Transcripts For CSPAN3 Capitol Hill Preservation 20140816

Neighborhood, and those buildings carried important symbolism for people across america and around the globe. Tonight, you will hear from the man entrusted with the care of many of those structures. The architect of the capitols office is responsible to the Supreme Court for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of more than 17 million square feet of buildings, and more than 553 acres of land to our capitol hill, including the u. S. Capitol , senate and house Office Buildings, the library of congress, and many others. In 2000 10, Stephen Ayers was named the 11th architect of the capitol after being nominated by president obama and confirmed by the senate for a 10 year term. After studying architecture at the university of maryland, mr. Errors ayres joined the air force. Following five years of active duty, he went into private practice. He then joined the voice of america, where he led design and construction efforts in greece and in germany. After five years abroad, he and his family moved to washington, d. C. , and mr. Ayers was hired by the architect of the capitol as assistant senate superintendent. He subsequently served for 13 years in a variety of roles until he was tapped to be the acting architect of the capitol in february of 2007. The role of architect of the capitol is one that requires a leader who is mindful of both the grand vision of american democracy, that these important buildings represent, and the nuts and bolts responsibilities of their maintenance and preservation. In many cases, such as the current restoration of the capitol dome, those nuts and bolts are literally rather than metaphorical ones. This evening well learn how that challenge is being met. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the architect of the capitol, stephen t. Ayers. [applause] thank you so much, elizabeth what a great introduction, it was absolutely perfect. I couldnt have described my job better than you did. Terrific. So let me turn things on here and see if we can get started. I thought this evening i would speak a bit about who the architect of the capitol is and what we do. I bet there arent many of you know that we are an organization that kind of works behind the scenes to enable the congress and the Supreme Court do what it does every day. So ill speak a little about that. And then focus in on what we do to be good stewards of these beautiful treasures that have been entrusted to our care. The Capitol Building and the United States Botanic Garden, and the beautiful Supreme Court building by cass gilbert ask nd many others on capitol hill. I hope to also teach you maybe something you didnt know about capitol hill and what we do. Fair enough . All right. So this is capitol hill, what i like to call my little area of responsibility. This little city within this larger city of washington, d. C. What a unique city this is. I love this photograph coming up by Pierre Lenfant. But before we do that, let me point out that on your right youll see the Senate Office buildings, then the Supreme Court, library of congress on your left. The buildings for the house of representatives of course, then the Capitol Building in the center. These are the main buildings, the functioning buildings the congress. But we also have a number of properties in maryland and virginia as well as throughout the District Of Columbia that ill show you one or two things about. But first, what makes this city great . And to me its the beautiful skyline, the beautiful layout of this city, and what Pierre Lenfant wrote to George Washington when he picked the site for the Capitol Building, and he said, he placed it atop jenkins hill and said this is a pedestal, awaiting a monument. And then he took every street and radiated it to and from the Capitol Building. What a way to make iconic architecture, and what foresight he had to place the Capitol Building there atop jenkins hill, and to create and lay out this city the way that they did. Let me show you kind of what it looks like today, and our area of responsibility on capitol hill of course starts with union square there and were approaching the west front of the capitol. Then we traverse over to the north side, and next to Union Station the congressional property extends down to right next to Union Station there. A building we built about 20 years ago through a Publicprivate Partnership for the Supreme Court, designed by Edward Larrabee barnes, that was the Thurgood Marshall judiciary building. These are the offices for the senate, and of course the Thomas Jefferson building and the john adams and madison buildings for the library of congress, the Jefferson Building, widely acclaimed in 1897 as the most beautiful building in america, and many people still think it is today. You saw there a capitol power plant where we make the steam and chilled water to heat and cool all of the 17 million square feet of space across capitol hill. Then bartholdi park recently renovated, and the Botanic Garden thats been part of our inventory and part of our Hidden Treasures on capitol hill for many, many years. Of course back to the capitol. These are my 10 predecessors in office, and many people ask how can you be the 11th architect of the capitol when weve been in this wonderful capitol city for 224 years or so. Its interesting, and someone asked me earlier, that the first nine architects of the capitol were appoint by the president for lifetime terms. And many of them served 20, 30 or more years in office. Then after the retirement of the 9th architect of the capitol, the congress put term lits on the architects appointment. So my immediate predecessor there, you see on the bottom right, alan hansman from new york city served as the first architect under that 10year term appointment. He chose not to reapply, which opened that job up to me as the 11th architect of the capitol. See on these you can top left, the first architect, dr. William thornton, with the title as the first architect of the capitol. And dr. Thornton, an amateur architect, won the first competition for the design of the Capitol Building and what a wonderful story that is. As elizabeth mentioned, the architect is appointed by the president. I was appointed by president obama and sworn in by chief Justice John Roberts in my favorite place in the Capitol Building, the old senate chamber, a beautiful place designed by the second architect, Benjamin Henry latrobe. You can see the beautiful ionic columns there, the entablature above it, and the sweeping arch above it, and the beautiful skylights, and imagine the Natural Light that used to come into that space during those early years of the 1800s. So my journey, elizabeth mentioned much of that. I went to Architecture School at university of maryland. Do i have any terps here in the audience tonight . All right. I think terps dominate tonight, way to go, thank you for coming out. What a great Architecture School that is. You