Chambers Building

The steel tower on 12th and Walnut Streets in downtown Kansas City, Mo., was preserved through the development of the surrounding Power & Light District, which would surely delight its namesake. R.C. Chambers had not lived in Kansas City for over half a century before the building’s 1915 construction. Chambers had left his hometown in 1850, headed west for California to find a fortune. Instead he happened upon quartz mining in Utah, and accrued some serious wealth before his death in 1901. His siblings in Kansas City used a $10,000 chunk of the estate to buy a plot downtown—then the highest real estate price tag in city history. The Chambers Building began as a five-story structure designed by noted Kansas City firm Smith, Rea, and Lovitt; then Charles A. Smith designed an additional seven for a 1923 addition. The office tower was converted into lofts in 2003.