Awards of Excellence:

St Margaret’s Hospital

Ushering in the next era of historic preservation, the St. Margaret’s Lofts rehabilitation of the 1954 St. Margaret’s Hospital helped preserve an enduring example of Modernist style architecture. Constructed at a time when the medical industry was undergoing a widespread modernization following World War Two, the hospital stands as an excellent example of institutional Modernist architecture, with minimal ornamentation, strong horizontal banding, and exterior sculptural relief carvings. The building still retains all of these character-defining features after its rehabilitation into an active senior living complex, a use well suited to the historic hospital. Inside, the terrazzo and tile flooring, chapel space, and historic lobby have been retained, while the patient rooms have been converted into new one, two, or three bedroom apartments. The historic corridor layout was maintained, with the characteristic repetitive doors of a hospital hallway still in place, pinned shut where not needed for access. The reception desk in the lobby, and the nurse’s stations throughout the building were retained as implied spaces in the hallways, highlighted through the use of lighting. Outside, the overgrown site was cleared and restored to its historic appearance, allowing the restored building to once again show its Modernist style exterior. The St. Margaret’s Lofts rehabilitation will serve as a large and impressive example of the possibilities in the preservation of Modern architecture going forward.

Federal and state historic preservation tax credits were utilized to fund this rehabilitation.

The project team included: Foutch Brothers, LLC; Rosin Preservation; Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Community Development; Kansas Housing Resources Corporation; Midwest Housing Equity Group; Horizon Bank; and Historic Preservation Partners.