State officials will start work later this year on a $400 million remake of Capitol Hill that will include a new building for legislative offices and meeting rooms across from the Georgia State MARTA station on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
Gov. Brian Kemp in February signed a mid-year budget with money for work on the building to begin this summer. The project is expected to begin with the demolition of two smaller office buildings that once housed, among other things, the Georgia Building Authority, said Gerald Pilgrim, the deputy executive director of the Georgia Building Authority.
“What will go up is an eight-story building that will attach to the Capitol by a bridge that goes across Martin Luther King (Jr. Drive),” Pilgrim said. “There will be an improved area for the press and lobbyists and better areas for the public.”
The Paul D. Coverdell Legislative Office Building — which is on the other side of the Capitol and has housed legislative offices and meeting rooms — was last renovated in the 1990s.
A report by the building authority, with the assistance of the Houser Walker Architecture firm, calls for public spaces in the new office building to be “welcoming and have access to daylight and views to the exterior landscape.”
Current committee rooms in the Coverdell building and some offices have few, if any, windows. Most meeting rooms have thick columns making it hard to view what is going on unless attendees grab a coveted seat in the front row or middle of the room.
Plans for the new office building show more and larger committee rooms accessible to people with disabilities and improvements to technology and dedicated press areas.
The design also calls for an interior courtyard and a bridge connecting the third floor of the new building and the Capitol, making it easier for legislators and the public to move between them.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
As for the 135-year-old Capitol, most of the mechanical systems are from the 1950s, Pilgrim said. Planned upgrades to that building include two additional fire stairways and exits, more bathrooms, and a more public-friendly visitor entrance. The work will also make all public areas accessible for people with disabilities.
Most work on the Capitol would happen between April and November of each year when lawmakers are not in session.
Once lawmakers and staff have moved out of the current office building, officials will decide which state agencies not currently on Capitol Hill will move in.
“It has been 40 years since the CLOB was renovated and adapted for the General Assembly’s use,” the GBA wrote in its assessment. “This project comprehensively evaluates and holistically proposes space and facility improvements for the General Assembly to operate on Capitol Hill for the next 50 years.”
Capitol Hill has been on a bit of a building and renovation spree over the past decade.
The state opened a park across the street from the Capitol — known as Liberty Plaza — on the site of an old parking area in 2015.
It spent well over $100 million to construct and furnish a new courts building, which opened in 2019 and is named after the man who recommended money in the budget for the facility — then-Gov. Nathan Deal. Once the courts moved out of their old building across the street from the Capitol, the Building Authority got to work renovating that facility for use by other state agencies.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Last year the city of Atlanta finalized the purchase from the state of the 2 Peachtee high-rise next to the Five Points MARTA station. The building previously housed thousands of state employees but is expected to be converted into housing.
Staff writer James Salzer contributed to this report
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