Open space at Arizona Capitol complex draws hungry eyes

State officials and architects are pondering the future of newly vacated space in the Arizona Capitol complex.

Ideas for the state library’s former home on the third floor of an annex sitting between the 118-year-old, copper-domed Capitol and the nine-story Executive Tower include adding a reception venue for dignitaries and a neutral meeting ground for legislative leaders and executive branch officials, the Arizona Capitol Times reported.

Such facilities with grand marble edifices are common among states, but Arizona’s setup of separate and crowded House and Senate buildings leaves little extra space for joint activities. When legislative leaders want to meet with the governor, they usually go to the governor’s office.

A legislative staff official said representatives from the National Conference of State Legislatures and other organizations frequently comment on the Arizona Capitol’s austerity.

“When people from NCSL come here, they say, ‘It’s nice but it’s nothing like,’ and then they name any other state,” said Legislative Council executive director Michael Braun.

There is little chance of expanding the current legislative buildings, so the library’s departure to a new building a few blocks away is “an opportunity to reclaim space on a block where space is at a premium,” Braun said.

The Capitol and two annexes between it and the Executive Tower are, under state law, the Legislature’s territory.

“When people say the House, the Senate or the Legislative Council want to take over the space, it’s already their space,” Braun said.

But the secretary of state’s office has jurisdiction over most of the contents, including the Capitol Museum in the original building.

The library was moved to its current location in the new Polly Rosenbaum building in 2017 by then-Secretary of State Michele Reagan so that it would be in a location that complied with the Americans With Disabilities Act, said C. Murphy Hebert, a spokeswoman for the office.

The Capitol annexes are “sound and sturdy” but don’t meet current standards for accessibility, said Don Ryden, an architect now working with Braun.

Ross D. Franklin The Associated Press Mike Braun of the Arizona Legislative Council walks through the state’s former library in the Capitol complex.