The building was designed in 1885 by Frederick Elmer Hill of the New York City architecture firm of McKim, Mead & White. Hill, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1882, came to Kansas City in 1885 initially to oversee the construction of his design but ended up staying until 1901, when he designed other notable buildings. From 1893 until 1895, he was involved in the design and construction of what is today Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral on nearby Quality Hill. Hill also designed Convention Hall.
Built in Italianate Renaissance Revival style, the New York Life Building has a brick and brownstone exterior and an H-shaped footprint with ten-story wings flanking a twelve-story tower. A monumental bald eagle tending eaglets in a nest is perched above the main entry. The work was sculpted by Louis St. Gaudens and contains more than two tons of cast bronze. With an Italian granite atrium floor in the lobby, the building's location marked the first significant movement of the city south from its founding at the River Market along the Missouri River. The imposing structure also marked a dramatic change in the skyline of Kansas City, where the tallest buildings previously had been three or four stories.[4]
In 1970, the New York Life Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[5] In 1988, however, it was abandoned. In 1996, a $35 million restoration of the building added modern energy, communications, and environmental features.[6]
Purchased by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph in 2010 for $11.7 million, the building now houses the diocese's administrative offices (the chancery), totaling about 180 employees.[7] The building was renamed the Catholic Center.
Northwest view
Massive bronze sculpture by Louis St. Gaudens of an eagle tending a nest of baby eaglets above the street entrance