know, when i graduated from Architecture School, like many architects today, i had no idea what i wanted to do. Whether follow in my fathers footsteps, who was a marine and certainly the military life was important to me, and a sense of service was important to me. I considered law school, took the lsat, decided not to do that. But i thought, boy, what a wonderful career that would have been, to be an architect and an attorney. Come to find out the 9th architect of the capitol was an architect and an attorney as well. I decided to go into the military. I really wanted to travel and see the world. Thats what i wanted to do when i was of that age and graduating from Architecture School, and i thought, what better way to see the world than the join the military, thats what the military does. Travel all around the world. Thats what i did. I was shipped off to texas and went to Officers Training school, stationed in california, had a great job, worked as an architect, and for any of you that work as an architect but also under an architect which is really important for young architects, you need four years under a licensed architect before you can apply to take the licensing exam. Theres a significant Internship Program that you need to go through before youre eligible to take the licensing program. So i really got lucky that there was a licensed architect stationed at edwards, where i was, and i was able to work under his leadership for a number of years. Interestingly enough, of course, after a few years in the military, for those of you that may be in the military, you fill out your dream sheet of the wonderful places you want to get transferred to next, its called a dream sheet, and of course i filled out aviano air base, italy, and greece, and spain. And i got orders to elmendorf, alaska. Thats not quite what i had envisioned. So come to find out i did retire from the military at that point and said, you know, elmendorf, alaska, its a wonderful place, ive been there, its just not for me and its not the path that i want my career to be on. So i resigned and then went into private practice. A year later, i joined the voice of america, and just a few months after that i moved to greece and lived on the island of rhodes. And its so interesting how one door closees and another door opens. And thats the way life is, you know, you cant really plan it. But ive been so blessed and was so excited to be able to work in europe. That was my dream, and i was able to work in greece and germany, and albania, and turkey and travel around the european theater, working and visiting and it was just what wanted, it really worked out well, and some nearly 18 years ago, after six years overseas, i responded to a job ad with the architect of the capitol. Had an interview over the telephone, and got a call the next day, off a telephone interview, that i was hired to work in one of the managers in the Senate Office buildings, and 18 years later i am really blessed and honored to be the 11th architect of the capitol. So let me tell you a little bit about what the architect does. Many of you know that the General Services Administration Provides facilities and infrastructure and support for the executive branch of the government. Its really the architect of the capitol that does that for the legislative branch of government. Thats basically what we do. I like to use these four images to describe that. First on the left, we manage the Capitol Grounds, elizabeth mentioned these 500 acres that are on capitol hill. But those most important are the ones around the capitol, what we call capitol square. The historic grounds that were designed by frederick law olmstead in 1874 and instructed constructed through the 1890s. Olmstead of course being the preeminent landscape designer at the time. And what beautiful grounds they are. And what a beautiful time of year, theres no better place in washington d. C. In springtime than on capitol hill. What an honor it is to be able to carry on olmsteads original thoughts. We have his orange drawings and his original drawings and we continue to plant today and design today following olmsteads original work. Secondly, when the Congress Wants to commission a piece of artwork, a statue, for example, as you see here with rosa parks, they turn to the architect to enable that on their behalf. So we would hold a Competition Among sculptors to produce Something Like this beautiful sculpture of rosa parks, and we maintain aesthetic judgment what comes into the collection and what doesnt, and advise the congress on those kinds of matters. So whether its the National Statuary hall collection, where two statues from every state come into the collection, and now in recent years there is the ability to change those statues in and out, so weve had an increase in statuary work in the national stauary hall collection in recent years, or whether the Congress Wants to commission a rosa parks or a sojourner truth, or lastly when theres a Vice President were responsible for carving a white marble bust of every Vice President that serves in office. And today were working with Vice President gore and Vice President cheney on the white marble busts for them, and were looking forward to them coming into the collection. Many of them are displayed in the senate chamber, and others are displayed in the corridors and these wonderful niches that are in the corridors surrounding the senate chamber. And of course the beautiful frescoes that are throughout the Capitol Building and many of the other buildings on capitol hill, whether its the frescoes of the beautiful trumbull paintings and the senate chamber. Portraits that are in the building, were responsible for that kind of work on behalf of the congress. Thirdly, as this photograph and our moniker would tell you, were responsible for all the design and construction of New Buildings and renovation and modernization of existing buildings on behalf of the congress and Supreme Court. Lastly, the last photograph on the right, were responsible for visitor services. What an important part of our mission that is. With 2. 