February 2021
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Focus: Restoration and Renovation Amenta Emma Restores CT State Office Building
Connecticut State Office Building main entrance / Photos by Robert Benson Photography
Hartford, CT – Amenta Emma Architects recently restored and reimagined the 1931 office building that houses the state of Connecticut’s attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, and their staff. The Connecticut State Office Building – affectionately known as the SOB – is located in downtown Hartford’s historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Its transformation saves a significant building and plays a pivotal role in Hartford’s urban plan that stitches historic downtown district assets to a
one-mile chain of parks, plazas and the renewed Connecticut River waterfront. This adaptive reuse project that exceeds
A new two-story glass curtain wall defines a grand, accessible public entrance, providing transparency into the lobby.
A custom Connecticut River graphic graces the wall of the collaborative seating area in the cafe.
sustainability and accessibility standards, is a vibrant, modern, 21st century workplace built to carry the building’s 20th century grandeur into the 22nd. Visitors approach the SOB through a one-acre park – the first new greenspace in Hartford’s core in over 50 years – walking on two-toned granite pavers, laid to scale in the pattern of the Connecticut River, which is visible from many of the building’s windows. The classic limestone exterior was preserved and liberated from 370 window unit air conditioners that
were replaced with high efficiency heating and cooling systems. A new two-story glass curtain wall defines a grand, accessible public entrance, providing transparency into the lobby with lines of sight extending through two additional glass walls opening to the building’s courtyards. The front of the building was shifted from north to east to use the site’s natural slope for accessibility. The courtyards, once continued to page 30
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