produced a massive study of the downtown area. Called KC/80, the work was summarized in a large model of the central business district. Starting with the givens of the great freeway loop and the bridges that crossed the river, large areas of new construction were plotted to provide for a modern, vital urban core. Historic preservation, however, had no significant role in Kansas City planning in the late 1950s. For that matter, not until the late 1960s was there a large enough collective concern to make the issue felt. Consequently, it was not uncommon to see planning proposals for downtown that simply eliminated many older buildings or hid them behind depersonalized veneers. The objective was to make over large sections of the downtown area. There was an enormous amount of faith that this would be realized and that the results would be a great improvement.

As a case in point, the public library after many crowded years was able to move in 1959 to a new facility at Twelfth and Oak, just west of the County Courthouse (Fig. 142). Large, modern, and more conveniently located, the new

Fig. 141. SIXTH STREET EXPRESSWAY, looking east from the Wyandotte viaduct. (photo 1976)

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