Crown Center
Encyclopedia
Crown Center is a commercial complex and neighborhood located near Downtown Kansas City, Missouri located between Gillham Road
and Grand Boulevard
to the east and west, and between Pershing Boulevard and Union Hill to the north and south. The shopping center is anchored by Halls
, a department store which is owned and operated by Hallmark Cards
. The neighborhood contains numerous residences, retail establishments, entertainment venues, and restaurants (including the American Restaurant, one of only three Mobil four-star restaurants
in Missouri). It is also home to Kansas City's two largest hotels, the global headquarters of Hallmark Cards
, and the headquarters of Shook, Hardy & Bacon
and Lathrop & Gage, two of Kansas City's largest law firms.
was heavily populated and bustling. The area today home to Crown Center was an extension of the Union Hill
historic neighborhood. Gradually, however, the center of population for the metro area
moved south, and by the Second World War the area today comprising Crown Center had become dilapidated. Although Hallmark had maintained its headquarters
at 26th Street and Grand Avenue since 1922, the headquarters itself and nearby Union Station comprised the only non-slum
in the area. Instead, what there was were old warehouse
s, used car lots, and vacant buildings.
In 1966, Donald J. Hall, Sr.
became President
and CEO
of Hallmark Cards, taking over from his father, Joyce Hall
. Joyce Hall had long wished to develop the area around the corporate headquarters, and with his new leadership Donald Hall quickly made it known that he wished to renew
the area entirely. Hallmark quietly began acquiring all the property surrounding its headquarters, and consulted with urban planning
experts about the possibility of creating an experimental "city within a city" on the property. The City of Kansas City formally approved the plans for Crown Center (named after the Hallmark corporate symbol) by the end of 1967.
The master design was prepared by Edward Larrabee Barnes
. Harry Weese
designed Westin Crown Center Hotel
(in which Signboard Hill is included in the design as a waterfall); Norman Fletcher
designed the first residences. Henry Cobb of the I.M. Pei firm designed 2600 Grand office and Dan Kiley
laid out the park in the south area of the complex. Warren Plattner, designer of Windows on the World
, designed the interior space at the American Restaurant when it was operated by Joseph Baum (who also operated The Four Seasons
and the Rainbow Room
).
rink and overstreet walkways leading throughout the complex and to Kansas City's Union Station. One of the most notable stores is the Halls department store designed by Paul László
. The complex also includes the 45-story Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center (which was Missouri's tallest building when built), a Westin hotel, and two upscale residential apartment skyscrapers. Kansas City's three largest law firms maintain their headquarters
in other skyscrapers in the neighborhood. The neighborhood's grounds are replete with parks, fountains, green spaces and unique sculpture
s.
The global headquarters campus for Hallmark Cards is located on the eastern side of Crown Center.
, the Mayor
's Christmas Tree
at Hallmark Cards
’ Crown Center is strung with more than 7,200 white lights during the winter holidays and stands 100 feet tall, which is taller than the famous National Christmas Tree
and Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
, as well as the White House Christmas Tree
.http://www.visitkc.com/things-to-do/attractions/crown-center-tree/index.aspx A special guest or celebrity
"flips the switch" each year.http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/sports/football/chiefs/chiefs-top-running-backs-will-flip-the-switch-thanksgiving-night-at-the-plaza-lighting-ceremonyhttp://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/23/2465546/lights-fireworks-and-music-kc.html Chef
Celina Tio (owner and chef of Julian in K.C.
, Missouri
), who recently made it to the final four on Food Network
's The Next Iron Chef
, joined Kansas City's Mayor Mark Funkhouser
to light the tree in 2010. The lighting ceremony
is held the day after Thanksgiving
. After the holidays, the tree is cut into commemorative
ornaments
and sold to benefit the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which assists city residents in poverty.http://www.visitkc.com/things-to-do/attractions/crown-center-tree/index.aspx
Gillham Road
Gillham Road is a major north/south main street that runs in Kansas City, Missouri from 22nd Street to 46th Street. Gillham Road becomes Gillham Plaza from 31st Street to 34th Street. This causes Gillham Road to go over one block east into a residential neighborhood...
and Grand Boulevard
Grand Boulevard (Kansas City, Missouri)
Grand Boulevard or Grand Avenue is a north/south street that in Kansas City, Missouri. Grand runs along the 200 east block in the Kansas City street grid system . In the Downtown and Crown Center areas of Kansas City it is an arterial route, continuing on the north as the Grand Ave. Viaduct...
to the east and west, and between Pershing Boulevard and Union Hill to the north and south. The shopping center is anchored by Halls
Halls (department store)
Halls is the department store division of Kansas City, Missouri-based Hallmark Cards, consisting of two specialty department store locations — one adjoining Hallmark corporate headquarters and downtown Kansas City in the city's Crown Center commercial complex, the other in the city's high-end...
