October 8, 2001

Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment Association, (785) 832-7336.

UtiliCorp United's gift to KU helps students document historic structure

LAWRENCE -- The Kansas City-based international energy company UtiliCorp United has given $15,000 to help University of Kansas architecture students document a historic downtown Kansas City building, KU School of Architecture and Urban Design Dean John Gaunt announced today.

The gift to the Kansas University Endowment Association increased the company's total commitment for the Recording and Representing Historic Structures Program to $100,000 since 1998. Architecture students participating in the program produce three-dimensional drawings that show intricate architectural details of buildings. UtiliCorp United's gifts have funded scholarships for the students who documented 20 W. 9th St., an 1880s structure that currently serves as the company's headquarters.

An exhibition about the project, which concluded during summer 2001, can be viewed Oct. 9 through 17 at the Art and Design Gallery in the KU art and design building on the Lawrence campus. The exhibition includes 20 ink-on-Mylar drawings and supporting materials, such as initial sketches, photographs and pencil drawings.

"Historians and architects need precise drawings that detail a structure from many angles because final construction of a structure often varies from the original building plans," said Dean Gaunt. "UtiliCorp United's generous support has provided our students with a professional opportunity to visually preserve one of Kansas City's most famous buildings."

Steve Padget, associate professor of architecture and director of the Recording and Representing Historic Structures Program, said that 20 W. 9th was a significant structure in the Kansas City area because it was designed by McKim Mead and White, the most influential architectural firm of the late 1800s.

Like all drawings created through the program, the final ink-on-Mylar drawings, plans, photographs and historical information about 20 W. 9th will be entered in a national student architecture competition and then archived in the Historic American Buildings Survey collection at the Library of Congress. If any of the surveyed buildings deteriorate or are altered in future construction, the archived drawings serve as a record of the building's details that can be used by future designers, architects or scholars.

Other buildings completed through the program include Spooner Hall on the KU campus in Lawrence, the Pony Express station in Hanover and Union Station in Kansas City, Mo.

UtiliCorp United, a Fortune 100 company, serves more than 4 million people across the United States and in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. The company has supported several other areas at KU, including the School of Journalism, the School of Fine Arts, the Lied Center and the Kansas Alumni Association.

The Kansas University Endowment Association is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for the University of Kansas. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.