Juneau -- The state has hired an architectural firm to study the costs and consequences of moving the governor and lieutenant governor out of the Capitol and over to the 11th floor of the State Office Building, an agency official told lawmakers Thursday.

The $20,000 contract was in response to a bill by Rep. Scott Ogan, R-Palmer, who says he wants to give the Legislature more space in the 70-year-old building.

Ogan quickly took the news as a good sign.

"It looks like the administration is all ready to go with this," Ogan said.

But Administration Commissioner Jim Duncan told the House State Affairs Committee, which approved the bill and moved it out of committee, the study is simply to provide more information.

"I was not reflecting any policy of the administration on whether this is a good idea or not," Duncan said after the meeting.

House Bill 95 would put the entire Capitol under the jurisdiction of the Alaska Legislative Council, which could boot the governor off the third floor and let legislators take over. At present, the Legislative Affairs Agency, under the direction of the Legislature, oversees all but the third floor.

Ogan says it's an embarrassment to the Legislature that lawmakers and staff are crammed into offices and committee rooms. He said one of the offices in the State Affairs Committee hearing room sits in a bank-style vault, with the big black door removed.

"We're literally tripping over ourselves in unsafe conditions," Ogan said.

The six-story blond-brick Capitol, dedicated in 1931 as a Federal and Territorial Building, is smaller than it appears, according to "Buildings of Alaska," a book by the Society of Architectural Historians. Its concrete frame and utilitarian design is U-shaped, which diminishes its capacity, the author said.

"I don't take this personally," Bob King, Gov. Tony Knowles' press secretary said after the hearing. "I'm sure there'd be no immediate change in office space so it wouldn't affect the Knowles administration."

However, King said, the governor does believe it is wise to have the administration near the Legislature for meetings and good communication. "Our preference is to stay put," he added.

Democratic House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, D-Anchorage, didn't testify at the hearing but said the bill suggests mixed up priorities. "We're concerned about space for ourselves, but not concerned about overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating state buildings," he said.

The newly hired firm, Jensen Yorba Lott Inc., is to evaluate benefits and drawbacks of moving the 90 third-floor Capitol employees to the 11th floor of the State Office Building, an area currently home to the Department of Revenue. The cost could be high when all the changes, including removing asbestos, installing telephone and computer lines, are added up, Duncan said.

The study must also weigh the effects of moving those 160 workers and equipment from the State Office Building to the Court Plaza Building, or Spam Can as it's called, a state-owned structure around the block from the Capitol.

Ogan said he thinks the governor should head directly to the Spam Can. "Displacing those people doubles the cost," he said.

"But I understand that the governor, for matters of appearance and ego, wanting to be physically above all state workers."

The bill heads next to the House Finance Committee.

Reporter Martha Bellisle can be reached at mbellisle@adn.com and 907-586-1531