KCRag Forum

zonk wrote: that SUCKS....I loved that house.

I loved it's quirky presence too, but it was a poorly built dog.

I took a few snaps before sundown.  I'll post more, but I have to get to practice.  Never enough time to edit photos... Ever...




And here's a few weeks ago, October 29th to be exact.

Are you kidding me?  Schugg and I were there earlier today taking photos...



And yes, it will be missed!  I loved that house!

hahaha what a kwinki dink.




and the beautiful house that they (cresta bella) will not be able to match that is right across the street. my favorite house on the westside. It was some kind of christian (cult like) church in the mid 80's and as a kid I spent many hours in this house doing art's & crafts and singing.
I am glad to see this back as a single family home.

Fang wants to ride around with Schugg and AllThingsKC taking photos.  Sounds fun.  Can we speak German or Japanese while doing it?

FangKC wrote: Fang wants to ride around with Schugg and AllThingsKC taking photos.  Sounds fun.  Can we speak German or Japanese while doing it?

I wanna go too!  I speak German... But only in my sleep.

I posted this blog earlier this morning.

If you live in Kansas City you know that you've seen it... That architectual oddity overlooking downtown on the west side of I-35.  Sitting on the northeast corner of 18th and Jefferson for the past 20 years, everyone that has ever laid eyes on the building have been filled with awe.


http://www.pitch.com/2006-10-26/news/the-high-life/

"The Strip tracked down Jim Tharp, the original owner of the unconventional abode. Tharp told this meat patty that in the early '80s, he was between business ventures and decided to put his idle hands to work building his own home in the eclectic hilltop neighborhood. He wanted a room with a view that wouldn't be obstructed if the church next door added a second level, so he knew that he had to build tall. He also knew that he wanted something he'd never seen before."

"Over the 18 years Tharp lived there, the highway head-turner created plenty of unique encounters. During the 1985 World Series, he says, the Goodyear blimp stopped 100 feet from his window on every pass, and he'd wave to each load of VIPs. A decade later, he says, he got a nod from the leader of the free world as a caravan carried Bill Clinton from a Kansas City speaking engagement to the airport via I-35. 

"We raised the blinds and turned on all the lights, and I waved my arm," he says. He happened to know the congressman sharing the car with the commander in chief. "Then the phone rings, and President Clinton says, 'That's the craziest thing I ever saw.'"

As I took photos in October of 2007 a lady approched me to talk about the house. She said, "The little stilts on the front don't actually touch the ground, Tharp had it built that way, the city made him put them there, but he knew that his house wouldn't fall down."

So now we say goodbye to another landmark.

















I still have more that I need to do... The ol' ball and chain wouldn't let me stay up and play... 

acepiloto wrote:

Looks like a big steel dinosaur just attacked the house!  Grab the kids and RUN!!!!

acepiloto wrote: I wanna go too!

PM me.

Thanks for posting more photos.  They're beautiful (or not)...  I guess it depends on how you look at it.

"They're nice photos of a sad situation." 

AllThingsKC wrote: PM me.

Thanks for posting more photos.  They're beautiful (or not)...  I guess it depends on how you look at it.

"They're nice photos of a sad situation." 

Thank you, I enjoy doing it.

PumpkinStalker wrote: Looks like a big steel dinosaur just attacked the house!  Grab the kids and RUN!!!!

That's what I thought!  So I felt like it might turn out to be a good shot.  I guess that it did.

Acepiloto's shot look like they are taken from the film "The Day After."

I didn't think of it that way, but now I do.

I added some more pics.

nice pic's!  do you live nearby?

Thank you! Yup, I live on Quality Hill.

And BTW, AllThingsKC, you have PM.

This thoroughly pisses me off...isn't this the same group that wants to tear down half of the brick apartments over on Cleaver?

What a complete lack of respect for the city and for a wonderful house.  I wish we had some kind of protection for buildings worth keeping.  Another one for Kansas City Then and Now...

Oh, and the argument that it was in bad shape...that's the same line they always use when they want to tear something down that they know will piss people off. 

I'm sorry, but I really didn't care about this house.  It was more billboard/highway architecture than neighborhood/urban architecture.  It looked cool from the highway, but when you drove or walked down its street, it really looked and felt awkward.  It had an ugly blank base, and I think it was turned the totally wrong direction.  The huge windows needed to face downtown too, that view was blocked by the thick wall...isn't that the $ shot?  Not much of a loss in my opinion...although, it will be weird to drive down the traffic way and not see it.

Windows face south for a southern exposure -- fairly necessary in a temperate climate.  I suspect the blank was was the support for the sturcture as well as serving as a staircase.  My suspicion is that it was built sort of like a skyscraper where the load bearing component of the structure was in the stairwell.  I suspect also that it really held only a fraction of the wieght that it could've supported.  It was a great example of urban modernism applied in an area where it usually isn't applied (residential).  It used the suburban tract plan in an area that is mainly urban, and also was overcrowed at the time (as it still is) with low quality shotgun style high density housing.  I think the load bearing aspects and the modernist touches made it architecturally interesting and a nice landmark that will be sorely missed.  What are they putting there now?  Particleboard mcmansions?