a TEMPLE TO THE PEOPLE OF LOUISIANA
Completed in 1932, the State Capitol Building was commissioned by the bombastic Governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, as a replacement for the smaller neogothic Old State Capitol nearby. Designed by Seiferth, Weiss, and Dryfous, this magnificent building was designed to be a temple to honor the history, culture, and spirt of the people of Louisiana. In line with Long's famous campaign slogan "Every Man a King!", the Art Deco (or mor specifically PWA Moderne) styled, limestone-clad skyscraper embodies a grand and bright future for the men and women that call Louisiana home. The ambitious building, which is dense with stone carvings and cast metal details from top to bottom, is still the tallest State Capitol in the United States. And for better and worse, the entire thing was built in just 14 months!
Original Construction
Pre-Preservation
Preservation Construction
PROJECT SCOPE AND WORK
At The Architectural Studio we were commissioned to preserve the main tower of the Louisiana State Capitol Building. What stated broadly as an "exterior waterproofing" project was transformed into a comprehensive exterior preservation and steel stabilization project following a careful assessment of the tower's condition. Our team focused first and foremost on accessing, cleaning, and repairing the tower's underlying structural steel. It was known that some steel at the upper levels, at the "temple", was heavily rusted and in need of remediation. That being the case, we knew rooting out rust elsewhere in the building and remediating that damage was going to be the most critical work of the project. In addition to that we called to repair and stabilize the tower's underlying bricks as well as it's thousands of ashlar and ornamented limestone cladding blocks. In addition to that we will be cleaning all the decorative metal on the tower as well as repairing and returning 24 decorative aluminum grills to the building which have been missing for many years now. After stabilization is complete, the team will proceed with cleaning the 450 foot structure's facade, repointing every single stone, and ensuring that water no longer infiltrates the building. This process, when complete, will protect the steel from future damage, clean and restore the tower's stunning facade, and keep our capitol standing for generations to come.
Rust at cornner column. The steel cable is what lifted this column into place. The original builders, in their rush, jest left it in the wall!
Close up of the the massive stones that produce one of four egal "flying buttresses" several hundred feet in the air.
Severely rusted steel column buried in junk brick and mortar. The major cause of rust throughout this building is due to the moisture this "fill" conveys to the steel.
Stone being held off the building using a custom made scaffold and pully system.
Limestone damage due to rust expansion in the steel lintel. This issue was present on every single window.
Rusted column inside the building "temple". This is after we did a test cleaning with a mechanical techniquie.
Mason's work to remove stone in early probe.
Through wall flashing detail we designed on the fly after discovering the original flashing was both compromised and made of asbestos.
CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS EXCERPTS
The 158 pages that make up the final construction documents for this project (before RFIs!) were a labor of love. Every stone and course is drawn accurately and accounted for. Every carved critter and cast-aluminum corn grille is included. And all sections and details have been meticulously crafted from probes and historic drawings. Though it is often more work than is needed, I approach every set of drawings with the future in mind. We will not be the last people to work on the building and I want to be absolutely sure whoever comes after us will have the best info they possibly can when solving future problems. I hope my attention to detail will be a boon to posterity.
SHOP-AT-THE-TOP PROPOSAL
The 27th floor of the tower, the observation deck, is the highest publicly accessible floor of the building. It offers visitors a panoramic view of Baton Rouge and the Mississippi River. However, it's interior space has been dismal for years consisting of linoleum tile flooring, water-stained dropped-ceiling tile, and a haphazardly constructed souvenir shop. This is the most visited and most profitable state park site in all of Louisiana. Since the scope of our project happens to require this space to be heavily demolished to access rusting steel, we thought it would be an opportune time to pitch a revitalization of the floor. For this I created multiple proposal for how the floor can be reworked. Below is just one of those designs.
LESSONS FROM THE PROJECT
Working on this building was an incredible experience and extremely impactful to my growth as an architect and a preservationist. Between managing a vast multidisciplinary team, working tirelessly to diagnose both surface level and deep underlying building issues, and producing an entire new drawing set by myself, this project pushed me to my limits and beyond. Below are just a few takeaways and achievements from my 4 years of work on the building.
•I coordinated contractors, conservators, engineers, scaffolding engineers, masons, and other disciplines.
•From those various disciplines and our in-house preservation specialist, I learned a vast amount about historic masonry, steel, and metals.
•I collaborated with our principals to develop phasing, coordinate that phasing with state funding cycle reviews, and resolve contract disputes on various occasions.
•Reviewed and researched historic images and drawings, visually assessed building elements, and conducted careful probes to develop preservation solutions which informed the projects ultimate scope.
•Developed complete drawing sets from preliminary design through to bid documents.
•Responded nimbly to new unforeseen conditions as they were discovered, working with with consultants to produce new details on the fly. I also learned when its time to flex the architect's authority and halt progress until an acceptable solution can be found to unforeseen conditions
•I designed a historically considerate renovation of an important public space in the building.