Arterra Residential Tower

Rising as a beacon in downtown Kansas City, Arterra shines as the new home for eclectic urban living in the Crossroads Art District. As with the district’s name, this 12-story mixed-use building takes cues from the “crossroads” condition of its site.

The taller apartment form faces north and engages the downtown skyline, with the lower parking structure and rooftop pool interacting with shorter buildings to the south. A glass-walled lobby and retail spaces line the street and a rooftop social lounge hovers above.

Lighter-toned brick and vertical standing seam metal panels speak to the district’s eclectic nature and bring variety to the building’s different faces. Staggered windows correspond to the apartment units’ functions. Solid and open balconies wrap all sides of the tower, creating an abstract pattern that conveys a sense of art and diversity.

Beneath the surface of the building facades and balconies, a prefabricated, light-gauge steel structure enhances efficiency. Apartments of different configurations are interwoven like puzzle pieces into the two-foot structural grid of load-bearing stud walls. Structural constraints force each wall, door, balcony and window to come together like a modular kit-of-parts.

Transcending the modularity, Arterra asserts itself as a building that artfully responds to its context and community.