion for Aztec culture. Historical sidelight: Gumerson (1914-78) also designed the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City, which survived the devastating 1995 explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building across the street.

Forty-six Forty-sixBroadway

From its perch on the northern edge of the Country Club Plaza, this modernist luxury condo tower, completed in 2007, stands as a sleek glass contrast to the district's mostly Spanish style. "The building reflects not only its time, but its use," Denver architect Chris Shears told The Star at the project's outset. According to developer George Birt, the crystalline design of the 12-story, 18-unit shaft was inspired by architect Richard Meier'sPerry Street condo buildings in New York from a few years earlier. One might note that the latter had the attraction of the Hudson River, which Meier's buildings faced. But from their hilltop lofts, residents of 4646 Broadway have commanding views of its surroundings, including the winding channel of Brush Creek .

Sources: The Kansas City Star; Cydney Millstein; Kansas City Historic Preservation Office; Bill Gumerson.

Steve Paul, senior writer and arts editor: 816-234-4762, [email protected]; on Twitter: @sbpaul .

___

(c)2012 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.)

<p class="shirttail">Visit The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) at www.kansascity.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services