Kivett and Myers

History

Kivett's first big design project was the Art Deco design of the flagship Katz Drug Store (1934), later an Osco, at Kansas City's Main Street and Westport Road in the Westport neighborhood. The owners, Mike and Ike Katz, were his mother's brothers.

He was joined by Ralph Myers in 1940, and they became partners in Kivett and Myers in 1945.

They went on to design the Cumonow Residence in Mission Hills, Kansas, the Missouri State Office Building at 13th and Holmes, the old Temple B'nai Jehudah at 69th and Holmes, Spencer Chemistry and Biological Sciences Building at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the Fairmount Hotel in the Country Club Plaza and the Mission Hills Country Club clubhouse.

The partners had a major role in the introduction and expansion of modern architecture in Kansas City and were committed to modernist principles. The two most-prominent commissions came in the late 1960s and early 1970s with terminals and control tower at Kansas City International Airport (a design layout with in "C" shape so that all gates were within a few feet of the road) and the Truman Sports Complex for Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals.

A prominent feature of the stadia design favoured by Kivett and Myers is the spiral ramps leading to the higher echelons of seating. This can be seen at Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City (as well as the now-demolished Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey). The initial design in 1967 called for the baseball and football stadiums to be built side by side sharing the same parking infrastructure as well as a rolling roof that was to slide from one stadium to the other. The concepts of separate stadiums for baseball and football was revolutionary at the time when stadiums were designed as gigantic multipurpose venues. The rolling roof was initially too expensive and too impractical in Kansas City. However, it was to be applied at several stadiums elsewhere in the decades that followed.