Workplace · Government / Historic Preservation
Workplace · Government / Historic Preservation
Springfield, IL
2022–2025
250,000 sq ft
Programming → CD100% of Programming, Schematic Design, Design Development & Construction Documentation · Renovation 100% · Preservation 30%
The Illinois State Armory overlooks Capitol Square in Springfield. Built in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project, it served as a drill hall, convention site, sports and entertainment venue, and home to the National Guard and State Police — before sitting idle since 2010.
Its redevelopment, part of the wider Capitol Complex Masterplan, consolidates multiple agencies into one building and reduces the state's reliance on leased offices. The challenge was to meet contemporary planning guidelines and codes — and a late-stage shift toward hybrid work — while preserving a historic structure whose central auditorium had long blocked circulation.
Working with Tilton Kelly Bell, I carried the project from programming through construction documentation: restacking six floors of office space, coordinating new accessibility and life-safety interventions with the preserved fabric, and pairing salvaged materials with new finishes. Documented in Revit and AutoCAD Architecture.
Existing building analysis — usable office area per floor (≈14,055–16,009 S.F.), shown with the existing first- and fourth-floor plans where the central auditorium severs north–south circulation through levels 2–6.
New spatial additions (shown in red) reclaim the auditorium volume with new slabs and mezzanines — the existing-versus-restacking cutaway reveals the new skylit central atrium woven into the historic shell.
Existing versus proposed life-safety & accessibility — red marks the non-compliant existing paths of travel, blue the new ADA-compliant routes, and green the wheelchair path (key at right).
Coordinating preservation with accessibility — new interior and exterior ramps inserted at the north, east, and south lobbies.
Reprogramming roughly 250,000 S.F. for twenty state agencies — original stacking versus the restacked scheme, with workstation types and a representative fifth-floor plan tuned for hybrid work.
Occupant comfort — isolated A/C with four air-handling units and an onsite chiller and boiler, acoustic partitions tuned by room type, and a section carrying daylight deep into the plan.
Coordinating salvaged materials with new finishes — gray and brown terrazzo and terra cotta recovered from the building, paired with new paints, linoleum, solid surface, and carpet.
Elevator-lobby design resolving uneven ceiling heights and crowded mechanicals — a central soffit conceals the systems while cove lighting restores depth, with construction details and the soffit section.