A tale of the last two film row districts: historic preservation and urban design in Kansas City and Oklahoma City

ABSTRACT

Film rows existed in 32 North American cities to distribute movies across the continent. This paper examines the diverging outcomes of the last two remaining film row districts in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. After a period of decline, these former warehouse districts have been remade and revalorized as creative spaces in the post-industrial city. Kansas City has no formal recognition of its district and development pressures threaten to erode it further, while Oklahoma City’s has formal historic designation, branding and design review for construction. This paper considers the challenges for historic preservation and urban design for these similar places.

Acknowledgments

Members of the Urban Writing Group at the University of Missouri-Kansas City provided valuable feedback on a draft of this paper, for which the author is grateful.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Online searches indicate other cities have retained individual buildings. Buffalo and Memphis appear to have multiple extant buildings, but sources suggest they may not retain enough integrity to qualify as districts, unlike the case studies presented in this paper (Biddle 2013; Panamerican Consultants, Inc. 2013; Jones 2016; Risher 2017).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the University of Missouri Research Board.