Attorney and newly minted state legislator John Carmichael was arguing a case Wednesday morning in Topeka and afterward asked one of the other lawyers if she would like to visit the Statehouse.
She said she hadn’t been there since high school.
“I told her you’ve got to go over there and take a look,” Carmichael said while admiring the dome outside the Statehouse. “It’s just fantastic.”
The new copper roof and dome are in place as 12 years of Capitol renovations grind to a close, the interior touches all expected to be done in time for the 2014 session that starts Jan. 13.
But the shine will be fleeting. Kansans should expect the dome to become progressively brown each day until the familiar green hue returns.
“It will start out as a bright shiny copper and really because the scaffolding was all up, by the time we took the scaffolding down it had moved to the dull copper phase,” said Barry Greis, Statehouse architect.”It will stay in the dull copper until it is a rich brown color. It could stay that color for 40 years. We don’t know how long it will take for the green patinazation, which is the final phase.”
Greis said after the initial construction in the early 1900s, the dome turned green in just 15 years. But back then the city’s homes and businesses were burning far more coal for heat, he said, including at the Statehouse, where horses pulled loads of coal to the building to keep it habitable. Now, with less sulfur in the air, Greis said the dome’s copper coloration should last longer.
Replacing the copper roof and dome cost $24.5 million, part of an estimated $332 million in Capitol renovations that include an underground parking garage, a soon-to-be-completed visitor center and a raft of interior fixes. Greis said the project should come in “several million under” the overall price tag.
Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat recently picked to succeed retired House member Nile Dillmore, called it a worthy investment in a landmark that will “be around long after we’re all gone.”
“This building, it’s been here for 140 years, plus or minus,” Carmichael said. “We invested a lot in it, but it should last us another 140 years.”
Brian Brown, a Leavenworth resident walking past the Capitol on Wednesday with his wife after a trip to the Docking State Office Building, said he found the coppery shine pleasant, but wasn’t surprised that it won’t last.
“I would have put something else up there instead of copper,” Brown said. “That’s because I’m a painter. But, yeah, it’s nice.”
“It’s pretty,” said his wife, Ashley Brown.
The shiny penny look is already giving way to a less-burnished brown, but Carmichael said that is all the more reason for Kansans to come and admire the dome as it changes.
“We ought to consider this a unique opportunity,” Carmichael said. “Because it won’t stay copper forever.”
