As the House Transportation Committee broods over a funding gap and House Appropriations wrangles with the Budget Adjustment Act, the legislators can at least find solace in their spruced-up quarters.
The Legislature appropriated $300,000 to renovate seven House committee rooms from 2010 to 2011. They set aside another $400,000 in 2012 for refurbishment of the remaining seven rooms — the 40s — on the third floor, completed just in the time for the start of the 2013 session. Tricia Harper, the managing architect, estimates the state saved $220,000 by carrying out the project in-house.
The rooms — home base for committees to hash out policies — are located in an annex to the Statehouse that was built in 1880 to house the Supreme Court and the State Library. The space was refashioned into committee rooms during the 1920s and then renovated in 1972 — think fluorescent lights and tile ceilings.
The aesthetic shortcomings were apparent — it had been more than four decades since the last refurbishment and legislative staff described the rooms as “garage-like.” Sixty gallons of paint later, the walls are now, depending on the room, marigold or sea mist green. Wooden shades adorn the windows, and the window seat cushions are custom made.
During the latest upgrades, Harper said her team also uncovered, and fixed, a number of shaky structural features.They removed two layers of ceiling — acoustic tiles and plaster — from two different eras — the 1970s and the 1920s — to discover that the original rafters were at risk of collapsing. Each rafter was actually two beams, glued together at their juncture and fastened with wire to the steel trusses at the center of the room. Harper called the precarious design “an architect’s nightmare.” The end result is a ceiling that is two and half feet higher than before.
The top requests from committee chairs (who at that time were not aware of the precarious ceiling structure) were more seating space and more file space. Communications between the design team and the committee chairs was smooth, Harper said, though there were still moments of mayhem — one last minute mix-up sent the construction team “running around changing chalkboards to marker boards and marker boards to tack boards” to make each chair happy.
Harper said the main challenge was finding creative ways to maximize space in the often-cramped rooms. Legislative staff now have extendable desks, file drawers are built into window seats, and tables have drop-down compartments for files.
The legislators have Vermont inmates to thank for their smoothly varnished cherry desks, bookcases and file cabinets. About 50 prisoners built more than 100 pieces of furniture for the renovated rooms, facilitated by Vermont Correctional Industries. The old furniture has been recycled throughout the building; some of it adorns the office of Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell.
