Drive down Shawnee Mission Parkway in Merriam, and you might do a double take at what appears to be oversized dice tumbling out of a storm drain. This whimsical art display actually serves a very practical purpose, and it all started with a former city administrator who couldn’t stand looking at a set of concrete blocks.
The 12-inch concrete cubes were originally installed as part of a project to slow water flow down a steep embankment off Shawnee Mission Parkway, across the street from Russell Stover, to prevent erosion as it runs toward Turkey Creek. Phil Lammers, Merriam’s city administrator from 2008 to 2016, had passed them many times on his way home. “It was about 2020, 2021, Covid was on, and it just felt like everybody was depressed and the traffic was down,” Lammers says. “I figured it was time to do something fun.”
Lammers sketched out a few concepts and sent them to city leaders. “They texted me and said, ‘Don’t ask. Just go do it.’ So it was an ask for forgiveness, don’t ask for permission situation,” he says…