Capital makeover for a Capitol building

BOISE – Charles Hummel says his grandfather would approve.

The Boise architect, whose grandfather – also named Charles Hummel – helped design Idaho’s state Capitol in 1904, was on hand Friday as ground was broken for the next phase in the building’s history. The 30-month, $130 million renovation and expansion will include the addition of wings underground.

“He would know that the facilities of the building needed to be expanded,” Hummel said of his grandfather. “When this building was built, practically the entire office establishment of the state of Idaho was housed in the building – including the state museum, the Supreme Court, the department of health.”

Those wouldn’t all fit into the Capitol, today. The building sees overcapacity crowds during the legislative session as citizens and lobbyists try to squeeze into committee hearing rooms that barely have space for more than a handful of onlookers.

“We have more and more public participation in the legislative process, and to accommodate that public, we really need additional space,” Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, told a crowd of about 100 at the groundbreaking.

Lt. Gov. Jim Risch noted that much debate preceded the decision to renovate and expand the Capitol; he said even more must have preceded the decision a century ago to invest in building in the first place.

“We should look back and thank Idahoans that we never knew … for their vision,” Risch told the crowd.

The Idaho Capitol, with its marbled interior and sandstone exterior, is being emptied quickly for the renovation. Most state offices have moved out. Secretary of State Ben Ysursa moved into a small temporary office in the nearby Borah Post Office building a few days ago. Soon to follow are the state treasurer, governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. All should be out by May 20, and the Capitol is set to close to the public May 23.

Legislative offices already have moved across the street to the former Ada County Courthouse, where the next two years’ legislative sessions will be held.

House Speaker Lawerence Denney said he always has been struck by the magnificence of the Capitol. “One thing we have always agreed upon is the need to renovate … this grand building here to preserve it for the next generations,” Denney said.

Hummel, who watched the ceremony from the audience, recalled growing up not far from the Capitol. One of his early memories is of attending the 1937 inauguration of Gov. Barzilla Clark, at which the young Hummel couldn’t help but laugh when he heard the new governor’s pronunciation of the state’s name: “I-dee-ho.”

“My mother had to shush me,” he said.

Hummel was hired by the Legislature 40 years ago to redesign the interior of the House and Senate chambers. Now, he said, those chambers will change again.

At that time, he recalled, lawmakers asked him to draw up plans showing how the building would accommodate a larger Legislature – 40 senators, instead of the current 35, and 120 House members, instead of the current 70.

“We showed ‘em what it would do to the building,” he recalled. “They were aghast.”

So the building itself played a role in decisions over the years about the structure of the Legislature, he said, paraphrasing Winston Churchill, “We shape our buildings, and then they shape us.”

Gov. Butch Otter, who fought the Legislature to a standstill this year over his opposition to the underground wings before compromising on building smaller underground wings, didn’t attend the ceremony.

“The governor had another engagement at the same time,” said his press secretary, Jon Hanian.