history, world war ii, and sports history. and let us noe what you think about the programs you're watching, call us at e-mail us at r comments@c-span.org. conversation, n like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. tv, ext on american history the architect of the capital, talks about the role of builder and steward of many of washington, d.c.'s most iconic buildings, including the supreme court, the library in congress, and the buildings near the capitol. e discussed the preservation projects including the dome work to repair 1300 deficiencies in iron structure. this event was hosted by the smithsonian associates. runs an hour and 15 minutes.

what we sometimes overlook is that it's truly an extraordinary neighborhood. and that those buildings carry an importance and a symbolism and eople across america around the globe. tonight you'll hear from the man who was entrusted with the care those structures. the architect of the capitol's office is responsible to the nited states congress and the supreme court for the maintenance, operation, and preservation of more than 17 million square feet than 553 gs and more acres of land throughout capitol hill, including the u.s. and house nate, office buildings, the library of congress, and many others. n 2010, steven t. aiers was named the 11th architect of the capitol after being nominated by confirmed byma and

the senate for a 10-year term. at r studying architecture the university of maryland, he joined the air force while his taneously earning architectural license in california. following five years of active force, he wentair into private practice. he then joined the voice of led design and construction efforts in greece and in germany. years abroad, he and his family moved to washington, by and mr. ayers was hired the architect of the capitol as assistant senate superintendent. subsequently served for 13 years in a variety of roles the he was tapped to be acting architect of the capitol 2007.bruary of the role of architect of the capitol is one that requires a leader who is mindful of both grand vision of american democracy, that these important buildings represent. and bolts s responsibilities of their maintenance and preservation. such as the ases,

current restoration of the capitol dome, those nuts and olts are literal rather than metaphorical ones. this evening we'll learn how met.challenge is being ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the architect of the capitol, steven t.ayers. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, elizabeth. what a great introduction. it was absolutely perfect. jobuldn't have described my better than you did. terrific, so let me turn things on here and see if we can get started. thought this evening i would speak a bit about who the rchitect of the capitol is and what we do. i bet there aren't many of you we are an organization that kind of works behind the cenes to enable the congress and the supreme court do what it does every day. so i'll speak a little bit about that.

and then focus in on what we do good stewards of these beautiful treasures that have been entrusted to our care. capitol building and the united states botanic garden and supreme court building by kass gilbert and many others on capitol hill. maybe to also teach you something you didn't know about capitol hill and what we do. all right? fair enough? all right. capitol hill. area of ke to call my responsibility. this little city within the of be washington, d.c. what a unique city this is. this photograph coming up by pierre lafonte. that, let me do just point out that, let's see, right, you see the

senate office buildings and then the supreme court, the library on your left, the buildings for the house of epresentatives, of course, the main buildings, the functioning congress. for the but we have are a number of properties in maryland and virginia as well as the district columbia that i'll show you about.two things what make this is city great? skyline, beautiful the beautiful layout of this lafonte what pierre wrote to george washington when he picked the -- he placed it jenkins hill and said it's a monument.waiting he took a street and radiated it to the capitol building. way to make it.

what foresight he had to place the capitol building there atop jenkins hill and to create and lay out the city the way he did. me show you what it looks like today in our area of esponsibility on capitol hill, of course, starts with union quare there and we're approaching the west front of the capitol. the we traverse turnover north side. the congressional party extends down to union station there. built about 20 years ago through a ublic-private partnership for the supreme court designed by edward lair booe barnes, that a thurgood marshall judicial building. senate for if senate, the office. and then the roman temple design kass gilbert of the united states supreme xourt. and then of course the thomas building and the john

adams and the madison building the e library of commerce, jefferson building widely acclaimed in 1987 has the most america building in and many people still think it is today. power there a capitol plant where we make the steam and chilled water to heat and all of the 17 million square feet of space across capitol hill. and then bartholy park recently the united states botanic garden that has been part f our inventory and of our hidden treasures on capitol hill for many, many years. of course, back to the capitol. 10 predecessors. many ask how can you be the 11th rchitect of the capitol when we've been here for 224 years or so. it's interesting. someone asked me earlier that architects of the

capitol were appointed by the president for lifetime terms. and many of them served 20, 30, or more years in office. then after the retirement on the ninth architect of the capitol, the congress put term limits on appointments.' so my immediate spread says tore right there bottom from new york city served as the 10-yearrchitect from the term appointment. he chose not to reapply, which opened up that job for me as the of the capitol. the top left, we honor the title of the e first architect of the capitol. architect won the first competition for the design of the capitol building and what wonderful story that is.

