Limestone and ziggurat setbacks climb 29 stories in front of you: Kansas City City Hall, an Art Deco tower completed in 1937 that remains one of the finest examples of civic architecture in the American Midwest. At the height of the Great Depression, Kansas City built this — a public statement that the city intended to survive and thrive. The building's limestone exterior, ziggurat setbacks, and ornamental metalwork are characteristic of the Art Deco style at its most confident: the period when American cities believed that great public buildings were moral obligations, not fiscal luxuries.
The view from the 30th-floor observation deck is remarkable — on a clear day you can see the full sweep of the metropolitan area, the Missouri River, and the bluffs of Kansas in the distance. The building's construction was itself a product of the Pendergast machine: Tom Pendergast's concrete company supplied materials for its foundation, and city contracts flowed generously to politically connected contractors. That the building is beautiful despite its corrupt origins is a kind of historical irony that Kansas City has made a certain peace with.
The machine built badly and well simultaneously. The City Hall it left behind will outlast the memory of how it was built.