Docking State Office Building officially open to public after 'historic' renovations

TOPEKA (KSNT) — After nearly 3 years of construction, a historic state office building in downtown Topeka now has a new look.

Today, the Docking State Office Building officially opened to the public. State leaders hosted a ribbon cutting event to celebrate the new renovations. The original Docking Building was built in 1957 and was one of the oldest office buildings in the state.

The 14-story building sat largely empty for many years, but now the smaller building is being described as an efficient, eco-friendly building for all Kansans to enjoy.

"In our industry, this is known as a once in a lifetime project," said Andy Buessing, president of Hutton Design and Build. "It's not often that you get the opportunity to work on a project that's going to have an impact on so many Kansans for generations to come."

A lot of thought went into the design of the office building. Large portions of the new building are made out of reused materials from the demolished structure. Ultimately, 98% of all materials from the old office was repurposed for the new building.

"The primary focus was on material reuse, so all the limestone that you see, a lot of the greenstone set into the pavement, was all reused from the original Docking Building," said Brian Roth, a landscape architect who helped design the building. "It's something that I'm very proud to be able to put my name on."

Additionally, about 87% of the contractors who worked on the renovation were Kansas based contractors. It's a building that Kansas Governor Laura Kelly tells us; she is proud of.

"We've been talking about this building for a very long time, and it went through all sorts of iterations," Kelly said. "To get through all that and have this be the end result, it's just more than I could've expected. It's great."

The offices will be the new workplace for many state agencies, and includes a fitness center, cafe, and interactive exhibits for visitors.

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