Prairiefire Museum

Project Case Study
Prairiefire covers 60 acres and a total of 1.4 million square feet in office, retail, hotel, and residential space, phase one of the development completed with a splash of new tenants. The project includes 220,000 square feet of retail, 40,000 square feet of museum space, and a 900-car parking garage. Featuring an iconic glass exterior mimicking a blazing prairie fire, the Museum at Prairiefire is a centerpiece in the overall development.

Client

Merrill Companies LLC

Tenant

American Museum of Natural History

Processes

Building Information Modeling
Safety
Preconstruction
Collaborative Delivery

Recognition

Kansas City Business Journal Capstone Award
LEED Silver

City

Overland Park, KS

Children learning at Prairiefire Museum built by McCownGordon Construction in Overland Park, Kansas

The 40,000 square foot museum is the first cooperative venture of its kind in the country with traveling exhibits by the American Museum of Natural History.

Merrill Companies, the owner of the development, selected McCownGordon as the construction manager for the project, which sits in the heart of an active mixed-use development.

Exhibits include dinosaurs, lizards, snakes and horses. The museum also has a permanent display of fossils and artifacts, with some specimens rotating regularly. The main lobby display is a full-scale cast of Tyrannosaurus Rex. It also includes a discovery room, also overseen by the American Museum of Natural History, for children ages 5 to 12 to interact with various specimens and artifacts. 

Exhibits at Prairiefire, built by McCownGordon, include dinosaurs, lizards, snakes and horses.
It is the first building in North America to feature dichroic glass on its exterior. This light-bending material, developed by NASA to protect its astronauts’ eyes from the radiation of the sun, absorbs light as tone color on its exterior and filters into an entirely different hue on its interior. The fiery reds and oranges of the Museum’s exterior create a wave of cool blues and purples on its interior.
McCownGordon, Prairiefire, Overland Park, KS
McCownGordon, Prairiefire, Overland Park, KS
McCownGordon, Prairiefire, Overland Park, KS
The main lobby of Prairiefire Museum, built by McCownGordon, displays a full-scale cast of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Children learning at Prairiefire Museum built by McCownGordon Construction in Overland Park, Kansas