Where we head in the future is anyone's guess. I used to say 'if you pay me what you pay a plumber to do the project, I'll do it for you.'' 'People didn't even consider hiring an architect because it was just way too expensive. 'The developers quickly learned that the more houses you could put on a tract, the more money they made,' he said. Williams said he is not a fan of what are being called 'McMansions.' Residential architecture here and in other cities is somewhat of an endangered trade. 'They're hotter than pancakes on Saturday.' 'We really were known as a city that didn't like contemporary design and domestic architecture, and that's all changed now of course,' he said. Lane says they weren't exactly welcomed with open arms. In the late 50s architect Don Drummond built what are now called atomic ranches - homes with flat roofs, car ports, slab foundations. 'There was a time in the 20s and 30s, it was right after the city beautiful movement, when those kinds of cottage houses became really fanciful and popular.' 'It kind of came about through the picturesque movement,' Lane said. But Dible wasn't British, so we asked architectural historian Scott Lane about Dible's inspiration. In the 20s and 30s one of Kansas City's leading home builders was Napoleon Dible, famous for hundreds of English Tudor-style homes.

Nichols built thousands of homes in the metro in a wide variety of styles, but he was criticized for imposing restrictive covenants. In addition to the Country Club Plaza, J.C. He owns one of only two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Kansas City. Williams lives architectural history daily. 'We're at the crossroads of the country and I think that effected how people lived,' he said. Veteran Kansas City architect Homer Williams thinks the Kansas City area has a larger patchwork of residential styles than many other urban centers because the heart of America's geographical location provided a way to borrow ideas from other regions. Even before the first nail is driven, it all starts with a concept on the drawing board.

Drawing of a atomic heart