In less than a month, the construction and rehabilitation of the Guam Legislature's old home will be complete. They say it's the place where Guam's government was born and soon it will welcome a breath of new life.

"The Old Congress Building is well underway," said Joe Quinata, chief program officer of the Guam Presrvation Trust. "We will be looking at the completion of the construction part of this project around August 15, which is just a month away." The rehabilitation and reconstruction of the facility is being led by his organization, and Quinata says with 90% of construction complete, the next step is to finish the fixtures, furniture and equipment. "And that was tasked to the department to administer and that is looking at furnishings, right now we're working with CAHA for the percent of the arts and all the other stuff that goes into the building itself," he added.

The progress from just a few months ago is already evident from the white walls to the installation of glass windows. Quinata says the building is still shooting for LEED Platinum status, adding, "And so when the project is complete you're going to see a lot of the elements that LEED requires. One element that the parking lots are going to be grasscrete, where you'll see the same concept as you would see at the Micronesia Mall where you have the parking filled with grass."

He adds the solar panels on the top of the roof will help reduce the costs for power. And by moving to the Old Congress Building, it will help save the legislature on rent as it currently pays $21,000 a month at its current location. As for the project costs, Quinata says they're still on budget with no major change orders. And with the next door neighbor the Guam Museum also shooting for an opening date soon, Quinata hopes the new building will help revitalize our island's capital.

He shared, "We're anticipating visitors will come into the legislative building to look at the pieces of work we'll be putting in. This is part of the percent of the arts that we're working with CAHA."

Quinata expects about three months to complete the furnishings and hopefully have senators officially move in by December or January - just in time for the new term.