KANSAS CITY, Mo — Anyone who flew in or out of the old KCI terminal will have likely passed by the mosaic medallions embedded in its floors.
The mosaic medallions were a part of the “One Percent for Art” initiative back in the early 2000s.
They were handmade in Italy and transported to be embedded into the new floors during the Terminal Improvement Project.
40 designs were already extracted from Terminal A and incorporated into the new KCI terminal, but the rest were going to be demolished.
After an overwhelming call from the public to save the others, the city made its decision: 50 additional medallions were chosen by the Kansas City Art Commission to be salvaged from Terminals B and C.
“We’re thinking there’s a chance that we might expand the new terminal and we could again incorporate some of the medallions in those expansions. But also, there was a lot of public interest in these medallions way beyond what we expected,” said Kansas City Aviation Department’s Communications Manager, Joe McBride.
$50,000 were set aside from airport revenue to fund this project. With a budget, they focused on only preserving designs that have significant ties to KC history.
That ended up being 50 medallions out of the 96 across Terminal B and C.
“Doesn’t come out easily — can’t pop it out like a pancake. It’s a full depth cut of concrete, so it’s a big job,” said McBride. “They might be just marble and no real design, or maybe not a tie to the Kansa city area, or it might be a duplicate of one that’s already being extracted.”
Each square is marked out 20x20 inches. The medallion each weighs about 150 pounds and takes around 25 minutes to harvest.
According to Keyton Baldwin, who works for the company hired to do the work, Precision Concrete Cutting and Coring, they use diamond coated blades to make sure the job is done well.
“Diamonds are the hardest material, so it cuts through the concrete. And with the help of water, it controls dust and also helps making the cutting process a little bit easier and smoother,” said Baldwin. “And then pull the material out and then we’re gonna come back and shave ‘em down and then make em into a lighter load to be able to transport.”
The crew has been working since Tuesday and plans to finish in the next week. They are averaging about 10 medallions a day.
“We’re just really trying to preserve the art,” said Baldwin.
As a life-long Kansas Citian, it feels really special for Baldwin to be a part of this project. Every cut and every pull is high stakes because precision matters when it comes to preserving history.
“You know this was our first airport and now we’re moving onto the next future of the new terminal. It’s awesome being able to keep some of the past and bring it to the present,” said Baldwin. “It’s basically our heart. It’s where everybody flows in and flows out from, and people new to the city, this is where they come and what they see.”
Because the medallions are public art, they will not be available for sale. But the city says they will be stored in a secure place so that if and when the new terminal expands, they can become a part of the new blueprint.
“It’s just a cool thing, a conversation piece — we’re talking about it. And people are gonna be talking about it in the future,” said McBride.
