New digs

I'll get back to the mini-travelogue about South Africa tomorrow, but I wanted to give a nod to 2008 and beyond by sharing this postcard and biographical info about the Boley Building and its designer, architect Louis Curtiss. The company I work for, Andrews McMeel Universal, will be moving into the Boley Building in the fall of 2008, and we're getting a tour of the place tomorrow afternoon, even though renovation of the space is yet to officially begin.

I've heard a fair amount about the building itself, how the glass curtain-wall Curtiss designed for the Boley Clothing Building was the first of its kind, how Boley was a former newspaper editor turned successful businessman, etc. But I had not read much about with Mr. Curtiss himself until I came across this entry of his life and photo of his burial site in the coffeetable book, "Here Lies Kansas City," which illustrates the final resting places of famous Kansas Citians.

If all goes according to plan, AMU will be in the building by 2008, almost exactly one century after the building was constructed. Reading about Mr. Curtiss gave me a chuckle. Though I doubt I'd be able to recreate his Canadian-Parisian-Kansas Citian turn-of-the-century decadence, he appears to be a man after my own heart.

See below, and click on the image to enlarge.


a brief biography of Mr. Curtiss


The architect's unmarked grave