h as elizabeth mentioned, the by the t was appointed resident, i was appointed by barack obama and sworn in in the old senate chamber, a beautiful designed by the second architect dr. benjamin henry latrobe. you can see the beautiful ionic olumns there, the entablature above it and the sweeping arch above and the beautiful imagine the natural light that used to come into that space during the early years of the 1800s. elizabeth ey, mentioned much of that. i was -- i went to architecture university of maryland. do i have any terps here in the audience tonight? all right? 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 today, i had no idea

what i wanted to do. whether follow in my father's who was a marine, the military life was important to me. a sense of service was important to me. i considered law school and took that.at, decided not do but i thought, what a wonderful career that would have been to an attorney.ct and come to find out the ninth rchitect of the capitol was an architect and attorney as well. well, i decided to go into the military. wanted to travel and see the world. that's what i wanted to do when i was of that age and graduating architecture school. and i thought, what better way to see the world than to join the military? that's what the military does, travel all around the world. that's what i did. i was shipped to texas, went to school, training stationed in california, had a great job.

as an architect but also under an architect. really important for young architects. four years before you can apply to take the licensing exam. there's a significant internship program that you need to go eligible fore you're to take the licensing program. so i really got lucky that there architect sed stationed at edward's where i was. to work under his leadership for a few years. interestingly enough, after a few years in the military, for who may be in the military, you fill out the dream sheet of the wonderful places transferredt to get next. it's called a dream sheet. aviano se, i filled out lione, e, italy, iraq greece, and spain, i got orders almadorf, alaska.

that's not quite what i had envisioned. o i did retire from the military that the point. alaska is a wonderful place, i've been there. it's not for me. not the path that i want my career to be on. i resigned and went into private practice. for a few years, i joined the voice of america. after that, i moved to greece and lived on the rhodes.f it's interesting how one door closes.nd the other 've been so blessed and so excited to be able to work in europe. dream.as my i was able to work in greece, and travel ania, around the european theater. really worked out well.

some nearly 18 years ago, after years overseas, i responded to a job ad with the architect the capitol. the n interview on telephone and was hired to be one of the managers fof senate buildings, 18 years later, really blessed and honored to be the 11th architect capitol. let me tell you what the architect does. eneral services organization provides facilities and infrastructure and support for the executive branch of the really the architect of the capitol that does that for the legislative branch of the government. that's what we do. i would like to use these four to describe that.

irst on the left, the capitol mentioned izabeth those around the capitol, the square. the historic rounds by frederick homestead in 1874 and constructed through the 1890s. the helm stead being preimminent landscape designer at the time. nd what beautiful grounds they are. and what a beautiful time of year. in e's no better place springtime d.c. in than on capitol hill. what an honor it is to carry on thoughts, his original drawings. and we continue to plant today following today olmstead's original work.

wantsly when the congress to commission a piece of artwork, they turn to the to enable that on their behalf. competition old a among sculptors to produce something like this beautiful parks and we osa maintain aesthetic judgment to what comes in to the collection doesn't and advise the congress on those kinds of matters. its's the national statuary hall collection where state tues from every come into the collection and now the cent years, there is ability to change those statues had an ut so we've statuary work or whether the congress wants to or a sion a rosa parks sojourner truth. or when there's a vice president carving aponsible for

white marble bust of every vice president that serves in office. working with e vice president gore and vice resident cheney on the white marble busts for them. and we're looking forward to them coming in to the are ction, many of them displayed in the senate chamber nd others are displayed in the corridors and these wonderful in eaches that are in the corridors senate chamber. nd, of course, the beautiful frescos, the beautiful frescos the paintings in the building. we're responsible for that kind of the on behalf congress. thirdly, as this photograph and would tell you, we're responsible for all of the esign and construction of new buildings and renovation and modernization of existing uildings on behalf of the

congress and the supreme court. and lastly, the last photograph the right, we're responsible for visitor services and what an part of our mission with 2 1/2 million coming to the capitol building every year, so many for the first time, so many for the time, to make that experience welcoming and and inspirational is something we think we're really, really good at and we pay a of attention to those visitors. not to mention over 1 million visitors that come to the united states botanic garden every year. spend a great deal of time creating positive enforcement for our visitors. it's what we do. we have several hundred

