RULE 91 | SAVE THOSE BUILDINGS

WALKABLE WICHITA: LESSONS FROM JEFF SPECK

BY RAMI STUCKY

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Bob Beardsley could not do it. As the city’s historical preservationist, he was tasked with writing a letter to Ramon Powers at the state’s preservation office. The Wichita City Council had recently voted to tear down the Allis Hotel, a 17-story building built by Kansas City hotel magnate Barney Allis in 1929. Lying at 200 S. Broadway, the building’s art deco design was patterned after New York City’s Waldorf Astoria. During its heyday, it had three restaurants, a beauty parlor, a florist, and a drugstore. Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, and Elvis Presley all signed the guest book over the years.[1] The interior featured marble and oak floors, terra-cotta and gold molding, chandeliers, and brass stair railings.[2]

However, in 1970, the hotel closed. The property became derelict and delinquent on its taxes. Locals began calling it the “world’s largest birdhouse.”[3] In 1994, the City of Wichita, which had recently purchased the property, asked Beardsley to endorse the demolition and receive support from Powers. Beardsley resigned in protest, citing “deep philosophical conflicts regarding my job versus my work.”[4] A few months later, Ann Schowengerdt and Wilma Sehnert also resigned from Wichita’s Historic Preservation Board.[5] On December 22, 1996, the building was demolished. For decades after, the land on which it sat was simply a surface-level parking lot.

“Save those buildings,” argues urban planner Jeff Speck in Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Places Better. Against a landscape of “increasing homogeneity, it is principally a community’s prewar buildings that serve to distinguish it from everywhere else and make it worth visiting,” he argues.[6] Historical districts offer more than just walkability. They create more jobs per square foot of development, more small businesses, and more creative jobs. They invite fewer chain businesses, more new businesses, and dramatically more women-owned and minority-owned businesses. They are more resilient in economic downturns than newer places and suffer fewer foreclosures. Furthermore, every dollar spent on preservation generates 26 percent in increased tax revenue. Preservation grants also create 27 times as many jobs per dollar spent as the 2008 economic stimulus.[7]

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The Wichita City Council was not convinced, though. To their credit, they tried numerous times to get the Allis redeveloped. Shortly after purchasing the hotel in 1994, the city sent out 50 requests for proposals to rehabilitate the property. They received no offers. At the final hour, Grand Heritage Hotels and the Finch Group, national companies that specialize in historic preservation, tried to swoop in and save the building. However, estimates were in the range of $10 million (compared to just short of $1 million for the city to demolish it). Neither company thought this cost was reasonable and ultimately backed out.[8] At the same time, the city council never really seemed committed to saving the building. In 1991, they had already condemned the entire parcel, including the adjacent Rule Building, built in 1924. In 1994, the Rule Building was demolished. Even if saved, the Allis Hotel would tower above a sea of asphalt.[9]

There is a silver lining to the story. After close to three decades, something exciting is replacing the Allis. A $302 million campus partnership between Wichita State University, the University of Kansas, and WSU Tech will “transform Wichita’s downtown into a prominent center for cutting-edge research, advanced medical technologies, and high-value job opportunities.”[10] The new biomedical campus, built on the southeast corner of Broadway and William, will bring 3,000 students and 200 faculty and staff members to the corner where the Allis once stood. Doing so will “drive increased foot traffic for local businesses, restaurants, bars, and retail establishments.”[11] Helix US is the architecture firm designing the new campus. Although their new building lacks the historical qualities of the Allis, it has taken cues from the surrounding landscape of the Flint Hills and mimics its stair-stepped landscape in its design.[12]

Such development should be seen as the exception, though. About 11 percent of all parcels in downtown Wichita were built during the 1930s or earlier. Some examples include the Petroleum Building, Grant Telegraph Centre, the Eaton Hotel, and the Orpheum. Some of them, such as the Commodore and the Shirkmere, used to be affordable housing options that have since been abandoned.[13] They are at risk of being torn down. To save them, Speck suggests using “social and economic arguments to fight for the preservation of historic buildings, districts, and tax credit programs.”[14] Doing so will not just improve the walkability of downtown, allowing pedestrians to see a range of interesting buildings, materials, and architectural styles. They will also enhance downtown’s economy.  

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[1] Bud Norman, “Brass Tacks Time for Allis Hotel,” Wichita Eagle, August 16, 1993, 21–23.

[2] Beccy Tanner, “Once-Grand Allis No Wonderland,” Wichita Eagle, March 8, 1994, 25–27.

[3] Norman, “Brass Tacks Time for Allis Hotel.”

[4] Beccy Tanner, “Preservationist for City Turns in Resignation,” Wichita Eagle, September 22, 1994, 29; Beccy Tanner, “Friends of Allis Enlist Assistance from Planner,” Wichita Eagle, October 23, 1994, 24..

[5] “Conflict,” Wichita Eagle, January 23, 1995, 12.

[6] Jeff Speck, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places (Island Press, 2018), 216.

[7] Speck, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, 216–17.

[8] Bill Bartel, “New Interest in Allis Hotel Delays Vote,” Wichita Eagle, June 8, 1996, 11; Bill Roy, “Renovators Reject Allis Hotel Job,” Wichita Eagle, September 7, 1996, 12.

[9] Norman, “Brass Tacks Time for Allis Hotel”; Beccy Tanner, “Rule’s Rule: More Filling Stations,” Wichita Eagle, September 22, 1994.

[10] “Wichita Biomedical Campus,” Downtown Wichita, n.d., https://downtownwichita.org/listing/5597/wichita-biomedical-campus.

[11] Downtown Wichita, “Wichita Biomedical Campus.”

[12] “Wichita Biomedical Campus,” Helix, n.d., https://www.helixus.com/project/wichita-biomedical-campus/.

[13] Lauren McMillan, “Fire Crews Secure Commodore after Bricks Fall from Building,” KSN, February 26, 2025, https://www.ksn.com/news/local/large-emergency-response-after-bricks-fall-from-commodore/; Derek Lytle, “Developer Trying to Restore Historic Downtown Building for Affordable Housing,” KSN, May 7, 2024, https://www.ksn.com/news/local/developer-trying-to-restore-historic-downtown-building-for-affordable-housing/.

[14] Speck, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, 217.