The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) has selected Russell Construction and a Vazquez Grayson joint venture as the construction team to build a planned $35 million museum expansion in Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine district, part of an ongoing revitalization effort in an area that was a center of African-American cultural activity during the first half of the 20th century.
Russell, with offices in Davenport, Iowa, Springfield, Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City, has also been tapped 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 schedule for the projects has not yet been established. Owned by MBE Vazquez Commercial Contracting is located in Kansas City, Missouri, i Grayson Construction is based in Hoover, Ala.
The expansion would more than triple the size of the current museum, which is 10,000 square feet and welcomes about 70,000 visitors a year, according to the museum.
The addition will allow for expanded galleries, flexible event spaces, rotating exhibits and will be built adjacent to the YMCA, which will house the new Buck O’Neil Center for Education and Research, named after the late founding president of the NLBM.
“The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum tells a story that belongs to Kansas City and 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 far beyond the buildings themselves. As a construction partner, our job is to listen to the museum, development partners, design team and community, and then make decisions together as the project takes shape.”
Multistudio is leading the architectural design of the museum and hotel, as well as the master plan for the entire block in collaboration with DRAW Architecture, which will design the multi-family residential units and parking also planned for the district. The development group is Grayson Capital.
In 1997, Multistudio, then known as Gould Evans, designed the current Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum, both located in the district.
Design elements for both the museum and the hotel include clay-toned sandblasted concrete and steel, and tall arches and columns reminiscent of vintage stadiums, says Multistudio.
The museum is 10,000 square meters and has welcomed around 2 million visitors since it moved to its current location in 1997.
