2460 Pershing is part of a cluster of buildings known as a "skyscraper on its side." The building will soon be home to BNIM, who will take 20,000 spread across two floors.
After plans for a living headquarters in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District fell through, BNIM has announced it has found a new 20,000 square foot home in Crown Center. The locally based architecture firm will take up residence in one of the Edward Larrabee Barnes’ Pershing Buildings, otherwise known as a “skyscraper on its side.” Located at 2460 Pershing, the firm promises to create a “transformative space” featuring the latest workplace strategies and sustainable and human-centered wellness design.
Lured to Crown Center by the district’s latest environmental efforts, BNIM signed a five-year lease for two floors of the building. Those sustainability measures incorporated into Crown Center over the last year have resulted in a 39 percent energy usage reduction, 25 percent water usage reduction and 61 percent waste reduction.
“BNIM is committed to Kansas City, our city, today and in the future,” BNIM CEO Steve McDowell said. “We were thoughtful about this move to Crown Center because it affords us the opportunity to demonstrate our passions for design, transforming existing buildings, and the pursuit of the most innovative design ideas right here in Kansas City, while remaining in the downtown we have always called home. All disciplines – architecture, landscape architecture, interiors, planning, urban design and environmental graphics – are collaborating in the transformation.”
BNIM's former plans for a living headquarters at 16th and Baltimore fell through in February. More on that story here.
It remains to be seen whether the plan for the Crown Center office will be as progressive and comprehensive as the plan BNIM revealed for its living headquarters at 1640 Baltimore. That $9.4 million plan featured some of the most stringent living building standards on the planet, but ultimately was abandoned when an incentive package deal fell through in February.
The 2460 office building is part of Crown Center’s Pershing Road row, which encompasses six connected structures that total almost 600,000 square feet of space. BNIM will be the first to take residency in the 270,000 square feet of space coming to the market at the multi-use complex located on the southern edge of downtown Kansas City. Today, Crown Center is made up of 2 million square feet of office space, 1,500 hotel rooms, and 235 residential units. The team hopes the new sustainable and human-centered space designed by BNIM will serve as a model for future Crown Center projects.
BNIM is currently housed at 1735 Baltimore, but plans to move in by the end of the year. Represented by JLL, the firm will continue to evaluate office space as needed. Currently, BNIM employs 95 people in its Kansas City office and more than 150 company-wide.