Our Headquarters

State-of-the-art office design, extremely efficient use of energy and advanced communications systems combine at Aquila's 20 West Ninth headquarters building in Kansas City, Mo.

The building houses a high-efficiency electric chiller to help lower its cooling costs. The chiller makes ice at night using low-cost electricity when the building is not occupied, then the ice is used to cool the building during the workday.

The leading-edge technology of 20 West Ninth includes an advanced telecommunications system with two fiber optic entry points that will help ensure flexibility, reliability and adaptability to future communications technologies.

The interior paints contain no volatile organic compounds. All of the carpeting is recyclable, and new built-in chutes carry used office paper to a central collection point on the ground floor. Glass and aluminum also are collected for recycling.

The building was built by the former New York Life Insurance Company and was first occupied in 1890. The building was built in the Italian Renaissance and Romanesque styles. Originally touted as a thoroughly modern and fireproof structure, the stone, brick and terra cotta New York Life Building originally featured cast iron skylights and windows on all sides, allowing a maximum of natural light, and 200 gas lamps to provide artificial illumination. The four passenger elevators and a separate freight elevator were the first electrically powered elevators in Kansas City.

Rising one story every four weeks, the New York Life Building became Kansas City's first skyscraper. The plan was laid out like an H: two ten-story wings linked by a two-and-a-half-story center structure. The stone footings were quarried locally; four mules hauled each stone block to the site. Brownstone used on the exterior of the first three floors was shipped from Vermont. The bricks that sheathed the upper floors were made just blocks away, at Third and Wyandotte, by McClelland, Stumpf and Pelzer Brick Co.

The symbol of the New York Life Insurance Co. was an eagle with spread wings grasping a ribbed orb supported by two kneeling figures. The commanding presence over 20 West Ninth Street is one of Kansas City's landmark outdoor sculptures.

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