Landon Building’s fate unclear

State recommends moving all offices to Docking site

? State officials on Friday recommended abandoning the Landon Building and reconstructing the Docking State Office Building at a cost of $66 million.

But Secretary of Commerce Howard Fricke said that before lawmakers committed any money to the project they should have a plan that addressed long-term state office needs.

“It is crucial that any plan to reconstruct the Docking Building be comprehensive enough to also detail the futures of all other state office buildings in the Capitol complex,” Fricke said.

The House-Senate building committee took no action on Fricke’s report, but members said they needed to have a recommendation ready for the 2005 legislative session, which starts in January.

“It’s time,” said Sen. Steve Morris, R-Hugoton.

Fricke agreed that officials needed to decide soon what to do with the Landon and Docking buildings, the two major office buildings adjacent to the Capitol.

If the Docking were a car, he said, “we’re running on bald tires. There are some life-safety issues.”

Even so, the building is only about 50 years old, compared with the 93-year-old Landon Building that originally was the headquarters for the Santa Fe Railroad.

GLPM Architects Inc. of Lawrence conducted a study that concluded the most cost-effective proposal would be to reconstruct Docking over a period of five years, Fricke said.

Under the plan, the reconstructed Docking could house 2,350 employees, which is big enough to take in the approximately 800 workers in the Landon Building.

Docking is currently home to the state welfare agency, Department of Revenue and Capital Police. Landon houses the state treasurer’s office, Department of Corrections and some of the Department of Administration and budget staff.

Fricke said it would be up to the Legislature to decide what to do with the Landon Building if it decided to no longer use it.

The state purchased the Landon Building in the 1980s. Officials have said in the past that the building was so old and in such bad shape that it couldn’t be renovated to meet modern standards.