The Wyoming Legislature’s Riverton State Office Task Force met in Casper this week to provide feedback on the preliminary renovation plans that are being developed for the old U.S. Energy building at 877 N. Eighth St. W.
The state finalized its purchase of the property last month, according to testimony from the meeting.
Now, a design team is working to complete the Level I (reconnaissance) and Level II (feasibility) studies that will guide the development of a construction plan for the property.
Level I
The design team presented its preliminary findings to the task force this week, beginning with an overview of the entire 14-acre parcel.
Danny Wicke, a Principal with Prospect Studio in Wilson, pointed out that the overview map shows the potential to provide more parking spaces east of the property’s current parking lot to accommodate the additional state agencies that are expected to move to the building in the future.
He added that the team would also propose improving the existing parking lot, where “we see some degradation in (the) asphalt and some of the ramps and sidewalks … because of a little bit of the mismanagement of the water on site.”
“That’s a priority, or a focus: We want to try to limit any degradation that’s happening now,” he said.
Wicke next referred to the area marked as No. 4 in the southwest corner of the map, where the land is “shallower and more depressed,” with an irrigation ditch running alongside it to the south.
“That’s … a place that does hold water,” Wicke said. “We haven’t had a chance to really survey if that is something that is managed by the current users of that space for pasture purposes, or if that’s something that is more of a condition of the water running across that, regardless of use.”
He anticipates drilling a “test well” in that area to monitor the water levels there “outside of the irrigation times” in order to better “understand how the water level is fluctuating over the course of a couple of seasons.”
Wyoming Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Casper, who used to work in the U.S. Energy building, said in his experience that portion of the parcel “only floods primarily because of irrigation, and also because the irrigation ditch overflows.”
“What we need to do is look at it and figure out if we need to line (the ditch), or bury it, or tunnel it, or do something with it,” Nicholas said, because “at some point we’re going to want to beautify this location (and) have a practical use for it.”
The state could also put “six feet of fill dirt” in the area to make it “more practical for ease and access and just use of the property,” he said.
State Construction Department Director Del McOmie agreed that “bringing in more imported fill” for the southwest corner “could make that certainly a potential for a good building site,” guessing that the northwest portion of the property was covered with fill dirt before the old U.S. Energy building was constructed, too.
The area marked No. 5 in the southeast corner of the map would be another “prime target for building an additional building” on the property, Wicke said, and it’s “actually elevated a little bit,” so it’s “less boggy” than “on the west side of the site.”
Moving to the northeast corner of the property, Wicke said the old mine shaft elevator and pond installation there has “quite a presence” and “could be really an interesting thing to think about as something that creates identity and place for the project long-term.”
Later, Wyoming Rep. Ember Oakley, R-Riverton, wondered whether that area could accommodate additional parking or storage space instead.
Architecture
John Graham, an owner with Anderson Mason Dale Architects, reported on the design team’s preliminary architectural review of the building, which he said is in “really good shape” – though there are some issues with the structure that will be “easy to fix.”
For example, Graham said there are some “cosmetic brick cracks,” and the parking lot could use “updated asphalt coating,” while the southern staircase needs air conditioning, heating and code-compliant guard rails.
The team would also like to add new gutters to the building “to keep water away from the foundation,” he said.
He explained that the original structure was built with an “integrated internal gutter,” but “when they re-roofed, they roofed over the top of those internal gutters, so the asphalt shingles and sheeting now cover those drains,” leaving water “just drooling off the edge of the roof right now when it does rain or snow.”
On the inside of the building, Graham said the air handlers, boilers, and electrical service all need to be replaced, and the current information technology system “is also a mess,” with “water lines coming in over electrical switch gear and drainpipes running over telecom closets.”
The team would recommend filling in the building’s “open-riser” stairs and bringing their guard rails up to code too, he continued, and none of the facility’s current bathrooms are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, so “we would actually propose adding a couple of accessible, single-use water closets on each floor.”
Level II
Wicke said the Level I portion of the facility study, which “is focused on (the) development and renovation of the building,” will be finalized in the coming weeks for submission to the State Construction Department ahead of the next State Building Commission meeting on Oct. 9.
After that, Wicke said the design team will turn its attention to the Level II feasibility study, which will be presented to the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee in December.
The Level II study will focus on “conceptual designs and space planning,” SCD Project Manager Jake Schrickling said, with the design team collaborating with the state agencies that are slated to occupy the space to ensure that their individualized needs are accommodated.
McOmie said the team will also consider the logistical hurdles associated with renovating a building that already houses state employees.
‘Tiered approach’
The design team will likely take a “tiered approach” to the Level II study, Wicke said, offering multiple alternative plans that would align with the various possible funding levels for the project.
The state has already appropriated $2.5 million to support the Riverton state office effort, and Schrickling said most of that money is still available to be used for construction.
The SBC also voted to include an $8.5 million “placeholder” for the project in its budget request for next year, McOmie said, but that allocation must be approved by the Wyoming Legislature.
Wicke said the $2.5 million appropriation would cover basic “improvements and upgrades … that would need to be there just for the long-term viability of the building.”
For $8.5 million, he said the state could complete “a more thorough update of the building’s envelope” and cover items “that maybe aren’t critical to being able to operate in the building but may allow the building to operate more efficiently or more effectively long-term.”
A final “tier” would imagine updating the building “as much as possible” and developing a 25-year master plan for the property, he said, asking for guidance from the task force on the developing plan for Level II.
Wyoming Sen Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, who co-chairs the task force, assigned a subcommittee to continue to provide that guidance for the design team moving forward, including himself, Oakley, Nicholas, and Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander.
The task force then convened the meeting and entered into an executive session to discuss the potential purchase of three lots totaling almost 14 acres just north of the U.S. Energy Builidng.
The SBC has already approved the acquisition of those properties, but state staffers said “we are still working with the owners (and) talking with them on that.”