Converting the Connecticut State Office Building, the new home for the Constitutional Offices, into a vibrant, modern 21^st-century workplace, saves a significant building and plays a pivotal role in an urban plan that stitches historic downtown district assets to a one-mile chain of parks, plazas and the renewed Connecticut River waterfront.

While restoring the building’s c. 1931 historically significant features, other spaces were converted to a contemporary workplace. The State Office Building features a grand, new, accessible east entrance on axis with a new urban park. Full-height glass curtain walls and a river theme connect the park through the grand lobby, first courtyard, cafeteria and second courtyard. From the park and courtyard paving pattern, scaled to represent the Connecticut River from source to mouth, to canted inside lobby walls, interior graphics and retaining wall features, the river concept ebbs and flows throughout the design. The building reclaims its revered civic place downtown.