The county said it plans on initially spending $1.6 million to stabilize and preserve the strange-looking structure designed by architect Manny Morris. Next year, the county will begin exploring renovation possibilities and the costs of moving the museum from its site at 6305 Lackman Road in Shawnee.
In a press release announcing the news, Johnson County Museum officials made their current building sound like a real dump. "It is crowded and suffered flooding problems in recent years, making a portion of the building unsuitable for long-term operations. About 1,500 square feet of the 20,000-square-foot building was damaged by flooding in 2009, making it no longer acceptable for public use," the release said.
Possible plans for the King Louie space might fulfill the museum's desire to establish a National Museum of Suburbia and a Suburban Policy Forum. That seems very fitting for a defunct architectural shrine to 1960s Kansas kitsch. You can read all about that plan here.
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