By Clare Babcock, Event and Facilities Manager at Training Umbrella
Many people are surprised when they see our building from the outside, versus our rooms on the inside. From the outside, our building is any other multi-tenant corporate building- nothing special. And we couldn’t agree more- it’s an old building, built in the 1970’s with quirks, which is right up our alley. Someone once told us, “It looks a bit like a prison from the outside, but once you’re inside it has a whole different feel!”
Training Umbrella loves combining vintage with modern, it’s what makes us stand apart from other companies. I thought, what a great way to teach our customers a bit of history about our building and city!
10551 Barkley Street
10551 Barkley Street was built in 1978, with majority owned by Xerox. You know Xerox, as in the large multinational technology company known for digital document solutions, i.e. the Xerox machine. Xerox occupied most of the building until about 1984 when our current, local, owners bought it. This building was the first multi-story (high-rise) tenant building in Overland Park, and when it first came about, the city was not at all happy. Back in the 80’s, Overland Park had not expanded as far South as it is today. Residents at the time boycotted the building plans saying it would ruin the skyline, it was too far away from central Overland Park on the edge of town and not necessary to build.
The Property Line
10551 Barkley Street’s property line is actually quite larger than just the building. Our line goes all the way back into the woods along Indian Creek, to all the way over to the Genesis health club’s parking lot. The original building plan was for two mirror adjacent buildings with a large parking garage between them (like bookends). If you’ve been to our facility before, just imagine: a large parking garage connecting our space to an identical building, flipped, at the end of the parking lot. 105th street originally was going to run straight through our parking lot to Lamar. The city planned to build lots of commercial office space along 105th as it was a growing hub for companies, but Xerox didn’t end up expanding, and the residents of Overland Park wanted housing instead, so the city changed the zoning.
Skinny Windows
The biggest thing people comment on are our building windows, “Why are they so skinny?” HVAC was not as adequate back in the 70’s, so to mitigate how much heat came into the building but also provided light. We have obviously changed our HVAC solutions since the 70’s but the windows are still the same as 40 years ago. What’s also changed in that time are the types of tenants. Back in the 90’s this building housed many primary care offices! Imagine going up to the 3rd floor to have a doctor check up- that’s crazy! Over the years it has migrated to housing various large and small customers, but today many are medical/insurance/therapists offices and small local businesses.
All of this to say: our building is an oldie but a goodie. It has so much history behind why it looks the way it does, and how the city tried so hard to fight against it being built, but that’s what makes us love it! We lean into the blending of retro and contemporary. Anyone could guess that from the design of our classrooms. But we like the fact that people are often surprised when they come in and see our spaces, because we consider ourselves a hidden gem.
Come on over to see what all the hype is about! We offer tours Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. I’ll show you it is indeed not a prison!
