![]() If it's raining, the Library of Congress is also accessible via underground tunnel built as part of the CVC project. ![]() In the case of Emancipation Hall, members of Congress realized there already was a Great Hall across the street at the Library of Congress. 2.īuilding anything on Capitol Hill must be done by committee, and that can be difficult. Republicans ruled the Capitol for most of the construction, but Democrats voted for the same ever-ballooning budget and are in charge of the building when it opens Dec. It includes spaces for the House and Senate to meet in case of emergency or when their chambers in the Capitol building are being renovated.Īnd while those measures seem reasonable, the $250,000 that was spent to change the name of the Great Hall to Emancipation Hall after signs had already been etched, might make one scratch one's head. Six years in construction - double the time originally allocated - the Visitors Center ballooned from the $265 million initially authorized to a more than $621 million opulent underground bunker that increases the size of the Capitol building by 75 percent. Some of the big-ticket items include solid bronze doors and handrails, 5 acres of Pennsylvania limestone walls, the preservation of historic trees on the Capitol grounds, a new hearing room on the House side of the building (with no seating for the public to watch hearings), the preservation of lanterns and picture-window skylights that offer sweeping views of the Capitol dome from underground. ![]() We are building a building and have built a building that's here to last another 250 years as wonderful addition to the Capitol building."Įxtravagance is in the eye of the beholder, and the CVC, built underground on the west front of the Capitol, with its five acres of sandstone cut to match the Capitol building and encased grand skylights that dramatically showcase the Capitol dome from below, is certainly stunning. We're not building a speculative office building. Certainly, it's a building that's built for generations in our business and here this is monumental architecture and monumental public space in a place that's built for generations. "And as you walk through here I don't think anyone would describe it that way. "I don't think it's extravagant," said Steven Ayers, acting architect of the Capitol, during a preview tour for the media today. The first tourists - an estimated 4 million people visit the Capitol building each year - and as many as 20,000 each day will walk through the grand bronze doors to the Congressional Visitors Center when it opens in early December. ![]() Two years later, with the economic crisis worsening, the visitors center is finally nearing completion. The"CVC was supposed to be completed in 2006, when it was already extremely over budget. 11 terrorist attacks to improve security in the Capitol, moving the public entrance 100 yards away from the building itself and putting it underground. 10, 2008— - It seems that while Americans nationwide were building enormous houses they couldn't afford, their lawmakers caught the same bug and were nearly doubling the size of the Capitol building - with $621 million in taxpayer dollars.Ĭonstruction on the Congressional Visitors Center was begun after the Sept.
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