LJWorld.com

Topeka — She's been the perfect hostess since day one. Has suffered all-night encounters, welcomed total strangers, accepted politicians of all persuasions and tolerated language no lady should have to hear.

Such tolerance has paid off for this elegant limestone lady, and this autumn the Kansas Statehouse will enter phase one of an eight-year, $120 million makeover.

When the eight-year Statehouse restoration project is completed, this is how the entrance to the north wing will appear. The steps will be extended to the north, and a visitors center will be housed behind the five ground-level entrances in the bottom center of the illustration. A horseshoe-shaped driveway, opening on Eighth Street, will enable vehicles to drop off people at the entrances. Phase one of the project is scheduled to begin this fall.

"We feel we should be good stewards of this grand building," said Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, chairman of the restoration commission.

"It's one of the nicest statehouses in the country, and we should do everything we can to restore its appearance after our forefathers sacrificed so much to build it."

The original structure cost $3.2 million and took 37 years to build. Construction began in 1866 and ended in 1903. Deteriorating stonework was repaired in 1917, and in the 1920s, when electricity became practical, skylights were covered and electric lighting was installed.

When the "add-on" ball started rolling, additional office space was built, ceilings were dropped to accommodate air-conditioning ductwork, original wall paintings were covered with paint and plaster, and miles of pipe and electrical conduit filled basement passageways.

"This building has been brutalized and neglected for 80 years," said Dick Bond, former president of the Kansas Senate and one of the chief instigators of the renovation project. "It looks like they added the air conditioning with chain saws."

He alluded to the high voltage lines, lead and asbestos in the basement, and the building's poor ventilation.

"First guy who gets a cold spreads it to the entire building," the Overland Park banker added.

In 1997 and '98, Bond gathered support from then-House Speaker Tim Shallenburger, R-Baxter Springs, Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, and Rep. Robin Jennison, R-Healy, and they took the project to the Legislative Coordinating Council.

From the beginning, the idea of restoring the Capitol crossed party lines and was not a political issue.

"The key committees from both houses were involved in the restoration project," Bond added.

Bond, Kerr and Shallenburger, who now is state treasurer, put together a funding package for the $40 million first phase and wrapped it into a bill. The 2000 Legislature approved it.

Construction of the Kansas Statehouse began in 1866 and was finished in 1903. The dome, still under construction in this 1889 photo, was the last portion to be completed.

"I've said this before, but getting that bill passed will be the most important thing I did in my 14 years in the Kansas Legislature," Bond said. "Bills get changed and amended and become unrecognizable, but this project will last for at least 50 years, will be there for our children, grandchildren and in my case, great-grandchildren. It's magnificent, exciting and I feel like a missionary."

The state will issue $40 million in bonds to pay for the first phase. The bonds will be repaid from the interest earned on $75 million in unclaimed property money the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System invests.

Hidden garage

Sometime this fall, work will begin on a 561-car underground parking garage built beneath the north lawn of the Statehouse.

The $15 million garage is scheduled for completion 16 months after construction begins.

Statehouse architect Bill Groth will oversee the Statehouse project and has visited 10 state capitol buildings that have been renovated or restored. All of them reported that their visitor counts tripled after re-constructions. A chunk of stone that fell from the Kansas Capitol's deteriorating exterior is in the foreground.

Money for the garage was not included in the renovation bill passed in 2000, but a provision to provide the funding was tacked on to the final version of the budget for fiscal 2002.

The garage funding was not opened for debate.

House Speaker Kent Glasscock, R-Manhattan, was quoted as saying "that isn't going to happen again."

Kerr, Secretary of Administration Dan Stanley and Shallenburger are taking some verbal heat for their last-minute maneuver.

But, the garage project is projected to be on schedule.

"First," Kerr said, "this garage will be for the people who come to the Capitol and don't have a place to park. Anyone who has tried to visit the Capitol when the Legislature is in session knows that parking is a big problem. We (the legislators) already have parking places."

"Second," he went on, "we were told by our architects and engineers that the state will save millions of dollars by building the garage up-front. When the parking garage is completed, the roof will act as a staging area for additional construction."

A mural depicting John Brown can be seen at through the framework of a caged elevators. The Statehouse elevator, run by an operator, is one of the few of its kind left in Kansas. Four high speed elevators are included in the restoration project, but this elevator will remain in operation.

He added that waiting would mean tearing up portions of the driveway, re-building them and tearing them up again.

"We'd be destroying something we just built."

Underground vaults housing new mechanical equipment for heating, electricity and water will be constructed at the same time work is being done on the garage.

Statehouse architect Bill Groth says the vaults will allow workers to remove all of the utility clutter from the Statehouse's bottom floor, which will be expanded into part of the visitors center.

"Right now steam pipes serving three other buildings run through the Statehouse basement," Groth said.

Lawrence connection

Treanor Architects in Lawrence has the contract for the restoration.

Miles of pipe and conduit clutter the basement of the Statehouse, clogging corridors. Steam pipes that service three buildings run through the building. This will all be removed in the restoration project.

"There are only 50 of these," architect Mike Treanor said. "We know it's a chance of a lifetime, and we treat it with the importance it deserves."

Treanor has two preservation architects, Kim Rivera and Vance Kelly, from its Topeka office assigned to the restoration.

Treanor, Groth and several legislators have visited restored capitols in states like Iowa, Texas, Minnesota and Ohio.

Ohio's Statehouse in Columbus gets the most votes from the Kansas contingent as the best restoration job.

"Ohio celebrated the fact that Lincoln laid in state in Columbus when the train carrying his body stopped there." Treanor said. "They also have a picture of Lincoln with the Ohio governor from an earlier visit, and they've found the desk that was in the photograph. It was still in the building, but was being used as a workbench."

Treanor added that the Ohio project was impressive because of the way new construction blended with the old.

The Columbus, Ohio, firm of Schooley-Caldwell Architects worked on the Ohio Statehouse and will consult on the Kansas project.

All of the remodeled and renovated statehouses had one factor in common: After their projects were completed the number of visitors tripled.

Huge blocks of exposed limestone line this basement corridor in the Statehouse. Many of the large stones, each weighing several thousand pounds, will be moved during the upcoming enterprise.

The dimly lit stairways in the Statehouse, above left, will be made brighter by the upcoming project when old skylights that were covered are put back into service. New skylights will also be added in the building.