AUGUSTA – Visitors to the renovated State Office Building will find a “friendlier, more efficient building,” according to Charles Jacobs, deputy commissioner of administration and financial services.

Workers are putting the finishing touches on the $24 million project, which stripped the 1950s structure to its bones and forced the relocation of 750 state workers.

Gradually, employees are returning to their renovated spaces. Those workers in the building were grateful that the new 200-seat cafeteria was opened Monday morning.

To anyone who has attended a legislative public hearing in the tiny, cramped, overheated rooms on the first floor of the “old” State Office Building, the changes will be shocking. Meeting rooms have been relocated to the second floor and are expansive, well lit and served by a state-of-the-art heating and air-conditioning system. Many times in the old meeting rooms, the temperature would top 100 degrees and the battle over a proposed bill would become one of attrition. The heat, crowded conditions and poor acoustics often forced many people to leave without addressing the committees.

Often testimony could not be heard over the din in a meeting room. The renovated building will offer twice as much hearing-room space and each committee room will feature a modern sound system. During the last session, the renovation project forced relocation of committee meetings to various venues around Augusta including the armory, civic center and a religious retreat center. Virtually all committee meetings now will be held in either the State Office Building or State House.

The need for a new structure has been obvious for years. “The building was tired,” Jacobs said. The worst problem was the roof, where years of deterioration had rusted supports and loosened the granite stones. Jacobs never tried it, but he felt he could have pushed the granite stones off the roof with little trouble because of the deterioration.

Other problems included the lack of heating and ventilation, which too often resulted in state workers being sent home on “heat days” during the summer.

“Even when they could work, they were not as productive as possible because of the poor air in the building,” Jacobs said. The building was not up to electrical and building codes, lacked a sprinkler system and was not fully accessible to the handicapped. For decades, the foundation leaked water into the basement area.

State planners considered leveling the 50-year-old, 280,000-square-foot building and erecting a new structure, but it was determined that would double the project cost. Planning for the renovation started in 1997 with funding approved in 1998 by the Government Facilities Authority. Construction started in 1999 with the Portland firm of SMRT serving as the architect. Jacobs said the project would come in under budget this year and ahead of schedule.

The State House renovation project completed last year ran almost $500,000 over budget when serious structural problems were discovered in the wing that dated back to 1910. One fourth-floor bathroom was found to have almost no support and was close to becoming a third-floor bathroom. The final bill on that project rose from a projected $7.4 million to $7.9 million.

The final piece of the renovation projects, the underground connector between the State House and State Office Building, is now scheduled to open in April or May. The connector had to be replaced since it was too steep for handicapped accessibility and included massive heating pipes that were covered with asbestos. Until that project is complete, visitors, workers and legislators making trips between the two buildings will share the icy parking lot with auto and truck traffic.

Once all the work is complete, visitors will find a brighter, more efficient building, Jacobs said. The first floor will have a reception desk to guide visitors to meeting rooms and state agencies. On each floor a receptionist will be available to guide people to destinations. It was a common sight to see people “wandering the halls” in the old building looking for a hearing room or a state office.

“The building will be a much more functional place to do the state’s business,” Jacobs said.

Those agencies above the second floor will have added security and carefully monitored visits.

The project did not include a solution to the chronic shortage of parking spaces. Jacobs said the Department of Education building would be razed this summer. But the space will be used for grass, not parking spaces. The master plan calls for a 400-space addition to the parking garage, with no date specified.

The first floor will house cafeteria, reception and conference rooms and offices for the media and security. Hearing rooms and legislative offices will be on the second floor.

The third floor will house the Department of Economic and Community Development, Treasury and the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. The fourth floor will house the Secretary of State’s Office Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions. The Department of Education will take up the fifth floor and the Attorney General’s Office will be on the sixth and seventh floors.