Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (headquarters)

The bank moved in 2008 from 925 Grand Boulevard, its home for many years, to 1 Memorial Drive; staff relocated from March to June. The site is a hillside just south of the National WWI Museum and Memorial, where St. Mary's Hospital once stood. It lies near the historic Union Hill district, where downtown's southern edge meets Midtown; Penn Valley Park borders it on the west and Main Street on the east.

Henry N. Cobb, a founder of the New York firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, designed the building; Ellerbe Becket of Kansas City was associate architect. Limestone clads the tower; its 12 office floors sit above a two-storey base given over to public and guest space and to operations.

Classically proportioned, the tower presents a screen of five bays raised over a porch with columns. The gently curved base runs westward and is set into the slope, so that it keeps a low profile towards Main Street and Penn Valley Park. In front of it, a glazed entrance pavilion receives visitors, whether they walk in across the park or drive in from Memorial Drive.

Two large bronze figures, Spirits of Commerce and Industry, stand at the entrance. The sculptor Tuck Langland made them, adapting reliefs of the former headquarters at 925 Grand Boulevard.

The public enters on the first floor. There it finds a theater where a short film introduces the Federal Reserve, a cash-processing area with its vault, and the Money Museum, whose 3,000 square feet are devoted to hands-on exhibits. The conference center is one level up.

Admission to the Money Museum is free and no ticket is needed: visitors walk in and explore on their own. It opens Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (last entry 3:30 p.m.), and is closed on weekends and bank holidays. An airport-style screening is carried out at the door, and guests aged 18 or over must show a valid photo ID. Parking is free, on the building's west side.