KY lawmakers to work from new chambers during Capitol renovation. A peek inside
The $260 million, multi-year renovation of the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort has made the temporary chambers of the House of Representatives and Senate seem more than provisional.
The state has built an imposing structure for the temporary chambers in the parking lot of the Capitol grounds, and it will serve as the meeting place of the next few sessions of the General Assembly.
During a Wednesday tour for news media, Senate Majority Floor Leader Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, said it was his first time stepping into the Senate’s new home.
Transitioning to a new building will require adjustments to daily operations — including how lawmakers communicate on the floor.
Minor adaptations include the fact that the temporary Senate chamber has a different acoustic setting, with a lot of echo, which Wise said forces him and President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, to be more careful when speaking to each other during floor proceedings, since they can no longer communicate as quietly as before.
As separate buildings from the existing Capitol and Capitol Annex, the temporary chambers have tile ceilings and the same wooden desks lawmakers sit behind when in the Capitol. At the front, six desks are designated for the news media.
“We’ve done streaming (and) we’re going to have rooms set up to where the media will have access here,” Stivers said.
There is no gallery for the public in the temporary space. According to Stivers, it “didn’t seem like a relevant expenditure that we wanted to incur.”
As renovations continue in the Capitol, the public still has its own space in the existing annex, and there will be two larger rooms at the far side of the temporary building where they can see “everything as it is live-streamed,” Stivers said.
The current Capitol is the fourth building to serve as the permanent home of the state government since Kentucky’s statehood in 1792. The building now known as the Old State Capitol, built in 1830 and still standing in downtown Frankfort, had become too small for the growing state government.
At the time of the current Capitol’s construction, the building, landscaping and other expenses cost $1.82 million according to the state. It was officially dedicated in 1910 with a ceremony that included Gov. Augustus Willson.
A few rooms in the temporary legislative chambers are used for staff duties.
Temporarily, the executive branch office is moving to downtown Frankfort, using the Old Governor’s Mansion, which used to be the Lieutenant Governor’s Mansion, for office space, according to Stivers.
Stivers said he hopes the temporary chambers will be used for three or four years, but it is still unclear what will happen to them once the Senate moves back into the Capitol.
Following the recent shooting of two lawmakers in Minnesota, Stivers also said there has been a focus on security, but gave no further details.
The temporary chambers are expected to be fully operational by Tuesday, July 1.
The 2026 General Assembly convenes in January.
Unclear about a disaster relief session
Amid the ongoing construction, formal conversations with Gov. Andy Beshear’s office about a special session on disaster relief are on pause.
Senate Majority Caucus Chair Robby Mills, R-Henderson, said legislators are still waiting to see what the numbers on the damage are and the money that has been allocated for these specific storm events, to then understand how the executive branch is handling disaster relief efforts.
Regarding the State Aid Funding for Emergencies, called the SAFE Fund, money that can be accessed after natural disasters, Mills said Beshear needs to now show them “why we need to be called back in and where that money is going to be spent in the future.”
“There was quite a substantial amount of storm damage,” Mills said. “It does take time to recover and, you know, we’ve got a few months until we’re back in session.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
