Colonnades of the Midwest
Both sunrise and dusk photos are among my favorite kinds of urban photography methods, as I find they help convey the more inscrutable, inconspicuous facets of urban form and design that a city exudes, normally unseen in the usual daytime pictures.
Ubiquitous throughout midtown Kansas City, Missouri, are the endearing Colonnade style apartment buildings that comprise a great deal of the residential architecture in the city. They are most frequently found ranging from two to three stories, plus basements.
These three photographs are from my block, in what is the convergence of the Westport and West Plaza neighborhoods of KCMO — an area of the city that began settlement in the 1920s, as this quintessential American metropolis of its time expanded with fervor. Now, these buildings are pieces of antiquity in American architectural history. Without fail, I find more contemporary attempts at multi-family residential developments in this city to be… questionable.
Tags: Photography
Christopher DeWolf says:
You’re right — dusk photos really are alluring, if they’re properly done. I like those apartment buildings, too. They’re very reminiscent of other types of two and three-storey residential buildings around the world: three-flats in Chicago, triplexes in Montreal, shophouses in Singapore.
September 29th, 2006 at 9:59 pm