West Bottoms Flats Green Infrastructure

The design team is working with a private developer and the Kansas City Missouri Water Services Department to create a pilot Green Infrastructure project in the Historic West Bottoms District. The project has two major inter-related goals: to transform the public realm of the West Bottoms into a place where people want to live and work, and to alleviate the massive volume of stormwater that flows directly into Kansas City’s antiquated combined sewer system.

This Green Infrastructure project is happening in tandem with the West Bottom Flats, a restoration and renovation of five historic warehouses into a mixed use housing project. The project is transforming the impervious alleys and courtyards of the historic district into a series of public spaces that retain the industrial grit and rugged charm of the Bottoms while capturing, storing, and infiltrating stormwater from the building roofs and the ground. The building storm drains, currently flowing directly to the combined sewer, are being detached and funneled into planting zones and water gardens that infiltrate into underground rock storage. Bio-filtration zones are being cut into the ground in areas with poor drainage to alleviate flooding and take advantage of the underlying soils that have extremely high percolation rates, which also helps bring plant ecologies back into a hard post-industrial area. The project captures water off of both private and public spaces, including several city streets, and reduces the load on the combined sewer system.