It was a rather warm November 10, 1999, that Union Station Kansas City reopened its doors to an enthusiastic public after more than a decade of abandonment and neglect. If that sounds as if I am talking about a person not a building, then you are getting the proper notion. Because Union Station is very personal to me, and I know it is very personal to many others. The difference between the "others" and me is that because I was the restoration photographer I saw and experienced things that literally no one else did, save for maybe an assistant or two. Along the way I will include a tiny fraction of the more than 70,000 images I created over nearly a six year period.
This fall will be the tenth anniversary of that opening day and so it seems appropriate for me to relate to you, dear readers, this unique episode in my life and by extension, in the life of Kansas City. You all helped pay for the restoration. Therefore, I feel obliged to share with you how I saw this re-creation from what I most humbly call a privileged vantage point.
My involvement began with an assignment for the Kansas City Business Journal sometime in September, 1994. My task was to make an environmental portrait of Andy Scott (or as some now call him, Andy The First-more about that later) inside the station. That was my first visit to the building since I left from there on an Amtrak train circa 1980.
On the day of the Andy shoot, strong shafts of sunlight artfully knifed across the empty, dank space formerly called the North Waiting Room, now called Festival Plaza. Frankly, I never have gotten used to calling it that. But I digress...
As I shot, Andy and I fell into an extended and excited conversation about the future of the station, and how it might all come together, our voices echoing off the marble and granite in the otherwise deserted station. At length, we came 'round to the possibility of my documenting the entire restoration process.
"Well Andy, " I asked, "how many pictures are we talking here?"
"Oh, maybe a trip to the station once or twice a week. Maybe four or five rolls a month. How much would you charge for that?"
Realizing that this was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, I quickly replied "Heck, for the chance to photograph the reawakening of this giant, (trying to make what I hoped was a grand, sweeping gesture with my hand) I will do it for free!"
Andy thought that sounded pretty good and we had a gentleman's agreement.
LIttle did I know then how that one conversation would impact my life, professionally, personally, financially and physically. And not all in a good way
To be continued...
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