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About Kansas City
Modern Kansas City accommodates nearly 200 of the nation's largest industrial firms, including auto assembly, steel and metal fabrication and food processing plants. Commercial expansion has literally penetrated the core of the city. One of the country's foreign trade zones is found 140 feet underground in limestone caverns: Amid a 6-mile network of roads and railroad tracks, foreign goods are stored, free of import duty, by manufacturers and merchants from all over the world.
An ongoing campaign for civic improvement has left an architectural legacy that prompted French author André Maurois to describe Kansas City as "one of the loveliest cities on Earth." In the 1920s J.C. Nichols imported millions of dollars' worth of statues, many centuries old, to line Kansas City's 140 miles of boulevards and parkways. He also developed Country Club Plaza, a tile-roofed, Moorish-style complex that houses the nation's first shopping center amid Italian fountains and lush greenery.
Union Station, a city icon and the country's second-largest train station, regained its 1914 elegance by way of a massive $250 million restoration. Half of all GIs deployed in World War II passed through the soaring arches of the Grand Hall; today an interactive science museum, theaters and restaurants attract a new generation of visitors.
In testimony to an ambitious building program are the architecturally revolutionary Kansas City International Airport and the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex, with its twin stadiums for professional baseball and football. Crown Center, an ultramodern city within a city near the heart of downtown, is one of the largest private urban renewal projects in the country. Developed by Hallmark Cards Inc., the 85-acre, $400 million facility encompasses a hotel as well as a shopping, dining and entertainment complex.
The architectural distinction of Kansas City is not limited to public landmarks: Loose Memorial Park and its adjoining residential districts represent Kansas City's older community. Across the border, modern architecture graces the suburb of Mission Hills, Kan.
A constant stream of new ideas emanates from the city's major institutions of higher education--the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Rockhurst College. If early civic leaders were able to see present-day Kansas City, they would be relieved that their chosen name of Possum Trot did not stick. As the song from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" goes, "Ev'rythin's up to date in Kansas City."
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