employees dedicated to that part of our business. certain parts have a regular battle rhythm. every four years? a presidential election. so when there's a presidential election, we work behind the the congress to put on a peaceful transition of power that's so wonderful to we live t country that in. and we completely transform the capitol duringhe this period. septembere it down in and work and build that inaugural platform from december. and from december, of course, to inauguration day in january outfitting it to do a dry run and installing security and many tive measures among other things. you can see that the west front is it completely transformed every four years. and that inaugural platform

changed it a little bit every the years, depending upon desires of the congressional or the l committee president that have some say in in these matters. so who can tell me how the flags are arranged on the west front particular and many of the other presidential inaugurations? this is your second test for the evening. flags are the flags of the original 13 colonies. so the test is what are the two in the middle? the president and the vice

president state. that's pretty close. heard, he closest i've actually. i can usually stump people with this question. the flags are -- the flags of president's home state when that state came in to the union. >> it's what i meant. >> i knew it was. i believe you. else does.nk anybody but i believe you. good guess. we're excited to work with put ongress and help them on an inaugural ceremony every four years. that's a regular process for us. it virtually never stops. n immense amount of planning goes into a presidential once we finish one in january, we're to work lessons hot wash and learned and anything that we can possibly do to make that make our part of

that even better four years from now. nd we capture all of that and we bring it back out just a year to start that in inauguration planning again. so here's what it looks like where the president stands. isn't that amazing? obama's first nt inauguration. you can see president obama and standing there on the inaugural platform and this media tower in front where the cameras are pulled from one or two cameras that are out there. 30,000 seats that we place on the west front of the capitol. just look out at the mall.e down the that - what a special day is. here it is a little closer. ou can see many of the folks all the way town the mall. past the washington monument.

this is a big day for us. this is bigger than the super bowl. okay. test number two for you. ou'll see here on the west front -- you can see the flags a little better now. you can see on the west front on left-hand side of this photograph, we have the print edia, your newspapers and magazines magazines. digital you, the media. and then closer to you you have the media towers. separate, why are they separate? any photographers in the room? yes. it all has to do with where the day.is on that january and as the sun comes over the capitol, you get much better fra photographs from the south side than you do the north side. is all on tal media

the south tower and the print media is all on the north tower. you'rere two things that going to use at your next cocktail party and you're going star.a i can see it already. i like to tell people sometimes, jokingly, of course, that i'm knows that it at akes 505 port-a-potties to put on a presidential inauguration on capitol grounds anyway. things are some of the that go into making a presidential inauguration. seats on the west front of the capitol. okay. happens every four years. what happens every two years? a new congress. that's exactly right. so we're leading up to that this november, right? so when a new congress happens, it's the architect that works with the congress to enable the appropriate committees to make decisions on where people

go. and then the house we work with speaker's office to manage that process on their behalf, and it's done in the house by lottery. 90 two years ago, there were members that were out and 90 new members in the house. right? and so 90 new members ultimately 220 or so office moves in the house. that we do in 30 days. so when 90 members are out, that vacant offices that the rest of the members can bid on and move their offices. seniority order and we manage that process on their behalf. and then we go about moving office to another. and when you go about moving know what u never you're going to find in their bear and whether it's a

or a totem pole. and these things are really important to members that they the wonderful treasures from their state. and bring their constituents in little bit and they're proud of it as they should be. you're never know what going to find whether it's deer head or elk head. if you look carefully behind ladder, that's the moose antler, i believe. moose head here's a in this particular member's office. and not all are from south dakota. the re from all parts of wonderful country and we go about moving them office-to-office and we do that 30 days in the house. 220 moves just two years ago. it's a little slower in the senate. know, the house gets about 20 minutes to make their office office they hich move to. and we work so closely with them providing tools enabling

them to make those move decisions electronically today. if any of you worked on capitol years before, heard the stories, there would be interns currying up and down the halls looking at different offices so hey could go back and tell their member of congress, excuse me, what the suites look like. they can do much of that today of it today, electronical electronically, on computers enables them -- really eliminates much of the scurry that used to happen across capitol hill. in the senate, they get make lly a full day to their decision. we don't start those moves until run them bruary and through february, march, and april. so it's a little slower process. typically not as many moves in the senate. we may move 30 or 40 senators in move year. so that's a second regular kind happens for us in

