Location: 
Wichita, Kansas
Total Square Feet: 25,035
Construction Period: Aug 2002 to Sep 2003 

CONSTRUCTION TEAM
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Dudley Williams & Associates - 230 Laura, #200, Wichita, KS 67211
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Sauerwein Construction Co. - 2055 S. Edwards, Wichita, KS 67213
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: Johnson Engineering - 330 Laura, Wichita, KS 67211
MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Mechanical Consultants, Inc. - 254 Laura, #200, Wichita, KS 67211
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Great Plains Landscape - 541 Roosevelt Avenue, Beloit, KS 67420

The new facility for the Independent Living Resource Center is located on West Second Street in Wichita, Kansas. Independent Living Resource Center (ILRC) functions as a not-for-profit organization assisting people with disabilities to live outside of institutions and fulltime care facilities. The organization is made up of caseworkers, legal researchers/ experts and other managers and required a professional office environment with non-traditional configurations and clearances to allow for staff and client accessibility.

Being at the east edge of the Great Plains, single-story buildings are well suited to the relatively flat terrain and wide open spaces. A single-story building is also well suited for ILRC to avoid hassles with elevators, lifts and ramps. Site grading was designed to allow for dozens of accessible parking spaces at the east and west side of the building to butt into the sidewalk with a curb. In lieu of utilizing typical and van accessible parking spaces (60- and 96-inch aisles, respectively), ILRC requested that the parking be designed around the "Universal Parking" accessible design, which contains 132-inch spaces with 60-inch aisles between.

The building itself is designed for durability and low maintenance. The walls are load-bearing concrete masonry with brick veneer and Kynar® coated extruded aluminum windows. The 2,000-square-foot conference room also serves as a safe haven during severe storms with heavily reinforced masonry walls, heavygauge doors and a composite concrete roof deck. Visual interest is added with serpentine building and site walls and clerestories at the reception area and the major corridor intersection.

The office layout places management offices near their areas with copier/fax stations and unisex restroom facilities placed at several locations. Access control is managed at the reception desk to allow for nighttime use of front conference rooms and tenant space while denying access to ILRC offices in the heart of the building. Front access is accomplished through automatic sliding doors at each side of the vestibule and at the reception area. Other building access points use swing doors with automatic door operators at multiple heights.

The ILRC property is part of a Property Unit Development (PUD) with specific zoning guidelines unique to the site. The Metropolitan Area Planning Department was concerned that ILRC's would be designed with a sensitivity to both the residential character of the surrounding neighborhoods and to neighborhood storm drainage problems. The building design is contemporary, but adorned with a brick veneer and is scaled to flow with the surrounding developments. An undulating brick garden wall is located at the back of the property, to screen an adjacent residential neighborhood. The garden wall is single-wythe radial brick, constructed in twenty foot segments.

MANUFACTURERS/SUPPLIERS
DIV 08: Interior Wood Doors: Marshfield Door Systems; Hollow Metal Doors: Steelcraft; Aluminum Storefront: Manko.