At last, progress is being made on Docking building in Topeka

After decades of dereliction to duty, Kansas legislators are addressing the massive office building

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Editorials

September 21, 2021 - 10:10 AM

Docking State Office Building/Wikimedia Commons

The Docking State Office Building was designed with someone like Don Draper in mind. 

Its design is straight out of “Mad Men.” The ventilation system was even conceived with smokers in mind.

But it’s current state is more like Draper’s real identity Dick Whitman — a sad state. The 14-story midcentury structure in the Capitol Complex once housed many of the state’s agencies. Today it sits mostly vacant. It hasn’t had a major renovation since its construction in 1957.

It’s time to fix that.

Former Gov. Sam Brownback tried to demolish the building in 2016. When the Legislature stalled that plan, Brownback then made deals for multi-decade contracts for state workers to move their offices across Topeka — essentially turning the Docking building into a 14-story quagmire. But in all honesty, the space was a quandary long before that.

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