Frills, not jobs, filling posh IRS digs

The $92 million renovations at the IRS compound in Andover will include a reflecting pool, an art gallery, indoor gardens, a 7,000-square-foot cafeteria and an amphitheater, but it remains unclear what new permanent jobs, if any, will come to the center.

The Herald reported last month that the IRS received $80.5 million in stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for “green upgrades” to the 400,000-square-foot complex.

The IRS already had $11.4 million on hand for the work. During a tour of the 50-year-old federal complex Thursday, the architect called the project “visionary” and said the building “will be relevant 50 years from now.”

IRS spokeswoman Peggy Riley said in an e-mail that “nothing has changed” since April, when she said it was premature to say whether permanent jobs would come to Andover once construction is complete in August 2012.

Architect Jonathan Levi, whose firm received $8.3 million to design the renovations, said planners have taken that uncertainty into account by designing “flexible” workspace with movable partitions that could be rearranged for a variety of activities.

“It will be a comfortable, collaborative environment” that would foster “community and belonging,” Levi said. “It will be welcoming for the people who use it.”

Levi said the upgraded building will have have room for 2,000 employees, more than double the 900 that work there. About 1,400 employees were laid off last year because an increase in electronic tax submissions meant fewer workers are needed to process paper returns. The remaining employees serve primarily in customer service at the IRS call center.

Last month, critics blasted the project as a “boondoggle,” saying the $92 million would have been better spent fixing roads, bridges and dams. Supporters said renovating the site would be an incentive for bringing permanent jobs there.

Officials from the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal agency that channeled stimulus money to the IRS, said in a statement the Andover site was chosen to “put people back to work quickly” and transform “federal buildings into high-performance green buildings.”