Skylines
When you think of iconic skylines, what do you think of?
Maybe you think of New York City or Dubai or Sydney, Australia.
What about Wichita?
Some people say there is no “skyline” in Wichita. You know what we say to those people?
“Welcome to Wichita, home of the Keeper of the Plains. Can I take your order?” (Goodburger reference for the uncultured)
We will break down the buildings that make up the skyline over a few deep dives.
The History of Wichita’s Skyline
Before we dissect individual buildings like a 7th grade science class, why does a skyline matter? In 2019, the Chung Report stated:
“A city’s skyline is its calling card — an iconic silhouette instantly recognizable by anyone familiar with its major features.”
As we all know all too well, Kansas is “flatter than a pancake”. We are on the plains and therefore any building with a unique shape and any height at all will affect the skyline.
Since Wichita was founded in 1870, it has seen a few changes.
Limestone towers were typically used around town for tall buildings. One of the few remaining buildings is the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum which was originally the Wichita City Hall. This building was built between 1889 and 1892.
Fast forward to the 1910s & 1920s and Wichita really started to reach for the skies (comparatively) with high-rise buildings. A couple include:
- Union National Bank Building → Now the Ambassador Hotel
- Ellis-Singleton Building → Now the Petroleum Building
(There are actually a number of Wichita landmarks registered with the Historic Preservation Alliance.)
The style then was still pretty blocky.
Fast forward again to the “urban renewal” and Wichita started to get some more flavor. As part of this, many of the original historic buildings were torn down to make room for new ones.
Century II was built and opened in 1969.
Around this time, architect Dean Bradley and his firm, designed many of the buildings around the Garvey Center Tower as well as the Epic Center (the tallest building in Kansas btw, built in 1989) which was the most recent high-rise in town up until Fidelity Bank built an office tower and parking deck.
In future deep dives, we will dive deep into several of the following:
- Epic Center
- Garvey Center Tower
- Ambassador Hotel
- Petroleum Building
- High Touch Building
- Sutton Place
- Exploration Place
- Fidelity Bank
- and more!
What do you want to learn more about? What buildings come to mind when you think of the Wichita skyline?
If you like the skyline, we have a couple options for you:
More color options coming in 2023!