Column: New Senate office building keeps ‘oracles’ fuming

by T.W. Budig ECM Capitol Reporter

One proposed bonding project under fire is the Senate office building.

A provision for the project was contained in last years tax bill, exactly where it should not have been, argued former St. Cloud lawmaker Jim Knoblach, who has filed suit, claiming the language is unconstitutional.

Senate DFL leaders are sensitive about the project, recently sending out a fact sheet about the office building.

In it, its stressed that only part of the proposed $90 million price tag, $63 million, would be spent on the building. About $27 million would be spent on tunnel-level parking for people with disabilities and on a separate parking ramp to serve the Capitol complex and public.

A mock-up of the proposed building, for some reason, brings to mind a ships superstructure perhaps the determined lines of a tugboat.

The buildings glassy facade gently arcs, and though old sea dogs may convulse when spotting white shimmers in the glass, it wouldnt be ice but reflections of the state Capitol across University Avenue.

One criticism is the proposed building does not aesthetically fit into the Capitol campus. Thats in the eye of the beholder. Anyway, unless Capitol architect Cass Gilbert championed a form of aesthetic vivisection, I-94 doesnt exactly fit either, and that didnt stop anyone.

The proposed building, of course, is political catnip.

In a fundraising appeal, Annette Meeks, of the conservative Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, depicted the proposal as the handiwork of liberal legislators, now controlling all of state government, who snuck a pet project into a bill at the eleventh hour.

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Column: New Senate office building keeps ‘oracles’ fuming