5 Million People coming to the front door of that Capitol Building every year, so many of them for the first time, and so many of them for the only time, to make that experience welcoming and informative, and inspirational, is something we think we are really, really good at, and we pay a great deal of attention to those visitors. Not to mention the over a million visitors that come to the United States Botanic Garden every year. We spend a great deal of time focused on creating positive First Impressions and positive memories for our visitors. Its a really important part of what we do, and we have several hundred employees that are dedicated to that part of our business. Certain parts of our business have a regular battle rhythm. What happens every four years . A president ial election. So when theres a president ial election, we work behind the scenes to enable the congress to put on this peaceful transition of power that is so wonderful to this great country we live in. And we completely transform the west front of the capitol during this period. Well close it down in september and work and build that inaugural platform through december, and then from december of course until Inauguration Day on january were outfitting it and doing dry run and installing security and protective measures among many other things. You can see that the west front is completely transformed every four years, and that inaugural platform changes a little bit every four years depending upon the desires of the Congressional Inaugural Committee or the president , that have some say and oversight in these matters. So who can tell me how the flags are arranged on the west front during this particular and many of the other president ial inaugurations . This is your second test for the evening. Ill give you a hint. On the middle flag is the current flag of the United States. Then the two outside flags are the flags of the original 13 colonies. So your test is, what are those two flags in the middle . Someone said the president and Vice President s state. Well, thats pretty close. Thats the closest ive ever heard actually. I can usually stump people with this question. Well, the flags are, the flags of the president s home state when that state came into the union. Thats what i meant. [laughter] i knew it was. I believe you, i dont think anybody else does, but i believe you. Good guess. So were excited to work with the congress and help them put on this wonderful inaugural ceremony every four years. And thats a regular process for us. It virtually never stops. An immense amount of planning goes into a president ial inauguration. And once we finish one in january, were to work doing a hot wash and Lessons Learned and anything we can possibly do to make that ceremony and make our part of that even better four years from now, and we capture all of that and we bring it back out just a year later as we begin to start that inauguration planning again. Heres what it looks like from where the president stands, isnt that amazing . This is president obamas first inauguration, and you can see president obama and his family standing there on the inaugural platform, and this media tower in front where the tv cameras are pulled from one or two cameras that are out there, and then these 30,000 seats that we place on the west front of the capitol. Then just look out at the people down the mall. What a special day. That is. Here it is a little up closer. You can see many of the folks all the way down the mall, past the washington monument. This is a big day for us, this is bigger than the super bowl. [laughter] test number two for you, youll see here on the west front on aand you can see those flags little better, you can see here on the west front on the left hand side of this photograph we have the print media, your newspapers and magazines. And closer to you youll see all the Digital Media, we call these our media towers. But theyre separate. Why would they be separate . Any photographers in the room . Yes, it all has to do where the sun is on that january day, and as the sun comes over the capitol you get much better photographs from the south side than you do from the north side. So the Digital Media is all on the south tower, and the print media is all in the north tower. See, these are two things youre going to use at your next cocktail party, and you are going to be a star, i can see it already. Well, i like to tell people sometimes, jokingly of course, that im the only guy that knows that it takes 505 port a potties to put on a president ial inauguration. On Capitol Grounds, anyway. But these are some of the things that go into making a president ial inauguration, some 30,000 seats on the west front of the capitol. So that happens every four years. What happens every two years . A new congress, thats right. So were leading up to that this november, right . So when a new congress happens, its the architect that works with the congress to enable the appropriate committees to make space decisions on where people go, and in the house we work with the Speakers Office to manage that process on their behalf. And its done in the house by lottery. So two years ago there were 90 members that were out and 90 new members in the house, right . So 90 new members ultimately results in 220 or so office moves in the house, that we do in 30 days. So when 90 members are out, that means that there are 90 vacant offices that the rest of the members can bid on and move their offices, and we do that by seniority order. And we manage that process on their behalf. And then we go about moving them, one office to another. And when you go about moving them, you never know what youre going to find in their office and whether its a bear or a totem pole, and these things are really important to members that they show off the wonderful treasures from their state and bring their constituents in and they brag a little bit, and theyre proud of it as they should be. But you never know what youre going to find, whether its deer head or elk head. If you look behind that ladder, thats a moose antler, i believe. Theres a moose head in this particular members office. And not all are from south dakota. Theyre from all parts of the wonderful country. We go about moving them office to office and we do that in 30 days in the house. 220 moves, just two years ago. Its a little slower in the senate. The house gets about 20 minutes to make their Office Decision on which office they move to. And we work so closely with them in providing tools and enabling them to make those move decisions electronically today. If any of you worked on capitol hill years before or heard the story, you know, there would be interns scurrying up and down the halls, looking at different offices so they could go back and tell their member of congress what those suites looked like. They can do much of that today, if not all of it today, electronically on computers, which enables, really eliminates much of the scurry that used to happen across capitol hill. In the senate they get typically a full day to make their decision and we dont start those moves until usually february, and run them through february, march, and april. So its a little slower process and theres typically not as many moves in the senate. We may move 30 or 40 senators in a given move year. So thats the second regular kind of thing that happens for us in addition to the day to day work that we do to support the congress. I mentioned earlier this wonderful Botanic Garden that is such a treasure on capitol hill. And were so proud to be able to continue to educate the public about the value of bow tany and horticulture in our society, and its no less important today than it was when we opened the Botanic Garden and established that very same mission, so many years ago. We had a celebrity at the Botanic Garden this year, i hope some of you