KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- For more than 90 years, lanterns and beacons atop what is now the Power and Light Apartments lit Kansas City’s downtown skyline. Today, LED lights allow the apartment complex to choose from more than 100 shades of colors. And nearly every night, the Art Deco building at 14th and Baltimore Streets is a different color.
Property managers at The Power and Light Apartments control the lights from a computer using software that can set a weekly schedule.
Color schemes are based on sports teams, charitable causes and brides can choose their own colors if they host their wedding reception at the building's grand hall.
“We get people coming in to tour the building specifically because of the way we are lit up at night and they want to know about the history of the building,” explained Betsy Moore, with the Power and Light Apartments.
The history is impressive. In its heyday, the Kansas City Power and Light Electric Company used lanterns to light the top of the building. A beacon on top of the 33-story tower changed colors based on the weather forecast. Yellow for sun, blue for rain, Moore said.
KCP&L moved headquarters in the '90s. Northpoint converted the building to apartments in 2014, and carried on the tradition of the lights.
“It's been around since 1931,” Moore said. “So, I know personally growing up in Kansas City, I've always admired this building.”
Developers refurbished some of the old lanterns and now use them as chandeliers inside the apartment's clubhouse named the Beacon Lounge.
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