Maybe it was because of the turnpike, but it seemed to lack the new suburbia that is so often found in the Midwest. Could be the area I drove through- pretty much anything close to the freeway loop, including north of WSU, east of the airport, southeast of the airport.
Definitely don't judge Wichita from the turnpike. You can't see any of the city from there.
In most other places in town, you don't see much either, at least from the highways. There isn't a lot of suburban sprawl in Wichita. It's fairly controlling about how development occurs and what it looks like (signs, billboards, etc.). Two of the biggest suburban shopping areas (Bradley Fair in the east and New Market Square in the west) won't be visible except from surface streets several miles from the highways.