Generator Studio (who is currently hiring a Sr. Project Designer and Interior Designer) is nearing completion of its new milestone CPKC Stadium project in Kansas City, Missouri. Once complete, it will become the first sports facility in the United States to be solely dedicated to female competitors and serve as the home of the Kansas City Current NWSL professional soccer franchise.  

The 11,500-seat stadium is being delivered on a site adjacent to the Missouri River inside the 17-acre Berkley Riverfront Park at a cost of $117 million. The firm will look to expand on its previous Kansas City area designs for the Centene Community Ice Center and the Current’s mass timber Training Facility in the process, adding a historic caveat to a portfolio of other sports sector commissions that includes the MLS Seattle Sounders FC Center, Kraken Community Iceplex, and $25 million Amalie Arena Phase Two Renovation in Tampa.

The CPKC Stadium project involved Thornton Tomasetti for structural engineering, and Taliaferro & Browne for surveying and civil engineering services. They also coordinated with the United States Army Corps of Engineers regarding the project's impact on the Missouri River levee.

The influence of women’s professional sports in America has grown exponentially since the passage of Title IX fifty years ago. Recent statistics have shown a rise in women’s participation of organized sports worldwide to go along with an increased share of television viewers and in-person fans, prompting unprecedented investments into projects such as CPKC Stadium and the completed Brisbane AFWL Lions dedicated rugby facility from Populous. 

“Previously there wasn't room for women's facilities within the sports world. With the investments [the owners] made in this team, in the stadium, in the training facility, they're bringing women to the foreground and it's exciting as women within the studio to be working on the projects as well and to continue that story from beginning to end,” Christina Franklin, Generator’s Director of Interior Design, told the ALSD as part of a recent interview. 

A KC Streetcar extension will accompany the stadium in 2025. Plans are for the CPKC Stadium project to be completed by March of 2024. Generator is also currently hiring for two designer positions. More information about the CPKC Stadium project can be found here.