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John Hollenhorst reporting In may ways the restoration project completes the century-old vision for the Capitol. Tonight, Eyewitness News takes a look inside for at the new, and old, Utah State Capitol.
On the outside, the building looks pretty much the same as it always did, although you should try to imagine your State Capitol surrounded by blossoming cherry trees. That's the landscaping plan.
But inside, if you have a sharp eye, or an aesthetic bent, the differences with the old State Capitol may jump out at you.
"Do you remember when you used to come here and the walls were dark, and the skylights had been covered over with years of grit, grime and, uh, pigeon stuff?" capitol curator Judith McConkie asked. She says a lot of the renovation project was just clean up, pure and simple; and to add fresh paint to bring out unnoticed details, like a mythical Wyvern guarding the House Chambers.
Outside light now floods into areas that McConkie says were shrouded in darkness for decades. "So now, everywhere you look there are these symbolic details that speak about the place," she said.
Richard Kletting's design for the Capitol--completed in 1916--included a lot of open space. But in the 1960s, some spaces were walled off to create offices. Renovators removed many walls and restored 120,000 square feet of public space.
They spent time and money recapturing the 1916 look. Light bulbs that appear to be original Edison's are actually hand-made replicas. "It was a monumental problem just to find replacement parts and have them manufactured," McConkie said.
They recreated the furniture of Kletting's era and restored the brilliance of his concept. In the Senate Chambers, they opened up the walls to make more space. That meant they had to go a long way to find the right framing stone--the white onyx had to match existing door frames. "Closest match in the world was in Afghanistan," McConkie said.
If a building is a work of art, then the effect of this $200 million project is not so much to restore a work of art as to complete it. What does it all add up to? McConkie says the classical design, elegant details, and rich themes speak to the people of Utah. "It says that this is a government of rational deliberation and openness, at least symbolically that's what it attempts to say," McConkie said.
It also speaks about what they want from government. "Rational, powerful, orderly government: that's the ideal," McConkie said.
Major new visitor facilities are part of the package, on the assumption many Utahns will want to see their finally-finished State Capitol.
The renovation cost $227 million--that's almost a hundred times more than the building's original price tag of $2.5 million. Even adjusted for inflation, that would only be about $75 million today, a real bargain compared with what we just spent.
