 - The Riverton State Office Task Force completed its work this week with a review of the current renovation plan for the former U.S. Energy building at the corner of North Eighth Street West and Sunset Drive.){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – The Riverton State Office Task Force completed its work this week with a review of the current renovation plan for the former U.S. Energy building at the corner of North Eighth Street West and Sunset Drive.
The state purchased the building and its associated property for nearly $2 million last year, following a recommendation from the State Office Task Force, Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, explained at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting.
At the time, he noted, the state was already leasing space in the building for the Department of Health, the Department of Family Services, the driver’s license division of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and the Department of Agriculture.
“The task force … recommended that the building be refurbished to accommodate additional agencies and to contract with the design firm to do a Level II and Level III study to determine what level of renovation would be required and how best to add the Department of Workforce Services, the Veterans Affairs and the Department of Revenue into the building,” Larsen said.
Level II
The Level II design, created in coordination with the state agencies that will occupy the building, aims to preserve as much of the original structure as possible, Prospect Studio Principal Danny Wicke said – though “some pieces and parts” will have to be demolished.
For example, he said, the lower-level locker rooms, fitness facility, and sauna “really aren’t applicable to the new use of the building” and will be removed – as will the existing staircase leading to the first-floor entryway, which doesn’t meet current code requirements.
“It’s an open stair,” Wicke explained. “It’s not enclosed. And the current stair configuration does not meet the requirements of life safety.”
In order to make space for the updated staircase, Wicke said the design team proposed adding a “front porch” style element to the front of the building, which will provide a more “gracious entry” and also allow room for the current elevator shaft to be expanded and repositioned to accommodate a “new, modern elevator.”
Wicke said the layout for the first floor was also revised to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, accommodate other life safety elements, and meet the needs of the state agencies that will reside there: the Department of Workforce Services, the WYDOT, and the Department of Revenue.
Larsen pointed out that the Department of Workforce Services currently occupies two offices locally, creating a “bifurcation of the agency.”
“This (new plan) brings the whole agency into this level of the building,” he said.
He also noted that the local Department of Revenue office is currently in an “isolated” location that is “a little concerning.”
“We’re glad that we’re able to bring them into this consolidation,” he said.
Second floor
Similar revisions will be needed on the upper floor of the building, which was originally designed to meet the needs of U.S. Energy’s “C-suite executives,” Wicke said.
“Most of the offices were pushed around the perimeter of the building, and then there’s quite a lot of open space in the middle,” he said.
“The offices were for more executive-level people, and they’re quite large,” Wicke said. “So one of the purposes of revisiting this upper floor was to try to also economize this (space).”
One of the proposed strategies for making the upper level more “efficient” is to install a dropped ceiling, which will leave space below the original vaulted ceiling for mechanical equipment and accommodate the removal of the skylights that are currently in place on the roof, Wicke said.
“Those skylights are (a) leaking point and don’t really make a lot of sense if we’re going to have a ceiling in,” he explained. “So, we propose removing those and … getting this to a roof that’s pretty simple.”
The second floor’s vaulted ceilings will remain in place over the lobby area, he noted.
“From an architectural standpoint, that is one expression we’re trying to maintain in the building, because it’s there, (and) it’s beautiful,” he said.
The upper floor will house the Department of Family Services, the Department of Health, the Wyoming Military Department, and the Department of Agriculture, Wicke said, and the basement floor includes storage space for the agencies that need it.
The basement will also house the boiler, which needs to be upgraded along with the building’s electrical and mechanical systems, Wicke said.
Parking
Wicke shared several proposed changes for the areas surrounding the U.S. Energy building this week, too.
For example, he said the current parking area could be shifted east and expanded to provide more than 100 parking spaces that members of the public can access from West Sunset Drive.
The move would allow the “circuitous and tight ramp” that currently leads from the parking lot to the entryway to be redesigned to “reduce the amount of elevation” people experience as they approach the building, Wicke said. 
Meanwhile, he said state employees could use a smaller, secure parking lot located on the southwest side of the property, accessible from North Eighth Street West.
“(That’s) also the access route to get down to the garage,” Wicke said. “So you would go through a state-controlled parking area in order to access the lower garage. We think that provides more security.”
Following completion of the Level II designs, state officials said they will proceed to Level III of the U.S. Energy project, focusing on additional agency coordination and development of construction documents.
“(We) look forward to seeing what will take place,” Larsen said.
The task force concluded this week’s meeting by approving a bill draft that would dissolve their committee next spring – two years earlier than originally planned.
“We’ve done all that we needed to do,” Larsen said. “Our assigned tasks have been completed. The remaining work falls under the jurisdiction of the State Construction Department and the Department of (Administration and Information).”