The legislature acted again on the plan in 1857 and a Board of Commissioners was established to oversee the construction of the State Hospital for the Insane. Former Governor Leonard J. Farwell was selected as president of the commission. Land had already been purchased from Farwell for the project and the commission he led confirmed that it was the best location for the hospital. Architect Stephen Vaughn Shipman was commissioned to design the facility based on the Kirkbride Plan. Shipman later designed a sister facility near Oshkosh and several other Kirkbride plan asylums in Iowa and Illinois.