The Boley Building

While I can’t mention the client just yet, I thought I’d post a snippet about the building I’m currently working on, the Boley Building at 12th and Walnut in downtown Kansas City. The Boley Building was designed by famed Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss and constructed in 1908 for Charles Boley and the Boley Clothing Co. While the facts are not totally clear it is commonly accepted that the Boley Building was one of the first examples of curtain wall construction in the world (click here for info on curtain wall construction). Also, it was the first use of rolled steel columns in building construction, as opposed to steel plates riveted together to form at I shape.

The Boley is a beautiful building, a glass box with stunning proportions, and it is a prime example of how architectural innovation can respond to entrepreneurial vision, or vise versa. Charles Boley imagined a building that had floor to ceiling glass facilitating uninterrupted views of his clothing displays. Or rather, Louis Curtiss imagined a building with floor to ceiling glass and Charles Boley had the foresight to adapt to change and realize how this could drastically affect his business. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Either way, both parties realized that the other’s vision could benefit their cause. A curtain wall building had never been attempted before which opened the door wide enough for both the architect and the business owner to see way beyond the status quo. They were thinking in a virtual world with no limitations. When an idea is, at first glance viewed as impossible, and all the familiar constraints are removed it allows us imagine ideas that otherwise wouldn’t have even been considered.

Luckily, for Charles Boley and the architectural world at large, Louis Curtiss had the resolve to make the seemingly impossible possible.