KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After 76 years, the Kansas City Missouri Police Department says that it’s time to give their cramped headquarters a modern makeover.
Officials say that much of the eight-story Art Deco building at 12th and Locust streets hasn’t been upgraded or remodeled since it opened in 1936. The department is now giving the 90,000 square foot facility a $28 million makeover and expansion, which is set to be completed by the spring of 2014.
The project is paid for by a 1/4 cent public safety sales tax passed in 2010.
Much of the work will focus on upgrading and modernizing the building’s ancient infrastructure – plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems. In addition, the renovations will help give officers a modern, private space to interview witnesses and suspects.
A feature of the new, improved police headquarters will be a new community room on the north side of the building, which will provide a larger space for police and other public meetings.
The project will also include a restoration of the building’s exterior. Workers will remove a concrete wall built in front of the building 40 years ago, and will rebuild the original steps and relocating a statue honoring fallen officers closer to the sidewalk.
In addition to the renovations, crews have already cleaned the limestone exterior of the building and have installed news windows.
Officials say that the renovation will also restore much of the building’s Art Deco details, including the lobby’s granite and marble on the first floor and crown molding details throughout the building.
The department’s Human Resources department, along with the fraud and forgery unit and polygraph unit, will move to the former J.E. Dunn Construction Company headquarters building at 9th and Charlotte.
Officials say that the department has been planning the renovations since 1994, so the repairs are a long-time coming.
