Jackson County Courthouse vs Kansas City Power and Light Building

Comparing the Jackson County Courthouse and the Kansas City Power and Light Building is interesting because they both stand in Kansas City, MO, and were completed within 3 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Kansas City Power and Light Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 482ft (147m) with 34 floors above ground, while the Jackson County Courthouse reaches 295ft (90m) with 22 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Jackson County Courthouse and the Kansas City Power and Light Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Wight & Wight and Hoit, Price & Barnes followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Jackson County Courthouse is primarily governmental, while the Kansas City Power and Light Building is primarily residential.

Originally, the Kansas City Power and Light Building was designed for commercial, but over time it was converted to residential. The Jackson County Courthouse by contrast has maintained its original role.

The Kansas City Power and Light Building offers 210 residential units.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.