At the beginning of each academic year, Professor Kathryn Grube selects four JCCC interior architecture students to take part in the Showhouse project of the Kansas City Symphony Designer.
The Showhouse is sponsored by the Kansas City Symphony Alliance (KCSA) and is an annual Sinfony donation campaign that started in 1970. KCSA selects a historical, pioneering house in Kansas City, which is usually for sale. The Allianz assigns interior designers in the rooms of the showhouse in the showhouse to revise and shape itself. The house is then open to public tours in spring.
JCCC students have been involved in the project for more than 30 years, but this 55TH Symphony Showhouse is different. This residence is an actual house of a family that is located opposite the historical Thomas Hart Benton House and Studio in the Roanoke Park district in Kansas City, Missouri. Further information about the house can be found at showhouse.org/2025 showhouse.
Real experience for students
The Showhouse project The Symphony Designer is a unique opportunity for students to gain real learning experience (and internship loans). Every student in the JCCC interior design program can apply as part of the Showhouse team.
This year's student groups include Jennifer Holmberg, Erica Kell, Stephanie Kilkenny and Hui Liu. Grube corresponds to the team based on their skills. For example, Hui has a bachelor's degree in accounting, and her skills for mathematics and budgeting have made themselves useful several times during the entire project process.
After the pit gathered, they went through the house in October 2024 and rated their assigned space: the bathroom on the third floor, which was once part of the servant of the house. After the round, the students designed suggestions for redesign. The homeowners chose the final bathroom design-a Art Deco-Inspired concept that pays homage to the history of Kansas City.
Bathroom project ballroom
In the house is the bathroom next to the guest rooms and the ballroom area. With the redesign of the JCCC student, guests are now put back in time by geometric shapes, streamlined textures and neutral colors with gold snacks.
The walls, the ceiling and the trim were painted with Sherwin Williams “Alabaster” and combined with Kohler LED lighting in order to offer contrast to the dark wooden floors. A porcelain tile shower with star height and Penny tile-niche compliments of ASMI surface generation a dynamic interplay of geometric shapes, signature for Art Deco design style.
The students worked with numerous providers who donated resources for the ballroom's bathroom project, including:
- The onyx collection Belvue
- Fountain glass
- Asmi surfaces, Lenexa
- Kohler Signature Store from First Supply, Overland Park
- Keystone hard drives, Lenexa
- Cambria, Lenexa
Sanitary was a major consideration for the Showhouse Student Team. The water permit of the house was granted in 1906, and the contractor for the designer showhouse project had to move part of the original installation of the house in order to achieve the vision of the student. In order to maximize the room and optimize the original installation, the students added a mirrored, angled washbasin wall with an iron iron wash table made of Kohler and a customer -specific Cambria Everligh quartz worktop to anchor the room.
The last details were to refinance the original wooden floors of the bathroom, an ancient dressing table (which belongs to the house owners) and combines it with a baked mirror and corrugated Kohler -Globus fate. At the beginning of the month, the KCSA organized a VIP preview event, and the students were present to answer questions about their design and work on community members.
A long -term tradition
These four students are not the only JCCC connected designers who are involved in the 2025 showhouse project. In fact, there are two of the designers for the other rooms on the third floor JCCC interior design alumni.
Charissa Harris, a former JCCC student, and her father restore the original ballroom of the house. Harris' father is an experienced ornamental pavement and has carefully spent a plaster design on the ballroom walls in the past few months. Harris contained some historical pieces of furniture from former homeowners, including an ancient bar speech and a 22-footed carpet, into the ballroom.
Right next door is designer Susan Righter, also a JCCC interior architecture alum that designed one of the guest rooms on the third floor of the house on the third floor. Two JCCC alumni helped design the foyer in the showhouse, and a former student transformed the basement bar into a speakeasy. Many of these former students choose because they were in the show house in the JCCC team. The current team of students was able to connect and establish professional connections with alumni and other experts in the region.
Learn more
The 55th Showhouse of the Kansas City Symphony Designer is open to the public from Saturday, April 26th to Sunday, May 18th. The hours are:
- Monday – closed
- Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday – 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Thursday – 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Sunday – 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Showhouse tickets for 2025 Symphony designers are now available and can be bought online at showhouse.org/tickets.