Awards of Excellence:

Bachelor Officers’ Mess Hall

Originally constructed as the Bachelor Officers’ Mess Hall, Building 244 started life feeding officers from the adjacent barracks, with four dining rooms each with its own kitchen. It served unchanged until 1951, when a one-story addition was added to the rear, creating a consolidated kitchen. In 1978, the kitchen was converted into a courtroom, and the dining rooms became offices for the Staff Judge Advocate. In the rehabilitation, the original walls and finishes were left in place and repaired, with acoustical ceilings removed in several rooms and corridors to expose the original ceilings. The original fireplaces were removed during the 1978 remodeling, but were recreated in their original locations as part of the restoration. Eight pocket door openings had been infilled as part of the previous renovations, and it was discovered that seven of the pocket door sets were still intact inside the walls. These were refinished and rehung on their original hardware in the reopened doorways. All new mechanical, electrical, and piped services were installed and kept as unobtrusive as possible, with vertical runs installed in closets and secondary spaces wherever possible. On the exterior of the building, deteriorated areas on the original two-story front porch were repaired, the historic wood windows were restored, and the original slate shingle roof was maintained.

The project team included: Fort Leavenworth DPW; Fort Leavenworth CAC; Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District; GLMV Architecture; Treanor Architects; Professional Engineering Consultants; KH Engineering; and JE Dunn Construction.