Completed in the 1930s by Smith & Bassette and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Connecticut’s State Office Building at 165 Capitol Avenue is one of Hartford’s most significant civic landmarks. Housing the state’s attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, and their staffs across 350,000 square feet, the building needed to be transformed into a modern workplace for 750 people while honoring its historic grandeur and meeting contemporary standards for sustainability, wellness, and accessibility.

The design team approached the renovation as an act of stewardship rather than replacement. Failing windows were replaced with double-pane replicas, every building system was overhauled, and envelope improvements helped the building achieve LEED Silver certification and Connecticut’s High Performance Building requirements. The formerly inaccessible sunken courtyards were raised six feet to meet the new ground-floor level, opening to a new cafeteria and meeting rooms with outdoor dining. A two-story glass curtain wall defines the new ADA-accessible public entrance, with sightlines extending through the lobby and into the courtyards beyond. The old asphalt parking lot was replaced with an urban park, the first new greenspace in Hartford’s core in over 50 years. Ceremonial spaces including the historic hall with its coffered plaster ceilings, marble colonnade, and brass gates were faithfully restored in close collaboration with Connecticut’s State Historic Preservation Office.

The result carries the building’s 20th century grandeur into the 22nd. A Connecticut River motif, expressed through two-toned granite pavers, canted lobby walls reminiscent of a riverbank, and an abstract café mural, weaves a sense of place throughout the interior, while compass-point wayfinding and color-coded floors bring clarity and identity to a building that is once again a source of civic pride.