Putting an AI data center in downtown Kansas City is an ambitious, high-reward, high-risk architectural experiment. By stacking power infrastructure, server modules, and closed-loop cooling vertically into a 20-story tower on just 0.23 acres, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) solves urban land scarcity and latency issues while keeping ground-floor retail active. However, concentrating massive power demands, intense heat, and industrial infrastructure in a dense city center introduces severe cooling, cost, and community grid-strain challenges that make it an unproven long-term gamble.
SOM Unveils Designs for 20-Story Vertical Data Center in Downtown Kansas City
International architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has revealed designs for 934 Central Street, a 20-story data center tower planned for downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Departing from the expansive, single-story facilities typical of the artificial intelligence boom, the project presents a high-density, vertical solution engineered to integrate into a dense urban core.
Rethinking Data Infrastructure: The Vertical Closed Loop
Traditional data centers rely on sprawling horizontal footprints across suburban or rural tracts, consuming vast amounts of land and requiring extensive long-distance power grids. SOM’s design for 934 Central Street challenges this convention by consolidating power generation, cooling systems, data modules, and public amenities into a compact high-rise structure.
“Unlike conventional data centers, which typically occupy large, horizontal footprints, 934 Central Street envisions a vertical data center for a dense downtown setting, closer to where people live and work,” explained an SOM spokesperson. “The proposal stacks data floors, power infrastructure, cooling systems, and public amenities within a 20-story tower on a compact 0.23-acre site, creating a vertical closed loop of power, water, and cooling.
“Key Advantages of Vertical Data Centers
- Minimal Land Footprint: Stacks infrastructure vertically on just 0.23 acres, maximizing spatial efficiency in city centers.
- Proximity to Demand: Locates critical computing infrastructure closer to end-users and commercial hubs, reducing latency.
- Integrated Utilities: Operates as a self-contained closed-loop system combining power, cooling, and compute capacity.
Architecture & Urban Context
Developed by Miami-based Revitalization Unlimited, the tower will occupy the former site of the Western Newspaper Union Building in central Kansas City.To ensure the structure blends into its surrounding neighborhood rather than appearing as a windowless monolith, SOM designed a facade that reflects the historic architectural character of downtown Kansas City.
Architectural Highlights
- Contextual Masonry Facade: Features earth-colored masonry framing and large glass panes across all levels, including dedicated server floors.
- External Core Structure: Houses vertical circulation and mechanical service shafts on the exterior envelope, freeing up internal floor plates for data module density.
- Street-Level Integration: Includes 4,700 square feet (436 square meters) of ground-floor retail and commercial space designed to maintain an active pedestrian environment.
- “Designed to feel at home within its downtown context, the building draws from the vertical proportions, repetitive bays, and masonry character of surrounding commercial buildings,” SOM noted.
Project Snapshot
| Feature | Details |
| Project Name | 934 Central Street |
| Location | Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA |
| Architect | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) |
| Developer | Revitalization Unlimited |
| Height / Floors | 20 stories |
| Site Area | 0.23 acres |
| Retail Area | 4,700 sq. ft. (436 sq. m.) |
| Primary Use | Vertical data infrastructure, cooling, power generation & ground-floor retail |
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