Crown Center is a mixed-use development built and still owned by Hallmark Cards — one of the more unusual facts about Kansas City's built environment. Hallmark, the greeting card company founded in Kansas City in 1910 by Joyce Hall, remains headquartered here and is one of the largest employers in the metropolitan area. Crown Center opened in 1968 as a bold attempt to revitalize a deteriorating neighborhood between downtown and the residential south side.
The complex includes the Hallmark world headquarters, hotels, apartments, shops, restaurants, and an ice-skating rink that becomes one of the city's most popular winter gathering spots. The development represented a significant private investment in urban renewal at a moment when American cities were bleeding population and investment to the suburbs. Hallmark's decision to anchor its headquarters in this development rather than flee to the suburbs was a statement about the company's commitment to Kansas City — a city that has been Hallmark's home for more than a century and whose image (friendly, warm, sentimental, Midwestern) maps almost perfectly onto the brand identity that made Hallmark a household name.
The company that taught America how to mark its occasions built its home in the heart of the city that shaped it.