were able to come out to see the titan arum. Yes, i heard someone call it the stinky plant. It is the stinky plant and its so interesting, this is a plant from sumatra, and it only blooms for a day. We had thousands and thousands and thousands of people come to visit that plant while it was getting ready to bloom, and you can see the crowds there as it blooms for that one day. Interesting that it does smell like rotting flesh as it blooms, because its to attract the carrion beetle in sumatra, and the beetle can smell it, comes and roosts on this thinking it s rotten flesh, and thats how of course that it regenerates itself. For us this is what its all about, these curious minds, these smiling faces, these 8th graders that come to visit their capitol on their 8th grade trip. Their 8th grade civics class coming from across the country. If we can inspire them about their government and about public service, or about the architect of the capitol, weve done our job. And our tour guides are so good at interpreting the content in the Capitol Building to age appropriate stuff, and we relish the opportunity to be with young men and women like this and teach them a little about the history of our country, the history of the congress, what the congress does for this great nation. So you might wonder, what does 2. 5 Million People a year look like, and what does it mean . This is one day at the Capitol Visitor Center, where we have about 20,000 visitors a day, at the capitol. And this just goes on and on and on, and on and on. But i ask you to think about what does that mean for architects. Or building managers or designers, what does that mean . Maintenance, one. But from a design standard, our basic Design Standards are 100 years. We build for generations. We dont build speculative Office Buildings. We build buildings that will last 100 years. Those are our basic skynyrd. It is a very different job than an architect somewhere else. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it keeps going on and on. You are maybe about 10,000 people now. Look at the floors, the materials, the size of space and materials you will see used in new construction across the capitol campus, that these are Sustainable Materials that are built to last for generations. This is a 2. 5 minute video. I think you are about a minute and a half into it. Just think about the numbers of people that come to this Capitol Building every year. To a building that is 220 something years old, and we have to carefully monitor how many people are in the Capitol Building at any one time. And we do that by carefully managing visitor flow here in the Visitor Center, by very carefully mapping out what you do before you get into the Capitol Building. You see a video, a film that is exactly 13 minutes and 20 seconds. Specifically designed to be that long because it correlates with the size of the groups in the two theaters, that correlates to the size of the tour group that correlates to the length of time it takes you to give you a tour of the Capitol Building, so that we can carefully managed how manage how many people are in the building at any one time. Its a challenging place to work. These are unique challenges. Working with buildings that are 200 years old that dont meet dont meet modernday codes and are coupled with the fact that you get 220,000 people a day walking in the front door, not to mention the nearly 30,000 people that work across capitol hill. So i will switch gears a little bit and talk about our Preservation Mission and our stewardship responsibility to be good stewards of these treasures that you and the American People have entrusted to our care. Not only are we stewards in a literal sense, stewards of these great buildings, but we are also stewards of other things. Here is a series of New Buildings that we designed and constructed for one of our very important customers, the librarian of congress. In these buildings, these are hightech warehouses where many of the books and other material thats part of the library of congress is actually not stored at the library of congress. Here it is stored in fort meade, maryland. We have a 100acre parcel of land on that military base where we have designed and constructed some hightech warehouses to store the materials for the library of congress. You can see here how books are stored. They are stored at 50 degrees fahrenheit and 30 relative humidity. By storing books, i. E. Paper, in those environmental conditions, you increase the lifespan of a piece of paper by sixfold. This is important to the library. They have an incredible Storage Mission to preserve these wonderful things for generations to come, and we as architects and designers and building managers work with them in designing buildings to help them with their Preservation Mission. We think thats part of our stewardship responsibilities. There are also a number of other buildings at fort meade where we store different products, not paper, but other products for the library. We store many of them just below freezing and acclimatize them. When you order them from the library of congress and we will take them out acclimatize them, get them on a truck and deliver them to you. In the libraries they do that seamlessly without you even knowing it happens that way. Let me move you from 30 miles north to several hundred miles south now to culpeper, virginia. I wonder if anybody recognizes this. This is mount tony and culpeper, virginia. In the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is here that the Federal Reserve had this underground bunker and they stored enough cash to support the eastern seaboard of the United States. Of course the Federal Reserve doesnt work that way anymore. Its not really a cash operation anymore. We worked with the library and ultimately purchased this building. I love to tell people that i worked hard to be the first one in there to see if they left anything behind. They didnt, but i did check behind every door and every note nook and cranny. You can see here, this was a pretty a pretty secure site, as you can imagine, storing that much cash and in underground facility. There were these large steel plates and you would hit the crash button and the steel plates would seal lowest ceiling at these windows and there were machine gun currents around this turrets around this mountain protecting it from attack and thieves, i suppose. So we worked very close with the library, and an incredible donor to purchase this property and redesign and completely transform this property into the National Audiovisual and Conservation Center for the library of congress. This is what it looks like today on the site of that wonderful hill and culpeper, virginia. A fully modern building where the library moved all of the Motion Picture and recorded sound division off of capitol hill to this much more appropriate site. The biggest reason that the library and we and others wanted to do that was to preserve the cellulose nitrate film that is