William Rockhill Nelson would like what's happening in a residential pocket of Kansas City's Volker neighborhood.

For there, on West 41st Terrace barely a mile from the renowned art museum that Nelson helped endow, work is nearly complete on two new houses that evoke the spirit of the more gracious Rockhill neighborhood that surrounds the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art at 4525 Oak Street.

The resemblance is intentional, said architect Kite Singleton, who not only designed but also financed the project. Singleton, a self-professed urban enthusiast, was drawn to a ten-vacant lot several years ago when his daughter, Catherine, bought a neighboring house.

Singleton realized that the empty property provided an opportunity for him to make a statement-and an investment-consistent with his philosophy.

"They're traditional houses," Singleton said. "The idea is unlike a lot of my career as an architect, where you're trying to demonstrate new ideas. In this situation, within an in an old neighborhood, I want something that's not assertive, that's participatory, that says, 'I'm part of this neighborhood.'"

Singleton's credentials to make this statement are beyond reproach. He has been active in local community affairs for 35 years and has gained prominence for, as he puts it in his resume, "refusing to accept disinvestment in Kansas City's urban core as an immutable condition."

His new houses underscore this belief. Modest in size-each 1,200 square feet, with two stories and two bedrooms-they're accented with touches that speak of a bygone era. Detached garages in the rear contrast with the style common to most contemporary residences. Front porches look out over pedestrian-friendly streets.

"People love the ambiance," said Singleton, who speaks from firsthand knowledge because his house at 49th and Wyoming streets, just west of the Country Club Plaza, includes a port and other similar accouterments.

Translation of inspiration
Singleton's Volker endeavor was inspired by work he had done in the Columbus Park area of northeast Kansas City. After helping engineer an alteration of renovation plans for the neighboring Guinotte Manor federal housing project, the architect wanted to translate his ideas to a narrow lot environment.

The Volker tract provided such an opportunity. After an initial rejection from a planner at City Hall, who said the lot was too small for a duplex, Singleton got approval for two single-family houses.

They're available now for purchase and will be ready for occupancy in the spring.

Singleton's touch also is reaching out to other residential neighborhoods in Kansas City.

His fans include Don and Mary Arney, who want to build a loft condominium on Armour Boulevard in the Hyde Park neighborhood.

"We have admired Kite for a long time," said Don Arney, who has spent the past quarter-century with his wife in a turn-of-the-century home in Hyde Park. They considered moving to a downtown loft after their children left home but couldn't find a suitable location.

So they bought property to build a sixplex they want to blend in with the surrounding area. The space will combine tall ceilings and balconies with modern technology and underground parking. Arney credited Singleton with enlivening his initial drawings. "My little box was functional," Arney said. "He took that box and developed it into a stunning building."

More work ahead
Singleton expects that the growing popularity of urban living will heighten calls for his work. "People are getting tired of driving," he said. "You're worn out." Evidence of this preference is provided, he said, by sources as disparate as comic strip story lines and a survey performed by the Downtown Council of Kansas City that found a yawning unmet demand for in-city residences.

The downtown population, less than 10,000, could roughly double-if appropriate dwellings were available, the survey concluded. But Singleton doesn't expect this need to be met at once. Rather, he said, it will be satisfied one unit at a time. He's realistic, too, about this product's appeal. Until Kansas City's troubled public schools and public transit systems are fixed, he said, urban living will remain the domain of young professionals and empty-nesters like the Arneys. But the movement toward urban living is undeniable, he said. "My belief is that Kansas City is going to follow the trend-what has become apparent to our competing cities," he said. Torrid loft development in such places as Denver and Dallas could easily be replicated here, he said. "There's a market," he said. "In Kansas City, we typically don't blaze trails." Just don't count out a home-grown architect's ideas and their chance for acceptance.