In 2010, the Town of Plainfield, IN, selected RATIO to prepare a feasibility study for the relocation and rehabilitation of the historic Oasis Diner. Opened in 1954 along U.S. Route 40 between Plainfield and Indianapolis, the diner had been a regional landmark for generations before it closed in 2009. The diner sat vacant and endangered by encroaching suburban strip development.
Plainfield, Indiana Landmarks and the Indiana National Road Association worked with the diner’s longtime owners to arrange for the donation of the structure to the town on the condition that it be preserved and moved to a new site. The town identified a new site along US Route 40 near the town center, where the diner could retain its relationship to the historic road while also enhancing a major gateway into the downtown area.
RATIO documented the diner’s history and conditions, prepared options for relocation and rehabilitation including a modern kitchen and accessible restrooms, examined the potential reuse of historic signage from the diner’s original site, and prepared a conceptual cost magnitude for the project. In 2014, RATIO provided construction documents services to relocate, rehabilitate and reopen the Oasis Diner in Plainfield's town center.
