{"id":8935,"date":"2016-09-19T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/?p=8935"},"modified":"2025-05-13T12:27:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:27:27","slug":"the-capitol-building-under-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/the-capitol-building-under-construction","title":{"rendered":"The Capitol Building (Under Construction)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Minkenberg\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Capitol Building is in the midst of a $60 million renovation project<\/a>, the first time work has been done on the iconic dome in fifty years. The renovation will be completed by January 2017, for the next presidential inauguration, but it is safe to say the inner workings of the building will still be in great disrepair after the scaffolding comes off.\u00a0 Tours of the dome have been suspended, but television networks and producers still rely on the dome to signal their correspondent or pundit is based in DC. We have become familiar to seeing the dome, covered in a wiry shell, while the work is being done during this tumultuous election year.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/a>Both the White House and Congress are situated on elevations, making them visible from afar and reminiscent of the ancient Rome and its hills, but from the beginning on, Congress acquired the larger architectural effort and meaning. In both its early version, rebuilt under the direction of Benjamin Latrobe and his successor Charles Bulfinch after its destruction by British troops in 1814, and in its later, enlarged and more grandiose and monumental version, envisioned by Abraham Lincoln to provide new cement for the Union, designed by Thomas U. Walter and finished in 1867, the Capitol Building imposes itself on the cityscape as the major site.<\/span><\/p>\n

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