Make It Right is leading an ambitious new project in a transitional urban community in the heart of Kansas City. Our work in Kansas City’s Manheim Park neighborhood will showcase innovative and sustainable community redevelopment strategies and cutting-edge design while providing affordable housing for 150 residents. See our work in progress here.

After a year of discussions with residents and community leaders in the blighted neighborhood, Make It Right committed to redevelop the site of the former Bancroft Elementary School. Built in 1904, the school functioned as a public elementary until 1999 and has remained vacant for the last 13 years.

Make It Right and our local partners will convert the school into a LEED Platinum housing and community complex, including 50 affordable rental units for veterans, seniors and people with special needs. Half the housing units will be built in the historic school building; the other half will be new townhome structures built around the school and designed by Kansas City-based BNIM Architects, American Institute of Architects 2011 Firm of the Year.

The Bancroft School redevelopment will also include a community center featuring an auditorium, gymnasium, locker rooms, technology lab, job training center, medical clinic, grocery store and other retail space, along with community gardens, a playground, walking trail and police foot patrol office.

Access to these resources will be available to all 30,000 residents of the neighborhood, resulting in a healthier, safer community. Make It Right hopes this redevelopment will catalyze additional reinvestment in the community.

Make It Right is partnering with Neighborhood Housing Services, a local non-profit, to manage the facilities and rental units when construction is finished.