, a department store which is owned and operated by Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
. The neighborhood contains numerous residences, retail establishments, entertainment venues, and restaurants (including the American Restaurant, one of only three Mobil four-star restaurants
Restaurant rating
Restaurant ratings identify restaurants according to their quality, using various notations such as stars or other symbols, or numbers. Stars are a familiar and popular symbol, with ratings of one to four or five stars commonly used. Ratings appear in guidebooks as well as in the media, typically...
in Missouri). It is also home to Kansas City's two largest hotels, the global headquarters of Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
, and the headquarters of Shook, Hardy & Bacon
Shook, Hardy & Bacon
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP is a large U.S. law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2008, the National Law Journal ranked the firm as the 83rd largest in the United States.-Personnel:...
and Lathrop & Gage, two of Kansas City's largest law firms.
History
Before the First World War, Downtown Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
was heavily populated and bustling. The area today home to Crown Center was an extension of the Union Hill
Union Hill, Kansas City
Union Hill is a historic neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. The neighborhood is located between 29th Street and 31st Street and Main Street to Gillham Road....
historic neighborhood. Gradually, however, the center of population for the metro area
Kansas City Metropolitan Area
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...
moved south, and by the Second World War the area today comprising Crown Center had become dilapidated. Although Hallmark had maintained its headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
at 26th Street and Grand Avenue since 1922, the headquarters itself and nearby Union Station comprised the only non-slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
in the area. Instead, what there was were old warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
s, used car lots, and vacant buildings.
In 1966, Donald J. Hall, Sr.
Donald J. Hall, Sr.
Donald J. Hall Sr. is the chairman of the board and majority shareholder of Hallmark Cards, the world's largest greeting card manufacturer and one of the world's largest privately held companies. Hallmark's headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.. He and his wife, Adele, live in Mission...
became President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of Hallmark Cards, taking over from his father, Joyce Hall
Joyce Hall
Joyce Clyde Hall , an American businessman, was the founder of Hallmark Cards.- Biography :Born in David City, Nebraska, the son of Frank Dudley Houston and George Nelson Hall, a minister, Hall worked odd jobs, mostly involving sales, from age 8 on to supplement the meager income of his father...
. Joyce Hall had long wished to develop the area around the corporate headquarters, and with his new leadership Donald Hall quickly made it known that he wished to renew
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
the area entirely. Hallmark quietly began acquiring all the property surrounding its headquarters, and consulted with urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
experts about the possibility of creating an experimental "city within a city" on the property. The City of Kansas City formally approved the plans for Crown Center (named after the Hallmark corporate symbol) by the end of 1967.
The master design was prepared by Edward Larrabee Barnes
Edward Larrabee Barnes
Edward Larrabee Barnes was a American architect.Barnes was born in Chicago, Illinois into a family he described as "incense-swinging High Episcopalians", consisting of Cecil Barnes, a lawyer, and Margaret Helen Ayer, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for the novel Year of Grace...
. Harry Weese
Harry Weese
Harry Mohr Weese was an American architect, born in Evanston, Illinois in the Chicago suburbs, who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation...
designed Westin Crown Center Hotel
Westin Hotels
Westin Hotels & Resorts are an upscale hotel chain owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. As of 2011, Westin operated over 160 hotels in 37 countries.-History:...
(in which Signboard Hill is included in the design as a waterfall); Norman Fletcher
Norman Fletcher
Norman Collings Fletcher was an American architect who was a co-founder and partner of the architectural firm The Architects' Collaborative , working there from 1945 until the firm's demise in 1995. His wife was Jean B. Fletcher.Fletcher was born in Providence, Rhode Island...
designed the first residences. Henry Cobb of the I.M. Pei firm designed 2600 Grand office and Dan Kiley
Dan Kiley
Daniel Urban Kiley was a noted American landscape architect in the modernist style.- Life and career :Kiley was born in Boston, Massachusetts...
laid out the park in the south area of the complex. Warren Plattner, designer of Windows on the World
Windows on the World
Windows on the World was a complex of venues at the top floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan that included a restaurant, Windows on the World, a smaller restaurant called Wild Blue, and a bar called The Greatest Bar on Earth, as well as rooms for private functions...
