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Your New Bar Center
Poised to greet the new millennium in 2001, the State Bar
of Wisconsin now occupies its new home on Madison's
northeast side. This building is a tool to serve members and
the public. Welcome home.
By Dianne Molvig
 ith its stately columns and dome-topped rotunda,
the new State Bar Center reminds a visitor of the county courthouse
of yesteryear. While wandering through it, however, you quickly
recognize that this is a building equipped for tomorrow.
Tucked into various corners are the "data closets,"
which house the linkages for the technology infrastructure threaded
inside the walls and above the ceilings throughout the entire
building. Not far from the main entrance is the technology center,
a room outfitted with 12 computer work stations for hands-on
computer training for Bar members. Plus, every conference room
has convenient, accessible power outlets that allow easy hookup
of computers, laptops, and other equipment during meetings and
seminars.
It's a long way from the Bar's old headquarters at 402 W.
Wilson St. in downtown Madison in more ways than one. Greater
day-to-day operating efficiency, new technological capabilities,
and improved accessibility are just some of the benefits the
new center brings to both Bar members and staff.
How we got here
The West Wilson Street center, built by the State Bar of Wisconsin
in 1958, was the first permanent home the Bar could call its
own. For the 10 years preceding the move to West Wilson, the
organization had rented a small three-office suite a few blocks
away on West Washington Avenue. From 1920 to 1948, the Bar headquarters
was in the state law librarian's office, and before that, from
the Bar's founding in 1878, its quarters were transient, housed
in the office of whoever was serving as the association's secretary.
In 1958 the Bar had fewer than 7,000 members, compared to
19,991 today. As the organization grew, so did its West Wilson
Street headquarters, with the addition of a second floor in 1969
and another addition in 1981. After that, expanding up or out
any further was impossible due to structural limitations and
the surrounding residential neighborhood. Over the years, what
used to be conference rooms were confiscated for badly needed
office space, existing office spaces were subdivided to squeeze
in more Bar employees, and storage, mailing, and printing operations
were moved offsite.
The indoor space crunch wasn't the only problem. Parking was
a headache, as any Bar member knew who tried to find a parking
spot during business hours. Plus, in a building constructed in
the age of typewriters, retrofitting for modern technology became
increasingly difficult and costly.
"The limitations were the driving force" behind
the move to new headquarters, says Madison attorney Howard Goldberg,
a long-time member of the State Bar's Facilities Committee. Initially,
Goldberg was one of those advocating a move to another downtown
Madison location. "Believe me, I can't tell you how many
places we looked at," he says. "The buildings we could
have purchased would have taken extensive remodeling, and they
would not be what we have now. They also would have cost us much
more" than the $4.95 million price tag of the new center
(including land, construction, the technology infrastructure,
and furnishings).
Out-of-town Bar members will find the new location more convenient,
adds Goldberg. "People from the Fox River Valley say this
will cut a half-hour off their trip each way," Goldberg
notes. "That's definitely a factor." Bar members and
visitors coming in from all parts of the state or out of state
will have easy access to the new facility, located in the American
Center Office Park on Madison's northeast side, near Highway
151 and Interstate 90/94. In addition, Madison Metro soon will
provide bus service to the office park.
All in one
More Bar members now may have reason and opportunity to visit
the new 40,000-square-foot Bar Center. Parking is no longer a
problem. The handicapped accessible building abounds with space
for meetings, seminars, social events, and even for members to
stop in to work for a couple hours while in town on other business.
All these uses had become difficult, even impossible, during
recent years at the West Wilson Street building due to lack of
space.
"You could seldom have a meeting of just eight people
at the old Bar office," notes Stevens Point attorney Gerry
O'Brien, chair of the State Bar Facilities Committee. "There
was great competition for the little room available. So in recent
years I've been to lots of Bar meetings at area restaurants and
hotels." Not only was this costly for the Bar and inconvenient
for members, O'Brien says, it also was an inefficient use of
staff "who had to drag meeting support materials to offsite
locations."
Being able to hold the vast majority of seminars and meetings
in the new center except for those intentionally held in
other locations in the state translates into improved staff
efficiency. Further boosting efficiency is the fact that some
Bar operations printing, mailing, and storage that
had been relocated to offsite rented locations because of space
shortages, now are back in-house. The new center "brings
it all together in one place," notes Susan Steingass, State
Bar past president. "That's more cost-effective. That's
efficient. And that's symbolic."
The lower level of the new building, designed with plenty
of above-ground windows to let in daylight, houses the finance
department, order fulfillment, the mailing and printing operations,
warehouse space for various research materials and Bar publications
and products, and staff kitchen.
All of the public areas are easily accessible from the rotunda,
the building's most striking feature. The main level of the rotunda
hosts the reception area and a CLE registration desk convenient
to the seminar rooms. Telephones, coatrooms, display cases of
State Bar products, water fountains, restrooms, and a catering
kitchen are nearby.
On the main floor, the north wing is made up of three large
conference rooms the Wingra, Mendota, and Monona. A stationary
projector and overhead screen in one room allow for video replays,
making this another site in addition to 10 around the state
for viewing CLE seminars. The same equipment could someday
be used for video conferencing and computer displays. Soundproof,
movable partitions between the three areas can be slid into storage
closets to create one large assembly hall, accommodating 152
people when set up with tables and chairs in a classroom configuration,
and up to 250 occupants for a theater seating arrangement. Next
to the assembly hall is the technology center. In the south wing
off the central rotunda, are the member relations and public
services and administration departments, including a conference
room for meetings of up to 10 people.
The central curved staircase in the rotunda takes you to the
upper galleria level. Flanking the galleria on the east and west
sides are a Board Room and two conference rooms, with capacities
of from six to 16 occupants. The computer services, member records,
periodical and consumer publications, and marketing departments
occupy the south wing. On the north side are the CLE seminars
and books, and public affairs departments. Staff work-areas on
all three levels combine 16 closed offices with open space divided
into 78 modular workstations, to allow for easy future modifications.
Above the staircase in the central rotunda is the translucent
26-foot dome, through which streams in abundant natural daylight,
reducing the need for artificial lighting. A "Daylighting
in the Workplace" grant from the state helped pay the architect
fees. The rotunda's handsome details welcome members to a sophisticated,
functional, and forward-looking building and organization.
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