part of this incredible collection. It is the cellulose nitrate film that was so prevalent in the early 1900s, but also responsible for so many fires in movie theaters and so many fires in projection booths because this is a product that many will tell you will self ignite and burn under water. It creates its own oxygen. Its a very volatile product. We were eager to get that off capitol hill. [laughter] they were eager for the same. The incredible donor has such a love for these original films that he wanted them preserved for generations to come. So here is the reception area. And a period theater where these original films can be seen. The last time i looked, which is many months ago, it is open to the public on friday evenings. You can go down and maybe spend an evening at a bed and breakfast there and go over friday night and sees some of these period films in this wonderfully designed theater that accommodates that. This is what it looks like. This is how we store cellulose nitrate film today. What does it look like . It looks like a prison. Yes, it does. It is very purposeful. If any of you are in the Insurance Business or the design business, you know if you have such a volatile product, you want to segregate that product. So if you have an incident, the you only lose a portion of that product. You dont want to store it all together. So its all stored in these little individual blast proof and fireproof cells. This is what it looks like inside one of those little jail cells where this original film and material are stored. So those are two examples of our Preservation Mission, where we work as architects and designers to help the librarian of congress preserve these wonderful things for generations to come. Let me take you back to the Capitol Building now and talk a little bit about our specific preservation work. Preservation from the context you may be more familiar with. The beautiful painted corridors of the senate side of the Capitol Building. They are painted by costantini bermidi. We mentioned earlier that these wonderful eighthgraders and we specialize in children we think about what it means to have 2. 5 Million People walking through your building every year, and someone said maintenance. Maintenance is right. Thats been the challenge for us, especially these highly decorated corridors where people touch the walls, and eighthgraders touch the walls. 20,000 people a day touch the walls. And its ok for a little while, but what happens, that stuff just builds up and builds up and its really detrimental to the beautiful frescoes and paintings that are in the corridors. So we think we are good preservationists, but were not always that good. We dont make the best decisions. One of the decisions we made many years ago, 60, 70 five years ago, in an effort to protect these wonderful pieces of artwork in the hallways, we varnished them. What happens to varnished after 30 or 40 years . You can see what happens to it on the left, it yellows. I guess we didnt know that at the time, and for the past several years, weve been working so hard to return these beautiful spaces back to their original glory and get that varnish off the wall, better control our visitor flow, and get these things restored back to their original condition. Not just varnish, but you will see in some of our other slides, the over painting over 150 years, these walls will be touched up and touched up. As they are touched up, they tend to be touched up over dirt. I will show you a couple of slides of what happens when you touch up and touch up over dirt. You really lose the original color and luster and beauty of many of these things. You can see some of our curatorial staff and conservation contractors at work restoring some of these beautiful hallways. This work is happening today as you walk through the senate side of the capitol today. We look carefully at the original intent. After 150 years, this particular part of the capital, you dont really know what the original paint is. If it has been painted over 37 times, it really takes some very careful analysis by our curatorial team, the senate curatorial team, and are really expert contractors to investigate and determine, peel back all of those layers of paint to determine how it was painted originally. You can see lori at work here. This is an excellent example of what happens with over paint. You can see the bright blue on the right, that is the original. You can see through a series of over painting and over painting, and painting over dirt over 150 years, you really lose their original character. And weve been able to take these beautiful spaces back to their original character over the course of many, many years with the generous support of the congress, and his work is coming to a close, maybe in the next two years, maybe three at tops. We will finish the complete restoration of the corridors. That is one of the things we are currently doing to preserve and maintain this great capitol. Let me take you across the street now to the beautiful Supreme Court building. We have just finished a comprehensive renovation of the Supreme Court, a complete mechanical, electrical, Fire Protection upgrade, behind the scenes work. It doesnt look any different inside than it did before, other than complete new mechanical, electrical, Fire Protection and all other systems. It had not been renovated since 1935. We are so delighted to be able to get that done. We are just now finishing the landscape restoration as part of that. I thought i would share with you one of the interesting new tools that we are using to preserve some of the historic sandstone and marble on many of the historic facades are building on on our buildings on capitol hill. If you can look up closely to the beautiful artwork in the pediment here on the Supreme Court building just a year ago, we had that covered with a scaffold and scrim to enable us to restore and clean and preserve this white marble facade. So many people walked by that building and had no idea that was a photographic image of the Supreme Court on there. Thats what we want. There is only one Supreme Court, by the way. Let me show you some of the work that we did behind the scenes to clean and restore this marble that hadnt been touched since 1935. You see here a laser cleaning tool that we are using today. Much of this work, if you are familiar with cleaning dirt and grime off of stone, we would typically use up to eight applications of a clay material that you put on wet and let it dry, and as it dries, it pulls the contaminants out of the stone. You scrape that off and clean it up and do it again, a very laborintensive process. Today with this technology, we are able to save a great deal of money and really do a much better job. You can see just a small laser, this little handheld laser, its ability to heat the deposits that are on the stone and then that heat expands them and they drop right off the stone. Just look at how quickly some of that dirt and grime and