, designed the interior space at the American Restaurant when it was operated by Joseph Baum (who also operated The Four Seasons
The Four Seasons Restaurant
The Four Seasons is a restaurant in New York City located at 99 East 52nd Street , in the Seagram Building.Opened in 1959, the Four Seasons is associated with a number of milestone firsts in the hospitality industry. The Four Seasons is credited with introducing the idea of seasonally-changing...
and the Rainbow Room
Rainbow Room
The Rainbow Room was an upscale restaurant and nightclub on the 65th floor of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.-Cuisine:...
).
Location specifics
Today, the shopping and entertainment complex features three levels of shops and restaurants, a set of grand open air fountains, live theatres, movie theatres, an ice skatingIce skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
rink and overstreet walkways leading throughout the complex and to Kansas City's Union Station. One of the most notable stores is the Halls department store designed by Paul László
Paul László
Paul László or Paul Laszlo was a Hungarian-born modern architect and interior designer whose work spanned eight decades and many countries...
. The complex also includes the 45-story Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center (which was Missouri's tallest building when built), a Westin hotel, and two upscale residential apartment skyscrapers. Kansas City's three largest law firms maintain their headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
in other skyscrapers in the neighborhood. The neighborhood's grounds are replete with parks, fountains, green spaces and unique sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s.
The global headquarters campus for Hallmark Cards is located on the eastern side of Crown Center.
Mayor's Christmas Tree
A century-old traditionTradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
, the Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
's Christmas Tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
at Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
’ Crown Center is strung with more than 7,200 white lights during the winter holidays and stands 100 feet tall, which is taller than the famous National Christmas Tree
National Christmas Tree (United States)
The National Christmas Tree is a large evergreen tree located in the northeast quadrant of the The Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C. Each year since 1923, the tree has been decorated as a Christmas tree. The grand illumination of the Christmas lights on the tree by the President of...
and Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is a large Christmas tree placed annually in Rockefeller Center in mid-town Manhattan in New York City. The tree is erected and lit in late November or early December. In recent years, the lighting has been broadcast live nationwide on NBC's Christmas in...
, as well as the White House Christmas Tree
White House Christmas tree
The White House Christmas Tree, also known as the Blue Room Christmas Tree, is the official indoor Christmas tree at the residence of the President of the United States, the White House...
.http://www.visitkc.com/things-to-do/attractions/crown-center-tree/index.aspx A special guest or celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
"flips the switch" each year.http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/sports/football/chiefs/chiefs-top-running-backs-will-flip-the-switch-thanksgiving-night-at-the-plaza-lighting-ceremonyhttp://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/23/2465546/lights-fireworks-and-music-kc.html Chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
Celina Tio (owner and chef of Julian in K.C.
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
), who recently made it to the final four on Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
's The Next Iron Chef
The Next Iron Chef
The Next Iron Chef, is a limited-run series on the Food Network now in its fourth season. Each season is a stand-alone competition to select a chef to be designated an Iron Chef, who will appear on the Food Network program Iron Chef America....
, joined Kansas City's Mayor Mark Funkhouser
Mark Funkhouser
Mark Funkhouser is a former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, serving one four-year term from May 1, 2007 until May 2, 2011. Prior to serving as the city's mayor, Funkhouser served as Kansas City's city auditor.-Early life and education:...
to light the tree in 2010. The lighting ceremony
Ceremony
A ceremony is an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin.-Ceremonial occasions:A ceremony may mark a rite of passage in a human life, marking the significance of, for example:* birth...
is held the day after Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
. After the holidays, the tree is cut into commemorative
Commemorative
Commemorative may refer to:*Commemorative coin*United States Commemorative Coin*Commemorative issue - a special edition of a book, magazine, or other item released around, or in memory of, a special event or occurrence.*Commemorative stamp...
ornaments
Christmas ornament
Christmas ornaments are decorations that are used to festoon a Christmas tree.Ornaments take many different forms, from a simple round ball to highly artistic designs...
and sold to benefit the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which assists city residents in poverty.http://www.visitkc.com/things-to-do/attractions/crown-center-tree/index.aspx