addition to the day-to-day work do to support the congress. earlier this wonderful botanic garden that's such a treasure on capitol hill. so proud to be able to continue to educate the public value of botany and horticulture in our society. no less important today than it was when we opened the established n and that very same mission so many years ago. celebrity at the botanic garden this year. i hope some of you were able to to see the titan aurum. yes, it is the stinky plant. this is interesting. it's indigenous to sumatra, i believe, and it only blooms for a day. thousands and

thousands and thousands of plant xom to visit that while it was getting read the i to bloom and you can see the as it blooms for that one day. and interesting that it does as it ike rotting flesh it's to attract the beetle in sumatra. beetle can come, smell it, lands and roosts on it thinking its's rotten flesh. that's how, of course, it regenerates itself. what it's all about. these curious minds, these smiling faces, these eighth that come to visit their capitol on their eighth grade trip. their eighth grade civics class coming from across the country. them aboutan inspire their government and about public service, or about the of the capitol, we've

done our job. guides are so good at interpreting the content in capitol building to age-appropriate staff. we relish the opportunity to be with young men and teach ike this them a little bit about the wristry of our country, the the congress. congress does. so, you might wonder, what does 1/2 million people a year look like? and what does it mean? this is one day at the capitol center where we have day at ,000 visitors a the capitol.

we build buildings that will last 100 years and then be refurbished and last another 100 years. those are based it standards. it's a very different job than an architect somewhere else. and yes, ladies, it keeps going on and on. now. about 10,000 people this means for us -- look at the floors, the materials, the size of space and materials that you will see used in new

construction across the capitol campus. these are sustainable materials that are built to last for generations. video. a 2.5 minute i think you're about a minute and a half into it. just think about the numbers of people that come to this capitol building every year. that is 220 some years old, that has -- that is egress deficient. we have to carefully monitor how many people are in the capitol building can anyone time. and we do that i carefully managing visitor flow here in the visitor center, by 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 group in the two

theaters that correlates to the size of your 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 many people are in the building at any one time. it's a challenging place to work. these are unique challenges. working the buildings that are 200 years old that don't meet modern-day codes and are significantly deficient in emergency egress capabilities. coupled with the fact that you 220,000 people a day walking in the front door, just visitors, 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 the literal sense, but we are also stewards of other things. a series of new buildings that we designed and constructed for one or very important customers, the librarian of congress. in these buildings, these are high-tech warehouses where many of the book and other materials that are part of a library of congress is actually not stored at the library of congress. here it stored in fort meade, maryland. we have a 100 acre parcel of wheren that military base we've designed and constructed some high-tech warehouses to store the materials for the library of congress. you can see here how books are stored, and they are stored at

50 degrees fahrenheit and 30% relative humidity. , paper in those environmental conditions you increase the lifespan of a piece of paper by sixfold. important to the library. they have an incredible stewardship 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 nation. we think that's part of our stewardship responsibilities. there are also a number of other buildings at fort meade where restore different products, not , just above freezing. 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 and acclimatize them and get the motor truck and down and deliver to you and the libraries able to 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 site? this is in culpeper, virginia, in the late 1980's and early 1990's. it's 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 doesn't work that way anymore. it's not really a cash operation anymore. so we worked with the library and the packard humanities institute and ultimately purchased this building.

i love to tell people that i work hard to be the first one in their to see if they left anything behind. checkidn't, but i did behind every door and every note and cranny. this was a here, pretty secure site, as you can imagine, storing that much cash in an underground facility. i was there and the windows had these large steel plates and you would hit this crash button and the steel plates would slam windowsceiling of these , and these little machine gun turns around this mountain protecting it from attack and from 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 culpepper, 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. it's 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 don't want to store it all together. so it's 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 corridor's of the senate side of the capitol building. they are painted by costantini bermidi. we mentioned earlier that these wonderful eighth-graders -- 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. that's been the challenge for us, especially these highly decorated corridors where people touch the walls, and eighth-graders touch the walls. 20,000 people a day touch the walls. and it's ok for a little while,

but what happens, that stuff just builds up and builds up and it's really detrimental to the beautiful frescoes and paintings that are in the core doors. -- corridors. so we think we are good preservationists, but were not always that good. we don't 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 didn't know that at the time, and for the past several years, we've 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 don't 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 we've 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 doesn't 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 façades 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 façade. so many people walked by that building and had no idea that was a photographic image of the supreme court on there. that's 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 hadn't 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 labor-intensive 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.

