Four Awards. One Building. One Mission That Changed Everything.

When we broke ground on the Children’s Mercy + Camber Mental Health Mental Wellness Campus in Olathe, Kansas, the conversation was never about accolades. It was about children and adolescents. Families navigating some of the hardest moments of their lives. It was about building something that could meet the magnitude of that moment, a space where world-class clinical care and intentional, healing-centered design could come together under one roof.

What emerged is something that has genuinely set a new standard for behavioral healthcare in our region. And now, the most respected organizations in construction and real estate have recognized it for exactly that.

A Landmark Facility Born from a Visionary Partnership

The Children’s Mercy + Camber Mental Health Mental Wellness Campus didn’t happen by accident. It was the result of a groundbreaking cross-sector partnership between two mission-aligned organizations, Children’s Mercy and Camber Mental Health, united by a shared belief that children and adolescents in crisis deserve better than what has historically been available to them.

Together, we set out to build something transformative. Not just a functional healthcare facility, but a next-generation therapeutic environment designed from the inside out using evidence-based behavioral health research. The goal was simple yet ambitious: to create a space where the environment itself becomes part of the healing process.

The result is a 72-bed, state-of-the-art mental wellness campus that has fundamentally expanded access to critical inpatient care for children and adolescents across the greater Kansas City area and the broader region. Since opening in December 2024, it has served as a vital, life-changing resource for thousands of patients and families who had nowhere else to turn.

Purpose-Driven Design at Every Turn

What makes this campus truly extraordinary isn’t just its size or its capacity. It’s the intentionality woven into every square foot.

Every design decision was rooted in clinical research and guided by one question: what does a child in crisis actually need to heal? The answers shaped everything. Abundant natural light flows through patient spaces to support emotional regulation and wellbeing. Calming color palettes were selected with neurological impact in mind. Thoughtfully designed interior and exterior courtyards offer restorative outdoor spaces that invite calm and reflection. Every room, every hallway, every common area was considered through the lens of trauma-informed, patient-centered care.

This is what purpose-driven design looks like when it’s done right. It’s not a trend or a tagline. It’s a clinical philosophy made physical.

Four Awards. Recognized by the Best in the Business.

We are incredibly proud to share that the Children’s Mercy + Camber Mental Health Mental Wellness Campus has received four prestigious industry awards, each one a reflection of the craftsmanship, innovation and mission-aligned vision that made this campus possible.

🏆 Award of Excellence

Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America, Kansas Chapter
Honoring construction excellence and innovative building practices across the state of Kansas. This award recognizes projects that demonstrate the highest standards of quality, safety and professionalism in the built environment.

🏆 Project of the Year

Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America
For construction projects valued between $30 and $50 million. One of the most competitive and prestigious recognitions in the construction industry, this award celebrates outstanding achievement and sets the benchmark for excellence in large-scale project delivery.

🏆 Merit Award

Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Mid-America Region
2025 Project & People Awards. This recognition celebrates exceptional collaboration, cost efficiency and innovation through the design-build delivery method, honoring teams that pushed the boundaries of what integrated project delivery can achieve.

🏆 Capstone Award

Kansas City Business Journal
Honoring transformative real estate projects that tackle community challenges and deliver lasting, generational value. This award recognizes developments that don’t just fill a space but fundamentally change a community.

Four awards across four distinct and highly respected organizations. Each one tells a piece of the same story: that when you build with purpose, the results speak for themselves.

What This Building Is Really For

Before the awards, before the recognition, there was a child who needed help. In the past year alone, more than 2,500 individuals found help here. More high school graduations. Fewer funerals. That is the only metric that has ever truly mattered to us.

The Partners Who Brought This Vision to Life

A project of this magnitude and complexity requires partners who are as mission-driven as the organizations behind it. We found exactly that in JE Dunn Construction and architecture firm Hoefer Welker.

JE Dunn brought industry-leading construction expertise and a best-in-class team to every phase of delivery, from pre-construction planning through final build-out. Their commitment to innovative collaboration and forward-thinking problem-solving kept the project on budget and ahead of schedule, no small feat for a facility of this scale and clinical complexity.

Hoefer Welker brought a visionary architecture practice grounded in healthcare design excellence. Their deep understanding of patient-centered, clinically informed environments translated directly into the healing spaces our patients experience every single day.

A project like this leaves a mark on a community that lasts for generations. Together, these partners didn’t just deliver a building. They helped deliver on a promise to the children, adolescents and families of our community. We are honored to have built something this meaningful, alongside partners this extraordinary.