Kansas City students brainstorm new life for former Cerner headquarters

A team of Northland high school students hope a semester-long project will spark creative redevelopment ideas for Cerner Corp.’s former World Headquarters campus in North Kansas City, where more than 100 acres have remained vacant since the health care IT company’s departure last November.

Five students in September began brainstorming campus concepts through the Northland Center for Advanced Professional Studies (Northland CAPS) program, which pairs students with local business partners so they can develop work skills and explore potential careers.

The team worked with the North Kansas City Business Council, whose Executive Director Richard Groves first suggested a look at reuses for the empty campus at 2800 Rockcreek Parkway.

The student group landed on two redevelopment possibilities for the former World Headquarters:

  • a mini-community with different mixed uses, including an expansion of the adjacent hospital;
  • or a college campus, either to support a new metro presence for an existing institution, like the Missouri University of Science and Technology or Washington University in St. Louis, or creation of a new one.

The original article from Fox4KC, attributed to the Business Journal, can be found here.