Renovation: Masterplan

Needed Enhancements for Building Occupants and Citizens

The Capitol must serve two groups: those who work there and those who visit. For the building occupants, the Capitol must be a modern efficient workplace. For example the work force must have state-of-the-art telecommunications. This includes clean uninterrupted electrical power for office equipment. Access to back-up electrical power is also critical. Occupants, including visitors, should have access to food service and other amenities found in contemporary office buildings.

The Capitol should be a major educational and tourist destination. Access to the site and building should be easy and clean, with adequate signage to direct visitors to parking and appropriate entrances. Inside the building, an orientation room would facilitate presentation of the history of the Capitol and the process of how laws are made, and provide a departure point for a tour. At times when tours are not available, the self-guided tour can be enhanced by being keyed to individual exhibits and stations. The orientation room would help to fulfill the teaching of civics to Kansas school children.

When visitors meet with their legislators, they need a private, reasonably quiet, and uncrowded space. Currently, there are very few locations where legislators can meet with their constituents, since small conference rooms are the rarest space types within the building. Wayfinding to an office is difficult. There are at least five major signage systems within the building developed in a largely random fashion without apparent plan or design. Legislators' office locations may change from year to year and finding a specific office can be difficult and potentially frustrating for the occasional visitor. The ability to generate printed directions from the touch-screen kiosk to a particular office could prove particularly helpful.

A visitor here to testify before a committee should immediately be able to determine where a committee hearing is being held and the agenda. Frequently, a visitor will only know the subject for which they are to testify, but not the name of the committee. Again, the use of a touch-screen kiosk has proven effective at many state capitols. The screens are linked to a central database to show both a visitor and a legislator where each committee is meeting, as well as the agenda. The visitor can search by the agenda topic and be directed to the proper location. Completely equipped hearing/committee rooms with teleconferencing capability can even link remote locations to the hearing room. No longer will a citizen need to travel to Topeka to testify. These improvements will help make the building more efficient and welcoming for both occupants and visitors, and are critical features of any major renovation of the building. The stewards of the building have the responsibility to make the building safe, comfortable, and efficient for occupants and guests alike.

Changes

At one time, the Kansas state government was fully housed within the State Capitol. Today, the Executive and Legislative branches of state government, as well as some state agencies are still located in the capitol, while other agencies are spread throughout other buildings. The Kansas Capitol has a mix of full-time, year-round services to the public and the seasonal legislature and their part-time staff. The Master Plan recommends having a working capitol. That is, a building used year round. It is desirable to have as many full-time services located in the building as possible.

The Master Plan calls for greater efficiency in the utilization of spaces in the building. As occupants have been shuffled around during the years, some spaces are over-utilized and others are under-utilized. The objective of the Master Plan is to make more effective utilization of the existing spaces and to adapt the basement spaces for new uses. Removing the building systems from the occupiable portion of the basement is currently being explored in detail. The new basement spaces would have limestone walls, brick vaulted ceilings, and dramatic lighting. This improvement has been successfully completed in several other state capitol improvement projects around the country. These other capitols have used basement space for such things as: gift shop, cafe, visitor information center, interpretive center, exhibits, press corps, information technology, offices, special committee rooms, special committee staff areas, computer training facility, and general support space. These are all uses that could be accommodated in the renovation of the Kansas State Capitol basement.

With the building systems removed, the finishes enhanced, the windows reinstalled, and the areaways reopened to access the natural light, the currently under-utilized basement can be transformed into high quality space to meet the needs of the State.

With some uses from upper floors moved to the basement level, other uses can be moved around in the building to provide better utilization of space that is more in keeping with the needs of each of the users. The implementation of the Master Plan, with a comprehensive renovation of the building, will result in more effective and efficient utilization of spaces, greater efficiency in office layouts, better proximity between uses, and greatly enhanced services to the people of Kansas.

Implementation

The Master Plan provides a framework and method to continually align the changing needs of the occupants and public with the limitations of the facility. The purpose of the Master Plan is to define an overall facility approach that will guide future decision making about the uses of the Capitol and how to make it evermore efficient in serving its public.

Implementation will likely take place over anine-year period. The project implementation will occur in four stages, one stage for each wing. As part of the exterior renovation, there will be roofing repair, stone preservation, and the rusting steel single-glazed windows will be replaced with windows that match the configuration and materials of the historic windows, and with high efficiency insulated glazing. The result of such a comprehensive preservation and renovation project will be an efficient Capitol that will glow with the reflected pride of Kansas citizens.

Kansas State Capitol Renovation: