Citizens Plaza & Lofts

Emporia, Kansas
Remodel
2018-2020
Civil Engineers - Driggs Design Group
Structural Engineer - VMT Engineering
Civil Engineer - Driggs Design Group
MEP Engineer - PKMR Engineers
Photographer - Harold Gaston
Awards - 2021 - Merit Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation

Citizens National Plaza & Lofts is a multi-use adaptive reuse project with multi-family residential and commercial use components in downtown Emporia, KS. Before the project, the building housed a bank on the first floor and basement levels while the upper four stories were rented office spaces. The multi-family portion of the project includes 20 units, two of which are ADA units. The first floor provides rentable commercial space and the basement level provides a gym for residential tenants and a large conference room for commercial tenants. Ben Moore Studio assisted the owner in selecting finishes that complement the historic character of the building. Along with interior plan re-configuration and finish selection, the project included a substantial amount of exterior envelope work as well. The brick was in need of re-pointing, crumbling terracotta ornament required repair and cleaning and all windows in the building required replacement. To accommodate a code-compliant second egress from the upper floor levels, a new fire-rated stair and enclosure was designed, connecting the building from first floor to fifth floor. As an adaptive reuse and multi-use building project, the design team had to consider many issues involving fire ratings, adaptations for modern code, historic building systems and communicating these issues to the owner to best inform their decisions. In addition, this project required heavy coordination between architect, owner and the City of Emporia and Planning Department discussing effects on traffic, parking, water line demands and financing. The end result provides a social and economic catalyst for the community in downtown Emporia.