Renovation of a municipal facility in Frankfort, Kentucky. Completed plans call for the renovation of a municipal facility.

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/kentucky-state-capital-closes-major-291m-renovation-project/417-85f17770-c961-470a-8293-8446955e449f LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Construction will cause the closure of the Kentucky State Capital to the public beginning Wednesday. Gov. Andy Beshear’s office said the Capitol Renovation Project will modernize infrastructure, address decades of deferred maintenance, enhance accessibility, improve safety and revitalize public and staff spaces. It is the first overhaul of the building in more than 70 years. Parts of the Capitol Grounds will also be closed to visitors. However, some areas will stay open like the Floral Clock, the flower beds, green space on Capitol Avenue, the Kentucky COVID-19 Memorial and the Gold Star Families monument. The Capitol steps will also be open as a public space. Groups or individuals wanting to use it must apply through an online application. The multi-year project is funded by the Kentucky General Assembly and will cost an estimated $291 million. They want to make sure the commonwealth’s gem will continue to serve Kentuckians for generations to come. --------------------------------------------------- https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/will-300-million-renovation-bring-bathroom-parity-for-kentuckys-women-lawmakers-8959645 For female state lawmakers in Kentucky, choosing when to go to the bathroom has long required careful calculation. There are only two bathroom stalls for women on the third floor of the Kentucky Statehouse, where the House and Senate chambers are located. Female legislators - 41 of the 138 member Legislature - needing a reprieve during a lengthy floor session have to weigh the risk of missing an important debate or a critical vote. None of their male colleagues face the same dilemma because, of course, multiple men's bathrooms are available. The Legislature even installed speakers in the men's bathrooms to broadcast the chamber's events so they don't miss anything important. In a pinch, House Speaker David Osborne allows women to use his single stall bathroom in the chamber, but even that attracts long lines. "You get the message very quickly: This place was not really built for us," said Rep. Lisa Willner, a Democrat from Louisville, reflecting on the photos of former lawmakers, predominantly male, that line her office. The issue of potty parity may seem comic, but its impact runs deeper than uncomfortably full bladders, said Kathryn Anthony, professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's School of Architecture. "It's absolutely critical because the built environment reflects our culture and reflects our population," said Anthony, who has testified on the issue before Congress. "And if you have an environment that is designed for half the population but forgets about the other half, you have a group of disenfranchised people and disadvantaged people." There is hope for Kentucky's lady legislators seeking more chamber potties. A $300 million renovation of the 155-year-old Capitol - scheduled for completion by 2028 at the soonest - aims to create more women's restrooms and end Kentucky's bathroom disparity. The Bluegrass State is among the last to add bathrooms to aging statehouses that were built when female legislators were not a consideration. In the $392 million renovation of the Georgia Capitol, expanding bathroom access is a priority, said Gerald Pilgrim, chief of staff with the state's Building Authority. It will introduce female facilities on the building's fourth floor, where the public galleries are located, and will add more bathrooms throughout to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. "We know there are not enough bathrooms," he said. There's no federal law requiring bathroom access for all genders in public buildings. Some 20 states have statutes prescribing how many washrooms buildings must have, but historical buildings - such as statehouses - are often exempt. Over the years, as the makeup of state governments has changed, statehouses have added bathrooms for women. When Tennessee's Capitol opened in 1859, the architects designed only one restroom - for men only - situated on the ground floor. According to legislative librarian Eddie Weeks, the toilet could only be "flushed" when enough rainwater had been collected. "The room was famously described as 'a stench in the nostrils of decency,'" Weeks said in an email. Today, Tennessee's Capitol has a female bathroom located between the Senate and House chambers. It's in a cramped hall under a staircase, sparking comparisons to Harry Potter's cupboard bedroom, and it contains just two stalls. The men also just have one bathroom on the same floor, but it has three urinals and three stalls. Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn, who was elected in 2023, said she wasn't aware of the disparity in facilities until contacted by The Associated Press. "I've apparently accepted that waiting in line for a two-stall closet under the Senate balcony is just part of the job," she said. "I had to fight to get elected to a legislature that ranks dead last for female representation, and now I get to squeeze into a space that feels like it was designed by someone who thought women didn't exist -- or at least didn't have bladders," Behn said. The Maryland State House is the country's oldest state capitol in continuous legislative use, operational since the late 1700s. Archivists say its bathroom facilities were initially intended for white men only because desegregation laws were still in place. Women's restrooms were added after 1922, but they were insufficient for the rising number of women elected to office. Delegate Pauline Menes complained about the issue so much that House Speaker Thomas Lowe appointed her chair of the "Ladies Rest Room Committee," and presented her with a fur covered toilet seat in front of her colleagues in 1972. She launched the women's caucus the following year. It wasn't until 2019 that House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, the first woman to secure the top position, ordered the addition of more women's restrooms along with a gender-neutral bathroom and a nursing room for mothers in the Lowe House Office Building. As more