contamination is taken off of this beautiful work there on the Supreme Court. Isnt that amazing what technology can do today . So that work is done there on the west front facade. We do have work to do on the north and south and east side of the Supreme Court building. You will see that over the next two or three years and then that work will be behind us for many, many years to come. Let me bring you back across 1st street now to this beautiful Capitol Building that looks so wonderful and new and pristine from the ground. When you get up close, as we do on a regular basis, and inspect this magnificent piece of architecture, this magnificent piece of artwork, this magnificent cast iron dome, you will find that it is cast iron, and castiron rusts. You will see significant pieces of ornamentation that have broken off and fallen off. This is an acorn about the size of a basketball. There are several pieces of several acorns and other pieces that decorate the Capitol Building. You can see how the rim and base of this acorn has just rusted completely off. Imagine, these are not just pieces and its not just rust. These are water leaks, and today there are 1300 of these deficiencies in the Capitol Building like this, cracked like this, and all of these represent water leaks. Imagine the water leaks that that represent in the Capitol Building. So we have very carefully monitored the situation from a very significant water leak in the capitol rotunda. From these inspections will when we first started that process in the early 1990s, we found about 300 deficiencies, castiron deficiencies and leaks in the dome. We have monitored those with careful attention over the years. That number has grown, and as we last inspected that in 2012 or 2013, i think it was, the number had grown to 1300. We thought now is the time, we need to intervene so that we dont lose any more of the original fabric of this great castiron dome. So we are now undertaking a comprehensive restoration of this outer shell of the castiron dome as well as the interstitial space, the space between the two castiron domes. Theres an outer one and an inner one as well as thirdly, this beautiful rotunda. All of that work will be done over the next two years or so. It will certainly be done before the next president ial inauguration on january 2017. Of course weve got to have the capitol looking great on that day, and we will. Let me tell you a little bit about that and how we go about fixing these cracked and missing pieces. Many of the missing pieces, if we are able to save them and clean them up and reattach them, from a preservation perspective, thats what were going to do. There are some pieces of course that we cannot do that and we are going to have to recast them. We have awarded contracts to architectural fabricators that specialize in recasting castiron ornamentation and we are looking forward to working with them. We have hired a castiron repair company, all of this under an umbrella contract that they do all of this work for us. Here is how they repair cracked. You will see on the righthand side of that image a crack that has just been repaired. You see we are using a lock and stitch method. This is a mechanical means to fix castiron. This castiron is about 3 8 of an inch thick. A lock and stitch technique takes the length of that crack and essentially drills pins into the crack and then pins on top of pins and then install locks that keep it together. If my pointer works, i will show you that. So there is a stitch and a series of locks. That would go across that stitch and hold it together. This is what it looks like when its finished. This is how we do it. You can see a mechanic installing a series of pins. Literally hundreds of pins are drilled in along the stitch line. That is an example of a crack repair. The heads break off of the pins at the right torque and they are ground down and you drill out a cavity in the cast iron to install the lock perpendicular to those pins. Grind all of that down and reprime it and repaint it. This job has a couple of challenges before it. One challenge of course is working in an occupied building is always incredibly difficult. Looking out for the safety of members and staff and these visitors that come to the Capitol Building is so important, and i will show you a couple of slides about how we are protecting them. Secondly, the dome is covered with at least a dozen, maybe 13 or 14 layers of lead based paint. You will see that we have to enclose all of that, we capture all of that lead based paint as we blast it off with sort of a sandblasting technique. We dont use sand, but it is a blasting technique that takes the pain off under a negative air pressure containment would which sucks all of that debris down to the ground and we are able to sift out the lead based paint from the blasting media and reuse that and dispose of the lead based paint as a hazardous material. I will show you a little bit about that. But this is work that hasnt been done for 50 years, not since 1959 and 1960 when the east front of the capital was extended, has this work been done. This is a photograph from that work back in 1959 and 1960. This is one of my favorite photographs because it shows not only the restoration of the dome happening, and you can see the east front has been demolished, and who knows where all those columns from the original east front went . There you go, we do have some smart folks in the room tonight. But the reason is my favorite its my favorite photograph, or one of my favorites, is this east front plaza that olmstead was so passionate about. If he could see that photograph today, he would turn over in his grave to see that it is a sea of asphalt and cars parked there. Of course today with the construction of the new Capitol Visitors Center that has been returned to a pedestrian scale plaza, and i know i and many other preservationists in the room, in the city, and throughout the country are so delighted we are able to get rid of the sea of cars in front of the Capitol Building. So this is what it will look like. You will see this work happening in june as the scaffold goes up and it will take all summer to get that scaffolding going up, but as the first layer is done, right behind that first layer are the teams that come in and begin to take that paint off. The other challenge with castiron of this age is that it flash rusts in eight hours. As we take that paint off we have to recode it and prime it within eight hours or we have to do it again. So very careful, logistical planning on this project is so important. This is what it will look like with scaffolding. The white enclosures are the enclosures where the blasting is happening where we are taking off this leadbased paint and capturing it so it doesnt contaminate the rest of the building or the wonderful grounds. This is what the project will look like at night. Of course, much if not all of this work actually happens at night, not during the day, as much of this is