I’m a photographer, and I’ve been in the vacant Imperial brewery near Cambridge Circle dozens of times over the past seven years, so Mike Hendricks’ column (12/24, Local, “Plans drafted for old brewery”) jumped out at me immediately. I just wanted to pose the other side of this argument.
Kansas City is great because it has old buildings. Union Station, the New York Life Building, Mainstreet Theater, Fidelity National Bank Building, the TWA Building and the Freight House Building, among others, were vacant for years, even decades, before they were rehabilitated. I would encourage those who rush to condemn these places as a “five-story heap of bricks” to curb the harsh language.
This city has the character it does because we chose to save the buildings that have shaped our history. We need to err on the side of preservation instead of demolition, eyesore or not.
Ted Caster
Kansas City
