Brushed-up statehouse
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Friday, January 4, 2008
By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lpark@standard.net
SALT LAKE CITY -- For the first time, visitors will have a room to themselves at the Capitol.
The renovated $227 million building now features a visitor service center on the first floor at the east entrance.
"I have sat on the benches in the presentation room thinking about all the schoolchildren who will fill the room, listening to a legislator or watching the PBS documentary about the Capitol," said Allyson Gamble, director of public relations, communic-ations and visitor services for the Capitol Preservation Board.
Gamble said when shelooks out of the presentation room's windows onto the plaza, she is grateful that the vision of the original architect, Richard Kletting, has come true.
An official Capitol rededication ceremony for dignitaries and ticket-holding guests will be held today; the public will be admitted Saturday for the first time since the Capitol was closed in 2004 for work to ensure it could withstand an earthquake.
The visitor center is one of the many restoration successes, said David Hart, the architect of the Capitol restoration.
"Michigan has one, and other Capitols also have a visitors' center," he said on Thursday.
In the new center, visitors can read about the history of the Capitol and also see one of five antique safes found in the Capitol's basement.
"No one will be locked inside it because the lock's been drilled," Hart said.
The other four safes are decorative pieces in the governor's office, the lieutenant governor's office and the treasurer's office, he said.
Visitors will also notice the hallway on the first floor is wider -- it's back to its original size, Hart said.
Wherever possible, the original limestone, which came from the Manti area, was restored; plaster was used when it couldn't be, he said.
For those who want Capitol memorabilia, a visitor gift shop, three times larger than the previous one, offers a variety of goods.
The first floor also houses portraits of every governor. The displays on the first floor will be returned, but in wooden cases, just as the originals were exhibited.
When restoration started, the displays were in aluminum cases, which had been "badly managed and looked crummy," Hart said.
The first floor is spacious enough to hold large receptions, as well as offices for state employees.
On the second floor are the Rotunda and governor's office.
Like many areas of the building, the governor's office has been restored to its original 1916 look.
Photographs gave clues as to what the carpet, furniture and lighting fixtures looked like, Hart said.
Lighting is what makes Utah's Capitol different from other Capitols, he said.
Kletting, the original architect of the building, understood how to mix natural light with artificial light, which at that time was gas light.
The Capitol is also different from similar buildings because it was built when architects were leaving behind highly ornamental designs and moving toward classical, simple looks, Hart said.
Utah's Capitol combines both, which is unique.
Murals in the Rotunda have been cleaned and repaired, as have all the symbols that decorate the walls, columns and ceiling.
Depictions of wyverns, a type of griffin, were so dirty with grime that no one noticed them for years, Gamble said. Now they are her favorite because "they are a guardian."
The wyverns can be seen in the top four corners of the Rotunda -- they guard the building and democracy, she said. "They're really cool. Kids are going to love them."
Visitors who climb the stairs on the east side and immediately turn left will enter the Senate's office area.
Climb the stairs on the west side, however, and an immediate left brings visitors to the House's office area. In the past, the stairs led to the galleries.
Inside the House chambers, the original colors have been restored.
New to the area are two 103-inch plasma screens that will be used not only to tally up votes, but also to allow the representatives to make video presentations of their bills, Hart said.
A new mural in the House chambers represents the first woman to cast her vote in Utah.
The Senate chambers, also back in its original colors, boast an additional 6 feet on each side because it was "one of the smallest, if not the smallest Senate chamber in the nation," Hart said.
Two walls were taken down, giving pages and aides some extra room to sit and allowing more space for senators' desks.
The stonework that covers the archway came from Utah's West Desert and Pakistan.
"It's difficult to tell which piece is which," Hart said.
Areas that visitors won't see during the open house are the stairways behind the Senate and House chambers.
These stairways provide legislators and staff additional building exits in case of an emergency.
Visitors will be able to see most areas of the Capitol next week -- exceptions will be any offices where staff is working, Gamble said.
"This is the people's building," she said.
"We want them to feel welcome. We want them to come to their open house."
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Capitol events open to the public:
* 2 p.m. today: Channel 7 KUED rededication ceremony broadcast.
* 5 p.m. today: Fireworks celebration with musical accompaniment by the Utah National Guard on the south grounds and steps of the Capitol.
* 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, Saturday through Jan. 11: Open house, with docent tours available 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the hour and half-hour. Docent tours also available 5 p.m. to 8 p.m Mondays and Wednesdays.
Large groups wanting a docent-led tour can call 538-1800 or e-mail visitors services at capitoltours@utah.gov.
Brochures available for self-guided tours.
* Daily lectures from noon to 1 p.m.
Topics are as follows:
Saturday: Rotunda, chandelier, cyclorama, murals, niche sculptures and pendentives
Sunday: State reception room and governor's suite
Monday: Base isolation
Tuesday: Senate
Wednesday: House
Thursday: Supreme Court
Friday: Capitol Art
* 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 12: Capitol Discovery Day
Activities include: Dome construction with toothpicks and gumdrops; crafting mosaics with colored construction paper and glue; creating tile floor patterns with construction paper; creating wyverns out of model clay; demonstration of how a building would react with a base isolation system versus one without; I-Spy adventure within the Capitol; and lectures from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on various topics in the visitor services presentation room
Parking and transportation:
Free bus service to and from the Capitol from the parking lot directly east of the Triad Center will be available weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free parking at the Triad Center.
Enter the Capitol building from the east doors.
Free parking also available in the Capitol visitor's parking lot on the east end of the Capitol and State Office Building. To get to the parking lot, turn right on 300 North and follow the street that becomes East Capitol Boulevard. Take a left into the parking lot.
Free parking also allowed on the streets around the perimeter of the Capitol.
Source: Capitol Preservation Board
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