noisy work and it is a working Office Building all day. So the first thing that needs to happen in order for this outside work to take place is that we need to protect the people that are inside. Unfortunately we have to close the rotunda to tourists for two weeks, two weeks ago, while we install the safety netting system that is five layers of safety netting to catch anything that might potentially fall as we work on the outside. Let me show you how that work progressed in 20 seconds. This is two weeks in 20 seconds. This big steel ring thats going to hold this wonderful curtain. Here it is being winched up to the top. There you have it, two weeks of work in 20 seconds. Now that that protective measure is in, and thats certainly the precursor to the work on the outside, the scaffolding work will commence apace. One or two more preservation efforts happening across capitol hill that i thought you might like to be aware of, one is the wonderful summer house designed by olmstead himself on the west lawn of the capitol. What a wonderful place of rest respite this is. We have recently stabilized it and we are seeking money from the congress to go in and do a comprehensive preservation and conservation of this real gem on capitol hill. I think i have a slide of that stabilization work. Look at the detail of the brick work that olmstead put into this. That is the charm of this wonderful space, the incredible, ornate brick work that olmstead did. Lastly, two or three other projects that maybe arent on our Preservation Mission but are important projects coming up on capitol hill. You are looking here at the refrigeration plant and we are doing extensive work and rehabilitation on the refrigeration side of the power plant. Thats where we make the cold water that we send out through a series of underground tunnels to cool all of our buildings up on capitol hill. Similarly, we are renovating and putting in a cogeneration system on the heating side of the power plant where we make steam and heat and sin that highpressure steam out to all of the buildings across capitol hill and many others. Thats how we heat our buildings as well. So there is a significant investment happening now at the capitol power plant which of course is misnamed, as we dont make power there. We purchase our electricity from pepco like probably all of you. Lastly, one of the most significant projects and one of the most important projects that is happening on capitol hill today is a renovation and restoration of the cannon house Office Building, a beautiful building first occupied in 908. If you look carefully, right there the fifth floor, you can ee the addition from 1912. First occupied in 1908, and they were out of space by 1912. The fifth floor addition there, this building has never had a comprehensive renovation, and we are embarking on that. The first phase is coming up before you know it, within the year we will embark on the first phase of that. Then we will break this building into four quadrants. You see it has four sides. Were going to empty a winning or side at a time and move all of those members of congress and their staff and committees out, completely restore that wing over the course of about two years, move them back and move another wing out and another two years for that to happen. That is a 10 year project and then a year of cleanup at the end. You will see that work happening over the course of the next 10 years on capitol hill. Certainly with a tower crane in the center of that building and much of that, at least a side of that building scaffold did at a time. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what is coming up on capitol hill. I wanted to leave you, as we approach the fourth of july, leave you with my favorite photograph of the capitol, and then lastly, share with you how you can reach us. Thank you. [applause] hopefully i have sparked a question or two, and if i have, i think this is being recorded. If we can ask anyone who has a question to move to the microphone in your ill, which you will see to my left and to my right. Anyone upstairs can come down are just yell out your question and i will do my best to repeat it. At the cannon building, are the cage is still there and in use . The fifth floor in the cannon building, every member of congress has a Storage Space and the Storage Spaces in the attic and they look like little jail cells because they have shipping wire cage to them. That is where they store their old products and files and things like that. Yes, they are still there. Its an indispensable part of the space for a member of congress, and that kind of space will still be there as part of the renovation. Indiscernible] i would say that is so in dignity working for the house of representatives. Their space needs are acute. Staff space at the house of representatives is about 30 square feet per person. Matt that out on your floor, its about this big. There are staff that work in the long Worth Building in nt elevator shafts and broom closets and everywhere else. The space needs of the house are so acute. Youre good at logistics, so what are you going to do with one quarter of the house of representatives for two years . Thats a good question, we havent figured that out yet. Im just kidding. Thats a very good question. The root of this is that a member of Congress Must be close to the Capitol Building, because they have a very short time when the bell rings for them to get to the floor to vote. They are backandforth from their office to the floor to vote constantly on a daily basis. And boats have a very strict time limit. So we cant move a member of congress far away. We have leased a space from gsa. The first thing we have to do is move committee, staff, and support staff out of the long Worth Building and rayburn building to that space. They can move their because they dont have to get back to the capitol to vote. In we need to renovate the space is in long worth and rayburn to enable them to move the members from the wing into long worth and rayburn. Arent you glad you asked that question . Thank you very much for a very interesting lecture. My question has to do with that ring and the dome of the capitol. In terms of degradation of the building. Let me answer that little differently because i dont believe that acid rain really affects in any significant way the castiron dome. If we do a good job of coding that with appropriate paint and epoxy products, i think that will not be an issue for us. But what is more of an issue for us is the sand stone and marble that are the exterior for thought of so many of our buildings. We have very significant deterioration on our stone facades both on the capital, the russell Senate Office building, the Botanic Garden, and the congress has recently appropriated money to enable us to begin to address some of the significant disrepair, and much of that is caused from acid rain and the contaminants both in the air and in the rain. Sir . About 60 years ago i went to