Awards of Excellence:

The Besse Hotel

The Besse Hotel is largest building in southeastern Kansas and the most recognizable visual landmark from the outskirts of Pittsburg. The 12-story grand hotel was designed using traditional three-part building form, popular Late Gothic Revival ornamentation and modern ziggurat massing. It opened to the public in 1927, remained in business until 1979 and was later used for a short time as an apartment building. Until 2010, the hotel sat vacant and deteriorating when the project to reuse the building for affordable contemporary apartments was initiated. The design for the building’s new use respected the historic character while creating modern living spaces in 46 new apartments.

Federal and state historic preservation tax credits were utilized to fund this rehabilitation. Additional project financing was provided by the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, M & I Bank, Bonneville Multi-Family Capital, Sherwin Williams Company and the City of Pittsburg.

The project team included Garrison Development, Ebersoldt & Associates Architecture, Hoss & Brown Engineers, Fauss-Wygo, LLC., and Rosin Preservation.