Your New Bar Center

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.

New capabilities

Wound throughout the building is the computer network that is "anywhere from 10 to 100 times faster than virtually any other computer network in Dane County in the private and public sectors, save for the university," says Green Bay attorney Mark Pennow, chair of the State Bar's Electronic Bar Services Committee. "Folks wonder why things always have to go faster. The answer is that the demands being made on the technology infrastructure these days are escalating geometrically."

For instance, while Internet transmissions once were slow, containing only an occasional picture and mostly text, development of new Internet technologies and subtechnologies, such as audio and video, has boosted the demand for speed. "Everybody wins with a faster network" in the new facility, Pennow explains. "We're able to do a lot in terms of remote learning and dissemination of information. Lawyers benefit because they can get information that would not have been available to them before, and certainly not available in this convenient electronic format."

"There may be reasons why the State Bar may or may not decide to implement various technologies in the future," Pennow adds. "But one thing seems reasonably sure: The network that runs through the walls and ceilings of this building will not be that reason. We're eliminating the technical bottleneck as far as we're able."

As Internet technology advances, State Bar Distance Education Coordinator Steve Rindo envisions offering CLE seminars on a delayed or live basis over the Internet. Not only will that make CLE easily attainable to members anywhere in the state, even around the world, but the Bar Center's technological infrastructure will aid in the effort. "Online distance learning is an important trend in the continuing legal education industry," Rindo says. "The new Bar Center's added meeting space, coupled with our ability to internally transmit live speaker presentations to the Internet, offers the Bar a competitive edge in providing our members the opportunity to attend seminars without geographic concerns."

Thus, the new facility will serve as a hub for CLE and other information dissemination, says Cheryl Daniels, a State Bar Facilities Committee member and administrative law judge for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. That's an important feature, Daniels notes, for her fellow government lawyers who are in far-flung locations.

"We have the potential to develop more CLE for government lawyers," she says, "and we can reach out to our entire membership. Whether you're a government attorney in Madison, or in Oneida County, or a Wisconsin lawyer who works in Washington, D.C., you'll be able to see the programs through the new technology we have."

Internet-based technology is only part of the picture, Rindo emphasizes. The infrastructure is in place to someday provide video conferencing technology in all conference rooms, allowing two-way video and audio communications. This will be used to connect people during meetings. "We're not planning to use it in education ­ not yet at least," Rindo says. "But the hard wiring is in place" for that purpose in the future.

Yet another important technological component is the technology center, with its 12 work stations, where Bar members with computer skills ranging from novice to advanced can obtain hands-on computer training. Next door in the assembly hall, the stationary projector and screen used for video replays also can present computer displays, offering additional computer training space if needed. Another future function of the technology center is to serve as a site for pilot tests of new CLE and law office technologies, including hardware and software. Evaluators ­ members and staff ­ will be able to try out new systems, right in the lab, and give immediate feedback. "So not only can we use the lab to teach lawyers about computers," Pennow points out, "but we can use it to test out new ideas for learning tools that we haven't even conceived of yet."

Wisconsin Lawyer