His challenge, and that of a team hired by the state, is to restore the complex to its original splendor.

Skarmeas, who heads the Preservation Architecture Studio of RMJM, a worldwide design firm, knows a bit about historic capitols. He led an award-winning team that restored the Virginia state capitol two years ago. The Richmond capitol was designed in 1785 by Thomas Jefferson.

Here, the project scope is much wider: A master plan to reconfigure the entire 55-acre state Capitol Complex over the next 10 to 20 years ... or longer.

The state Department of Administration chose a team involving RMJM, engineers Michael Baker Jr. Inc. and Heritage Landscapes, a New England-based landscape architecture group, after interviewing about a half-dozen firms last summer.

Although the $887,880 contract is technically with Michael Baker, Skarmeas said RMJM will do the main

design work on the project. The company teamed up with Baker because the engineers have a Charleston office, he said.

"Our role is lead designers, architects," Skarmeas said in a recent telephone interview. "Our experience is master planning for capitols. We bring global knowledge of how state capitols work."

State officials hope the team will deliver its master plan by September or October, General Services Division Director David Oliverio said.

"We need a master plan for the comprehensive growth of our campus. We don't want that growth to occur in a haphazard way. We gave them some very specific tasks to consider.

"Security - perimeter security of the campus. What type of security is needed, what is not needed?

"Parking - that's a huge issue. It seems quite simple to build a parking garage, but it would be such a shame to build a parking garage next year and find out the next year we should have built it 100 feet to the left.

"A third thing is space needs. We're trying to get a handle on agency space needs. Just because an agency has been in a building for 30 years doesn't mean that's the best place for it.

"Pedestrian circulation. If you look at the sidewalks, they're not necessarily in the right place.

"And another thing, less glamorous: Service facilities - the everyday thing like trash removal. Where does that trash go? Where do you pick it up? And materials. Where do you bring them in? Do you need one central loading dock, or two or three?"

Skarmeas and RMJM architect Carl Dress led a planning meeting called a charrette with state officials Jan. 7, to gather ideas.

"The purpose was to introduce all the participants to the planning process," Skarmeas said. They'll continue to gather information during the next few weeks and report back to Oliverio's team in early April.

It's too early to speculate whether the current pedestrian campus might be expanded, the sidewalks will be redesigned or - more radical by far - the twin office towers might be torn down, Skarmeas said. "We're still in the discovery mode."

As to the office buildings: "We don't know yet. There may be ways to make a bad building into a good building."

The architects were apparently told to rein in their imaginations a bit. "One thing that came up was to create a plan that could be implemented," Dress said. "That is an important part of our process."

Although it is premature to talk about a budget, "It makes no sense to develop pie-in-the-sky plans," Skarmeas said.

As part of their research, Dress and Skarmeas have scoured state archives and private sources for original architectural drawings of the Capitol building.

"We have quite a bit of documentation of the Cass Gilbert designs," Skarmeas said. "We're still looking, through letters and other sources, for additional information on why he placed the building where he did.

"We'll be looking at what happened in the course of the last 50 years, what happened to the vision of Cass Gilbert and can we recapture it," he said.

"It's one of the most beautiful capitol campuses in the country. It needs some TLC. It needs some vision in the placement of buildings."

Reach Jim Balow at ba...@wvgazette.com

or 304-348-5102.