Rebuilt Capitol set for its debut

By CHELYEN DAVIS

RICHMOND--In the state Senate chambers, a veil of dust covers the 40 wooden desks. Wires and cords snake down into holes cut in the carpet.

Outside the door, plywood still covers a valuable Houdon statue of George Washington.

But in the chamber, the walls and ceiling seem to glow, thanks to a terracotta-color paint, rose-red damask-looking panels, a refurbished skylight, and warm-hued decorative paintings around the ceiling.

This is the Senate chamber, part of the massive, $104 million Capitol renovation project that is winding to a close.

It's not done yet--workers outside are still building walkways, the main hall of the Capitol is still covered in dropcloths and "wet paint" signs, but the House and Senate chambers are almost finished.

And they're gorgeous.

Both chambers are to be done, and cleaned up, by Wednesday, when legislators will return to the building. For the first time since 2005, the House and Senate will hold a session--their one-day veto session--in their old chambers.

Gone is paint that House Clerk Bruce Jamerson refers to as "apartment white," which used to cover the House of Delegates' chamber walls. Gone is blue carpet from the 1980s and out-of-place chandeliers.

In place of that old decor is a re-creation of how the House and Senate chambers were decorated around 1906, after the Capitol's last major renovation.

Using old photographs and records, as well as analyzing 24 layers of paint, experts were able to determine that the chambers had decorative paintings on the ceiling and on wall panels--in fact, workers uncovered some of the original paintings on the House chamber ceiling, and left one piece of that to show visitors how the original looked.

They used photographs to re-create period carpeting--red for the Senate, blue for the House. And they also found a swatch of rose-colored fabric on a wall when they removed a marble plaque that had hung there for decades, and could see from pictures that the chambers once had no chandeliers, but instead had glass globe lamps.

"When you start renovating a Capitol, you have to pick a period to go back to," said Senate Clerk Susan Schaar.

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Aug. 18, 1785: cornerstone laid for Capitol building

October 1788: General Assembly first met in the building

1798: Brick walls received finishing coat of stucco

1904-1906: Major renovation, involving adding the wings and installing granite steps on the South Portico

April 2004: Outside construction began on the next major renovation

Fall 2004: Excavation of the south lawn began

October 2006: 24 granite stairs on the South Portico were removed. Each granite piece--there are more than 180 of them--weighs between 1,000 and 5,000 pounds

April 2007: Building scheduled to be ready for occupation

Total cost, including furnishings: $104.5 million

27,000 tons of earth were removed from the south lawn to build the underground extension

10,000 tons will be returned to cover it up

The extension used 180 tons of structural steel --equal to the weight of 30 male adult elephants

The electrical wiring consists of about 25 miles of piping and tubing

Information from the Department of General Services

Date published: 3/31/2007

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