Questions and Answers about the Kauffman Center

Date: January 25, 2008

Author: Kauffman Center

As we talk to groups around town we get many interesting questions about the Kauffman Center.  Some are asked so frequently that we thought they deserved special attention in Opus Online.

So here are some things you may have wondered about, too.  Parking.  Heating (and cooling) the glass lobby. Restrooms.  And more.

Will there be ample parking at the Kauffman Center?

A parking garage with more than 1,000 spaces will be built directly south of the Kauffman Center. We have run the numbers, using input from other existing centers around the country.  The results indicate that there will be ample parking to support activities occurring in both halls simultaneously. 

• The garage will be directly attached to the Kauffman Center and will have multiple exits and 
entrances to surrounding streets. 
• Audiences can enter the Kauffman Center underground and avoid the weather. There will be ample 
sidewalks and elevators to and from the garage.
• During good weather, guests can choose to emerge from the garage and stroll to the center on top of 
the garage, through landscaped green space.  
• The garage be owned and run by the City of Kansas City, Missouri.

We anticipate that audience members will be able to prepay parking for easy entry to and egress from the garage.

Will there be adequate restrooms at the Kauffman Center?

We hear this so often that we realized there must be a problem at other performance spaces in town.  So we asked an opera staff member to count the available stalls at the Lyric Theater and learned that there are a mere 41 restroom stalls available to patrons there!

At the Kauffman Center, there will be 196 public restroom stalls throughout the building.

Won’t it cost a fortune to heat (or cool?) that huge glass lobby?

The atrium lobby uses an efficient radiant heating and cooling system. As required by the weather, hot or chilled water is delivered to the lobby through tubes embedded in the slab floor. This delivers cooling and heating to the occupants where it is needed (primarily in the 10-foot-high area people inhabit) and also reduces the need for fan energy.

The atrium lobby and performance halls are conditioned through displacement ventilation systems. This allows for lower fan energy and uses less ventilation air than a typical overhead mixed system. Variable air volume air handling units will be utilized in areas of diverse occupancy. The system will deliver the cooling and ventilation required by each occupied zone.

Is it taking a longer time than normal to open the Kauffman Center? 

A performing arts center, according to our design team, is one of the two most complex building types, second only to a medical research facility.  From conception to launch, these facilities are often in development for 15 – 20 years.  Creation of the Disney Concert Hall took place over 17 years.

First steps toward creation of the Kauffman Center took place when land was acquired in late 1998 and the organization was incorporated in 1999.  By comparison to other such centers, the Kauffman Center is on somewhat of a “fast track,” although we understand the community’s excitement, urgency and anticipation of the new performing arts center.

There has been much talk about the excellent acoustics in the concert hall. Will the proscenium theater have good acoustics?

Achieving acoustic perfection in both performance halls is a priority. However, special testing was not needed for the Proscenium Theater.  Acoustics can be planned for its more traditional shape using available acoustical software and sound-engineering tools. 

Patrons can count on Proscenium Theater having fabulous acoustics, plus high-tech lighting and state-of-the-art theatrical systems. 

I’ve seen renderings of the Concert Hall and the acoustical model. What is that large shape that hangs from the ceiling in the Concert Hall?

This suspended, rectangular object is called a “tunable canopy.”   It will be adjusted to “tune the sound” of the hall to suit the conductor and orchestra when the center opens.  In future years, a different conductor might prefer a change in tuning. 

Have a question you’d like us to answer in a future issue?  Send an email to Opus Online editor, Dalene Bradford, at dbradford@kauffmancenter.org.  Or call her at 816-994-7235.