isn't that amazing what technology can do today? so that work is done there on the west front façade. 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 cast-iron 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 it's 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 1990's, we found about 300 deficiencies, cast-iron 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 don't lose any more of the original fabric of this great cast-iron dome. so we are now undertaking a comprehensive restoration of this outer shell of the cast-iron dome as well as the interstitial space, the space between the two cast-iron domes. there's 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 presidential inauguration on january 2017. of course we've 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, that's 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 cast-iron ornamentation and we are looking forward to working with them. we have hired a cast-iron 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 right-hand 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 cast-iron. this cast-iron 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 it's 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 re-prime 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 don't 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 hasn't 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 -- it's 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 cast-iron 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 lead-based paint and capturing it so it doesn't 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 that's 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 that's 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 aren't 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. that's 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 send that high-pressure steam out to all of the buildings across capitol hill and many others. that's 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 don't 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 1908. -- beaux arts building first occupied in 1908. if you look carefully, right there the fifth floor, you can see 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 the building scaffolded 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 aisle, 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 cages 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 -- chicken wire cage to them. that is where they store their old products and files and things like that. yes, they are still there. it's 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. >> that is also work that you will do with a word processor and a single light bulb >> 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. map that out on your floor, it's about this big. there are staff that work in the long worth building in empty elevator shafts and broom

closets and everywhere else. the space needs of the house are so acute. >> you're good at logistics, so what are you going to do with one quarter of the house of representatives for two years? >> that's a good question, we haven't figured that out yet. i'm just kidding. that's 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 back-and-forth from their office to the floor to vote constantly on a daily basis. and votes have a very strict time limit. so we can't move a member of congress far away. we have leased a space from gsa. the first thing we have to do is to move committee, staff, and

support staff out of the long worth building and rayburn building to that space. they can move their because they -- there because they don't have to get back to the capitol to vote. in we need to renovate the space is in longworth and rayburn to enable them to move the members from the wing into long worth and rayburn. aren't you glad you asked that question? >> thank you very much for a very interesting lecture.

my question has to do with that -- acid rain and the dome of the capitol. in terms of degradation of the building. >> let me answer that a little differently because i don't believe that acid rain really affects in any significant way the cast-iron dome. if we do a good job of coding -- coating 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 sandstone and marble that are the exterior for -- facade of so many of our buildings. we have very significant deterioration on our stone façades 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 capitol and have free access to get in 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 self-guided, 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-guided 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. today, there are a 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 e-mail your member of congress, many of them do self-guided -- not self-guided, but they will put a staff person with you and to her -- tour you through many areas of the capitol building. that is a perfectly acceptable way to tour the capitol building. another way to do that is coming through the capitol visitor center and being on a guided tour with one of our professional guides. through the capitol visitor center and being on a guided tour with one of our professional guides. either 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? >> the 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 off and bring it down to the east front of the capitol and completely restore that. since then, we have put in place a first-class maintenance process where each year we go up and have a professional grant -- bronze conservator inspect the statue and wash it, wash away the contaminants, and re-wax 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 doesn't need to be. she is really in great shape. thank you. >> you used to be able to see it real well when it was down in the russel building. >> if i could talk about that, it's interesting, that statue. what you saw on the russell building was a plaster model of the centerpiece of emancipation hall and the capitol visitor building was a plaster model of that statue which was in the basement rotunda of the russell building. we have moved it from the russell building and it's now center. there is a great reading rail around that that tells the story of philip reed. philip reed as a slave worked at there is a great reading rail

clark mills 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. we tell 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 clark mills foundry here in around? >> the question was is the ford house office building, and with around? >> the question was is the ford house office building, and with that official name you know that the 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 is 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 don't believe the corridors 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 one of the involved in this shuffling information desks at the visitor center and tell them you're interested in a corridor tour. we do offer those tours several times a day. 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? >> our typical budget is about $600 million 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 well. wonderful, thank you so much, everybody. thank you for coming out. [applause]

i'm sorry, i didn't 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 newspaper columnist that said -- and i'll try to get this right. 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 mid-1980's to early 1990's, 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] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> you're watching american history tv. .ll weekend, on c-span3

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