women were elected nationwide in the 20th century, some found creative workarounds. In Nebraska's unicameral Legislature, female senators didn't get a dedicated restroom until 1988, when a facility was added in the chamber's cloakroom. There had previously been a single restroom in the senate lounge, and Sen. Shirley Marsh, who served for some 16 years, would ask a State Patrol trooper to guard the door while she used it, said Brandon Metzler, the Legislature's clerk. In Colorado, female House representatives and staff were so happy to have a restroom added in the chamber's hallway in 1987 that they hung a plaque to honor then-state Rep. Arie Taylor, the state's first Black woman legislator, who pushed for the facility. The plaque, now inside a women's bathroom in the Capitol, reads: "Once here beneath the golden dome if nature made a call, we'd have to scramble from our seats and dash across the hall ... Then Arie took the mike once more to push an urge organic, no longer do we fret and squirm or cross our legs in panic." The poem concludes: "In mem'ry of you, Arie (may you never be forgot), from this day forth we'll call that room the Taylor Chamber Pot." New Mexico Democratic state Rep. Liz Thomson recalled missing votes in the House during her first year in office in 2013 because there was no women's restroom in the chamber's lounge. An increase in female lawmakers - New Mexico elected the largest female majority Legislature in US history in 2024 - helped raise awareness of the issue, she said. "It seems kind of like fluff, but it really isn't," she said. "To me, it really talks about respect and inclusion." The issue is not exclusive to statehouses. In the US Capitol, the first restroom for congresswomen didn't open until 1962. While a facility was made available for female US Senators in 1992, it wasn't until 2011 that the House chamber opened a bathroom to women lawmakers. Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to a congressional seat. That happened in 1916. Willner insists that knowing the Kentucky Capitol wasn't designed for women gives her extra impetus to stand up and make herself heard. "This building was not designed for me," she said. "Well, guess what? I'm here." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Kentucky State Capitol Renovation – Bid Package 10 – Comprehensive Restoration incorporates the primary renovation of the building, including interior and partial structural demolition and interior renovation, restoration, and historic preservation. In addition to architectural components, Bid Package 10 incorporates full replacement of all plumbing, mechanical, electrical, and telecommunications systems, and the addition of fire protection, enhanced security, and audio-visual systems. Exterior scope included in Bid Package 10 is primarily limited to reconstruction of the West Terrace and the replacement of exterior doors and windows. The project consists of the following and other Work indicated in the Contract Documents: a. The replacement of the entire existing infrastructure including Mechanical Systems (Heating and AC), Plumbing, Data Cabling, Power Infrastructure, etc., which is obsolete and has far exceeded its life expectancy. b. The introduction of new but required and necessary building systems which do not currently exist, such as automatic sprinkler systems, standpipes, smoke detection and fire alarm systems. c. To the extent possible, the pathways required to distribute the new building infrastructure will be planned, designed, and installed in a manner that will allow relatively easy access in the future, without the need of “opening up” the building again, when the time comes to replace this new infrastructure. d. The life expectancy of the new building infrastructure is planned to be 30 years at a minimum and / or meeting the appropriate standards of the industry, such as ASHRAE, etc. e. Life safety and ADA compliance are to be achieved through the installation of the new building infrastructure, as well as architectural improvements including enclosing egress stairs, providing guardrails and railings in selected locations, new restrooms, and creating barrier free access to and within the building. f. Managing risk associated with an historic building of this age and character, which includes addressing chronic deferred maintenance and considerable deterioration found in the Dome and Terraces, as well as other areas of the building, such as parapets, roof slabs, and moisture protection systems. g. Protect, preserve, and restore the significant historic fabric of the building that has remained intact over the 100-plus year history of the building. h. Enhance space utilization, create efficiencies and synergies both within the building and coordinated with the Capitol Annex which acts as an extension of the Capitol. i. All proposed work will be planned, designed, and performed in compliance with the Secretary of the Interior Standards which form the basis for review and approval by the Kentucky Heritage Council, State Historic Preservation Office, thereby protecting the status of the building as a National Register property, as well as allowing for the potential of being elevated to National Historic Landmark (NHL) status when the work is completed. All decisions regarding the renovations to the Capitol building will be presented to the Historic Properties Advisory Commission on a quarterly basis for advice and consent. A Payment and Performance Bond shall NOT be included with the bid. If the bidder is not approved for participation in the SDI program, then the bidder will be required to furnish a proposal to add a 100% P&P Bond. All bonding and insurance requirements are contained in the Instructions to Bidders and/or General Conditions. Performance and Payment bonds shall be obliged in favor of Commonwealth of Kentucky and Messer Construction Company. A 5% bid bond is required with the submission of the form of proposal. Substantial Completion -Substantial Completion for the 3rd and 4th Floors, including building-wide life safety and egress requirements to make those floors occupiable - shall be by August 1, 2028. Substantial Completion for the balance of the building shall be by March 1, 2029. Messer Construction reserves the right to reject any and all bids and to waive all formalities and/or technicalities where the best interest of the Commonwealth of Kentucky may be served.