Firm Recognized for Workplace, Multifamily, and Adaptive Reuse Design Across Kansas City
Helix Architecture + Design received 2025 Capstone Real Estate Awards for four projects: Columbus Park Townhomes, Midland Lofts Apartments, NAIC Headquarters, and The Crosswalks Apartments (pictured left to right). Photos: Nate Sheets.
In a city laden with architectural talent, Helix stands out by designing places that serve the Kansas City community. The firm creates inspiring spaces where its neighbors live, work, and connect. Four of Helix’s recently completed projects received 2025 Capstone Real Estate Awards from the Kansas City Business Journal, a highly trusted voice in the local business community.
“The Capstone Awards are a tribute to the positive impact Helix’s architecture and interior design has on our city,” says firm president and principal Erika Moody, FIIDA. “Being recognized for our work in multiple categories is a point of pride for our staff.”
These Helix projects received 2025 Kansas City Business Journal Capstone Awards:
Midland Lofts Apartments – Adaptive Reuse
Rising demand for attainable housing in Kansas City’s urban core has prompted a wave of development, challenging building owners, developers, and designers to think creatively about how they can meet this growing need. Helix partnered with The Cordish Companies to transform the long-vacant Midland office building into The Midland Lofts, Kansas City’s newest high-quality attainable housing.
Regarded by the developer as an “underutilized historic jewel,” the Midland building opened in 1927 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its former corporate tenants included AMC Theatres, Russell Stover Chocolates, and the NCAA. The building’s defining French Baroque exterior characteristics were preserved. Inside, Helix designed 135 apartments, with attainable studio apartments beginning at 300 square feet and priced at less than $1,000 a month. Opulent amenity spaces transform former offices into an in-demand multifamily community.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners Headquarters – Office
Founded in 1871, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the country’s oldest member-services group, serving insurance regulators in each state. During COVID, NAIC commissioned Helix to consolidate and update its downtown-high-rise footprint from seven floors to five.
NAIC and Helix delved into the distinct needs and priorities of the organization’s diverse departments to determine the best course for the future workplace. An extensive visioning and programming process helped define ways to build community by breaking down department siloes, establishing a strong brand identity, and providing exceptional experiences for members and employees alike. To address NAIC’s programmatic goals, free-address private offices and workstations enabled the design team to reduce the overall footprint and allocate space for luxurious employee amenities, such as a work café. For this tenant-improvement project, Helix designed an inviting workplace that fosters a sense of connection and enriches company culture.
The Crosswalks Apartments – Mixed-Use
Helix designed a four-building mixed-use community at a historically significant intersection once considered Kansas City’s racial dividing line, with one building per corner. Ground-floor retail businesses in each bring overdue services to the neighborhood, including a bank, vegan café, and local market.
The Helix team was considerate of the area’s social, political, and architectural history. Each corner of this intersection belongs to a distinct neighborhood, each with its own history, identity, and even elected representatives. During the master planning and conceptual design, the designers delved into the neighborhoods’ defining characteristics and engaged with city representatives and community groups to identify their aspirations for the future. Construction employed an efficient and low-waste factory-built Cold-Formed Panel System (CFPS), which structurally integrates exterior framing and the façade.
Columbus Park Townhomes – Multifamily
A trio of commercial real estate veterans and advocates for urban living joined forces to develop a parcel of land in Kansas City’s historic Columbus Park neighborhood. They envisioned a “missing middle” housing type, less common in this walkable, eclectic area. This range of house-scale buildings with multiple tenants provides an increased density between the most common forms of development in Kansas City, the single-family house and the large-scale apartment block.
The client met with key stakeholders in the neighborhood from the beginning of the project. Helix explored more than two dozen site plan options to determine the best use of the challenging, triangular parcel of land to find a solution that was appropriately scaled for the surrounding neighborhood. With community support, Helix developed a plan that combines street-facing townhomes with rear apartments.
The 2025 Capstone awards bring Helix’s total number of local, national, and international honors to more than 230 since the firm’s founding in 1992.
About Helix Architecture + Design
Helix Architecture + Design is an integrated architecture and interior design firm with offices in Kansas City and Denver. The firm’s diverse portfolio of work includes workplace, higher education, cultural, mixed-use, multifamily, civic, and hospitality projects and has specialized expertise with renovation, adaptive reuse, and preservation of historic buildings. Helix has been recognized with more than 230 regional, national, and international awards for design excellence and thought leadership. In 2023, Helix became a majority women-owned firm under the direction of president and principal Erika Moody, FIIDA.
