The Hallmark Cards corporate headquarters at 2501 McGee Trafficway sits on the eastern edge of the Crown Center campus — the physical anchor of one of Kansas City’s most consequential family-controlled companies, and the origin point of an 85-acre urban revitalization project that reshaped the city’s near-southside.
The campus
The global headquarters campus for Hallmark Cards occupies the eastern side of the Crown Center complex on a hillside site straddling McGee Trafficway in midtown Kansas City. The campus is not a single tower but a cluster of interconnected structures that grew across several decades, beginning with the earliest office buildings on the site and eventually comprising more than 2.2 million square feet of office space across the broader Crown Center complex.
Five interconnected seven-story buildings formed the core of the initial headquarters complex, completed in 1971 alongside Crown Center’s first public opening. The campus sits adjacent to — and is functionally integrated with — Crown Center’s retail, hotel, and entertainment district, connected by over-street walkways and enclosed pedestrian bridges. The Hallmark Visitors Center, located at 290 E. 25th Street on the southeast edge of the campus, is open to the public and serves as the public-facing gateway to the company’s history and creative work.
Approximately 2,700 employees work at the Kansas City headquarters; Hallmark employs more than 27,000 people worldwide.
Architecture and development
The original Hallmark headquarters building predates Crown Center’s public opening. It was built into the natural contour of a steep hillside — a design envisioned by Joyce C. Hall and executed by architect Welton Becket. The structure rose eight stories, with each floor gaining square footage as the terrain allowed; a ninth-floor penthouse for business meetings and guests was added later. A two-level enclosed pedestrian bridge spanning thirty feet over McGee Street connected the main building to the adjacent Overland Building.
A second Becket-designed office building opened in 1956 as the company expanded under the Hallmark name (adopted in 1954). These buildings formed the nucleus around which Crown Center was later planned.
The master design for the Crown Center complex itself was prepared by Edward Larrabee Barnes. J.C. Hall consulted nationally recognized urban planners, designers, and visionaries — including Walt Disney and James Rouse — in developing the broader redevelopment vision for the 85-acre site.
Crown Center as legacy project
In the early 1960s, J.C. Hall looked out from the headquarters toward rutted parking lots, abandoned warehouses, and failing properties and determined the company had a responsibility to do something about it. His stated goal was for Crown Center to become a catalyst for revitalizing Kansas City in a way that would complement rather than compete with the downtown business district.
Hall wrote that “We intended for Crown Center to stand as a prime example of how private industry can contribute to the rebirth of this nation’s inner cities.” Crown Center is now recognized as one of the earliest large-scale mixed-use urban redevelopment projects in the United States. It opened in 1971 — alongside the headquarters complex — and has since grown to include retail, restaurants, hotels (including the Hyatt Regency Crown Center and Westin Crown Center), residential units, live theater, an ice terrace, and entertainment venues. The Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation, a Hallmark subsidiary, continues to own and operate the complex.
The Hall family’s role
Hallmark Cards has remained privately held by the Hall family since J.C. Hall founded the company in Kansas City in 1910. Donald J. Hall Sr. — J.C. Hall’s son — served as president and CEO from 1966, overseeing Crown Center’s development and Hallmark’s greatest period of growth. He died on October 13, 2024, at age 96.
Leadership of the company passed to the third generation: Donald J. Hall Jr. serves as executive chairman of the board of directors, and David E. Hall serves as executive vice chairman. Mike Perry has served as president and CEO since 2019. The Hall Family Foundation, funded by Hallmark’s corporate earnings, has long been a significant philanthropic force in Kansas City, supporting arts, civic, and cultural institutions across the city.
See also
hallmark-cards, crown-center, hallmark-visitors-center, joyce-hall, hyatt-regency-crown-center, westin-crown-center, hall-family-foundation