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Standing at the window in your One Park Place condominium, you see a train amble by, looking small enough to fit under a Christmas tree. Downtown buildings stand in a cluster — like a model city, only dripping with history. Along winding boulevards, traffic flows peacefully since Kansas Citians are too polite to honk. In Penn Valley Park, skaterboys perfect their stunts. And you, fresh from a swim in the saltwater lap pool, dial room service.

This is the life — the concierge life.

It’s all happening in the old BMA building, the star of modern architecture in Kansas City. Architect Bruce Graham designed the building in the early 1960s for the Business Men’s Assurance company. Noted for its high-rise style and panoramic windows, it was featured at a New York Museum of Modern Art exhibit.

It remained an office building until, upon the suggestion of a friend, William and Elizabeth Foote, Newport Beach, Calif. residents who had never been to Kansas City, looked at the building. “We kind of thought, what are we doing chasing this project in Kansas City,” Elizabeth remembers. “(But) within our first visit we were totally enamored with the city — the culture, the museums, the fountains and the down-to-earth people.”

They set out to transform the modern office building into a luxury high rise. New residents will move in the first of the year.

Luxurious seating welcomes residents and guests to mingle and relax by a warm fire. The shapely crystal chandelier came out of a Ward Parkway mansion.

So what exactly is a concierge lifestyle? It’s valet parking. Room service. Wine cellars. And a lobby straight out of a Thin Man movie.Publishing

Elizabeth Foote designed the luxurious lobby and specialty rooms with Kansas City designer George Terbovich. Walking into the lobby, with its roaring fire, you might be tempted to slouch into a silk velvet chair, break out your Alfred Dunhill cigarette holder and pout like a 1930s Hollywood actress. It’s that glamorous.

Foote says they chose a soft Art Deco look for the first floor in order to complement the modern architecture of the building without being austere.

The designers created a warm but glamorous style by arranging velvet couches and chairs around fireplaces, and installing Ushak rugs, antique chandeliers (one came from a Ward Parkway mansion,) original period artwork and funky accents (like a zebra rug in the cigar parlor). “We wanted it to be a place people liked coming home to,” Foote says. “We wanted it to be very inviting but also grand and luxurious.”

To make up for the space people lose when choosing a condominium over a house, the developers created spectacular first-floor amenities. A wine cellar stores residents’ collections. The billiards room and lounge with plasma TV screens and a wet bar serve as an upscale recreation room.

For bunko or bridge night, there’s the ladies card room, with its dainty black and white chairs arranged four to a table. Men (and cigar-puffing women) can bring buddies down to the cigar parlor, which features an antique armoire converted into a humidor. And for that big event, a demonstration/catering kitchen and party room are available.

There are also facilities that are unique to condominiums. The saltwater lap pool and spa shimmer with pewterized mosaic tile. Here, history and architecture buffs will appreciate the large Art Deco stone sconces from the General Tire building.

In addition, there is a fleet of treadmills in the workout room, a Pilates room, a dog grooming area and a putting green.

Try as you might, you cannot actually live on the first floor. Eventually, you have to go home. Or rather, you get to go home. So, do you want your condo to be modern or traditional? Terbovich says that anything goes in an international-style building like One Park Place. He designed the modern-style model condo.

More traditional homeowners can still enjoy condo living, even in this famously modern architectural building. Downsizers can still fit their larger furnishings inside, like this raised canopy bed.

Though employing the dramatic black and white motif of the original BMA building, Terbovich made the condo look cozy and inviting. He says that comfortable furniture and fine fabrics made that possible. The floors — made of ebonized bamboo — are also nice and soft — and easy on the environment because of the plant’s sustainability. The black lacquered wood cabinetry and zebra prints on the furniture jazz things up. It is a fun, young style for hip, young (and extremely successful) professionals.

Say, on the other hand, that your kids finally moved out and you’re selling your beloved Mission Hills home. You own gorgeous antiques. How can you incorporate the look of your old home into the new setting?

Foote designed a condo with that scenario in mind. Natural stone floors, Greek columns, lush plants, animal-print carpeting and oversize furniture create an opulent look. Antiques from the 17th and 18th centuries fit in perfectly here, in spite of the modernity of the building.

And unique flairs, like a bidet, a fountain converted into a sink, and mirrored walls in the bathroom, give the home a timelessly fun look. In other words, it’s traditional without being boring.

As for art, how about the panoramic view of downtown? It goes with every style. You can see clear to Worlds of Fun from the windows of One Park Place, which sits on the highest point of the city. “That’s the main event in that building: the view and the light,” Terbovich says. “You can
really see city life unfold.”

And what a lovely city it is. Especially when you own a million-dollar view.