school right down the street from the capitol. I would go up regularly to the capital and have free access to gideon and roam the halls of the capitol and see all the artwork and go downstairs to where the subway ran that you were just speaking about, and you could not ride the subway back and forth between the buildings. I presume with modern issues that there is no way that an individual can wander the halls except through a tour. Is there a way to actually see it selfguided, or do we need your guidance . The short answer to that question is no. The longer answer, of course, is you can work for the architect of the capitol and then you can do your self kind of tour. You can be an employee of the congress. Yes, unfortunately the world has changed since then and 9 11 happened and our Security Posture is much different than it was in those years. There are number ways to get a tour of the Capitol Building. Many members of congress provide those tours themselves through their offices. If you call up or email your member of congress, many of them do selfguided not selfguided, but they will put a staff person with you and to her you through many areas of the Capitol Building. That is a perfectly acceptable way to tour the Capitol Building. Nother way to do that is coming through the Capitol Visitor Center and being on a guided tour with one of our professional guides. You the way is perfectly fine. But those are really the only two ways you can do it today. Thank you. During the extensive restoration of the dome, what do you plan to do with the statue of freedom . A statue of freedom is really in great shape today. Many of you may know that the ninth architect of the capitol was able to take that statue of freedom often bring it down to the east front of the capitol and completely restore that. Since then, we have put in place a firstclass maintenance process where each year we go up and have a professional grant conservator inspect the statue and wash it, wash away the contaminants, and rewax it every year and sharpen the lightning points on her headdress. So that is done every year. Every couple of years, we will actually remove the protective coating that we put on with the series of wax layers on top of that to protect it from deteriorating. She is in great shape. She is not part of this restoration and she doesnt need to be. She is really in great shape. Thank you. If i could talk about that, its interesting, that statue. What you saw on the russell building was a plaster model of that statue which was in the basement rotunda of the russell building. We had moved it from the russell building and its now the centerpiece of emancipation hall and the Capitol Visitor Center. There is a great reading rail around that that tells the story of philip reed. Philip reed as a slave worked at card mill foundry here in washington to cast that bronze statue. When she was hoisted atop the Capitol Building about 150 years ago, philip reed was a free man. He told the story of his own emancipation next to this wonderful plaster model. Is it part of the complex that you oversee and will it be involved in this shuffling around . The question was is the ford house Office Building, and with that official name you know that Ford Building is part of the house of representatives, so it is part of our inventory. Much of the architect staff there, many of the chief Administrative Officer staff there, and there are many committees from the house of representatives that are there. As part of the restoration of the cannon building, and much of the swing space that is needed will come from the Ford Building as well. It is an integral part of that group. I just want to follow up with a question about accessibility. I dont believe they are accessible by going to the Visitor Center, so the only way we could visit them would be through a member of congress . That is actually not true. Go to either of the information desk at the Visitor Center and tell them youre interested in a corridor tour. We do offer those tours several times a day. You can probably look it up on our website as well. We are also offering tours of the Capitol Grounds with our interpretive guides as well. So there are some expanded opportunities. How do you receive your funds, do you defend your budget before a particular committee . Are typical budget is about 600 Million Dollars per year. We have a staff of maybe 2400 employees today, and we submit a budget to the congress each year and we have to defend that budget, present and defend that budget with the Senate Legislative Branch Subcommittee and the house legislative committees of appropriation so i testified before both committees each year about the budget and we work incredibly closely with the appropriations committee. They are so integral to our business and they have such a passion for capitol hill as ell. Wonderful, thank you so much, everybody. Thank you for coming out. [applause] im sorry, i didnt see you there. Specifically my favorite building, the Jefferson Building. I mentioned earlier that it was widely acclaimed as the most beautiful building in america. I remember a quote from a ewspaper columnist that said and ill try to get this right. Im sure i wont. He said something to the effect of, not before i stand or not until i stand before the grace of god do i ever expect to see this building transcended. Those are big words. This guy was impressed with this building, you know . It is still that beautiful, and like the Botanic Garden, is a hidden gem on capitol hill. Interestingly enough, the Jefferson Building was completely modernized. I think it was between the mid1980s to early 1990s, as well as the John Adams Building right behind it. They were completely modernized during that time, so they are not on our immediate radar screen to attempt a comprehensive modernization. They are in pretty good shape. Thank you. Again, thank you, everybody. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] our you are watching American History tv, 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Llow us on twitter cspanhistory for information on our schedule and prams and keep up with the latest news. All weekend long, American History tv is joining our Charter Cable partners to showcase the history of casper, wyoming. To learn more about the cities on our 2014 tour, visit cspan. Org localcontent. We continue now with our look at the history of casper. This is American History tv on cspan3. We are here at the National Historic trail interpret ircenter. The trail center addresses the oregon trail, the mormon trail, california trail, and the pony express trail. It didnt matter why you were going west. It didnt matter which trail you were on. If you were going west, you had to come through casper, wyoming, because south pass is the only pass in the Rocky Mountains that allows a wagon to be able to transfer. Consequently, all the trails come through casper, wyoming. These early explorers, basically, you see the outline of the