Rebecca Koop stood by Saturday watching as workers carted away the boards painted with images of gigantic playing cards. The artwork had covered the windows and doors of an abandoned apartment building at 702 Indiana in Kansas City's Historic Northeast neighborhood.
A few years ago, Koop and other volunteers from the community spent months painting plywood with the faces of cards. When they installed the paintings in the windows of the run down apartment building, they wanted to create "winning hands" as a symbol of hope for the blighted neighborhood.
“The Royal Flush was the first set of five. Spades — ace, king, queen, jack, and ten,” Koop said. “They were on the top floor and had the most visibility.”
On Friday, the belly of the brick structure – dubbed the "House of Cards" — crumbled to the ground. The city deemed the building dangerous and on Saturday, knocked it down. Koop says she's concerned about what will happen with the artwork.
“People from the community volunteered their time to make it. It’s my hope they’ll be used for another community project," she said.
The house is owned by Gardon, Inc., of Gladstone. Koop says a company representative on-site told her Saturday the artwork was part of the house when it was purchased, so the company owns it.
Don Shepoka with Gardon, Inc., said Monday the company does not know yet what will happen with the artwork. One option, he said, is to sell the artwork at auction.
“We’d just put a new roof on," Shepoka said. “It was a huge financial hit for us when the thing collapsed.”
Koop says there’s a lesson for artists in the ordeal.
“Definitely get a contract so the artists have ownership or copyright and some control of the art work,” she said.
There are thousands of vacant buildings across the city, about a thousand of which have been deemed dangerous, according to a city spokesperson. A disproportionate number of them are in the urban core.
Bryan Stalder, president of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association, also in the Historic Northeast, helped paint the playing cards with his daughter and niece. He pointed out the neighborhood lost another important building last summer when The Apostolic Assembly of the Faith and Christ Jesus Church collapsed. There were children in the building at the time, but all were safely evacuated.
“It’s pretty frustrating,“ Stalder says. "We’re trying to maintain and preserve as many Historic Northeast buildings as we can. We can’t keep up.”
