Kansas City Spirit
Artists : Gijs Van Vaerenbergh
Project Team : Petrichor Projects, HOK, KC Structural Steel, Hermanos Design, McCownGordon
Opening 2027, Kansas City
Experience becomes infrastructure.
How do places become emotionally magnetic, culturally resonant, and impossible to forget? Petrichor Projects is a cultural strategy and curatorial practice working at the intersection of art, architecture, infrastructure, and public life. We embed artists into projects that shape how people experience cities, institutions, hospitality environments, and civic space. Our work focuses on how art can influence perception, behavior, and collective experience at scale.
News Highlights
Tiffany Meesha Thompson named one of CODAworx’s 2025 Top 20 Creative Revolutionaries
Petrichor Projects Founding Director Tiffany Meesha Thompson, EMBA, has been named one of CODAworx’s 2025 Top 20 Creative Revolutionaries, recognizing international leaders shaping the future of public art and the built environment.
Through Petrichor Projects, Thompson develops new models for embedding artists into the systems that shape public life, from architecture and infrastructure to civic space and cultural identity. Her work focuses on how art can influence perception, behavior, and collective experience at scale.
Petrichor Projects has commissioned Belgian artist duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh for Kansas City’s largest public art commission to date at Barney Allis Plaza.
Selected through a curatorial process led by Petrichor Projects, the $2.18 million commission will transform Barney Allis Plaza into a major civic and cultural landmark for downtown Kansas City. Working at the intersection of art, architecture, and public space, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh creates immersive environments that reshape how people move through and experience the city.
The commission reflects a broader vision for public art as cultural infrastructure: shaping perception, collective experience, and civic identity at the scale of the city itself.
Learn more at barneyallis.org
Rising as a new cultural landmark, The Arts Tower by Abdulnasser Gharem reflects Riyadh’s evolving identity under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiative. Developed with Eldorado Architects, the project transforms an existing electrical tower into a monumental civic experience embedded directly within the city’s infrastructure.
The Arts Tower demonstrates how art can shape civic identity and the experience of a rapidly transforming city. As Saudi Arabia invests in culture, tourism, and public life as part of its long-term transformation, the project positions infrastructure itself as cultural experience.
Highlighted Projects
Latest News and Events
2025 Creative Revolutionary Tiffany Meesha Thompson
CODAWorx
April 2025
CODASummitt 2024
The Reimagined Museum
October 2024