NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam's administration is backing off earlier plans to demolish the 60-year-old Cordell Hull office building located next to the state Capitol in Nashville and instead hopes to renovate it.

Bob Oglesby, the commissioner of general services, told the State Building Commission on Thursday that renovating the building would create space to house workers while other office buildings are overhauled in the future.

The original recommendation to demolish the building was made by consultant Jones Lang LaSalle, which said it would be cheaper to tear down than to fix up and maintain.

Oglesby said the long-term savings of using the building to house other state employees would offset some of the cost of estimated $70 million overhaul.

He also said the consultant's study hadn't been asked to take into account the key location of the building, which can be seen out the windows of the governor's office in the Capit ol.

"They treated that building the same as they would treat one in a suburb of another city," he said. "They made no exception for the Cordell Hull being on Capitol Hill."