Virginia State Capitol | Favorite Architecture

The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital city of the U.S. state of Virginia. (The first two were Jamestown and Williamsburg.) It houses the oldest elected legislative body in North America, the Virginia General Assembly, first established as the House of Burgesses in 1619,More info:wiki

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#10   Virginia State Capitol,More info:daa

 

#9    VIRGINIA STATE CAPITOL,More info:architecturerichmond

Virginia’s State Capitol building sits atop Shockoe (Capitol) Hill and faces out past the skyscrapers of downtown to the river. Architects Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Thomas Jefferson followed the principles of Italian baroque architect Andrea Palladio on selecting the building’s site; Jefferson was said to have one of the only copies of Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture in the United States. For the form of the building itself they looked back much further than the Italian Baroque. The Capitol was modeled on the Maison Carrée, a roman temple in Nimes, France.

Jefferson admired the temple greatly and had Clérisseau, a notable French architect and painter, draft elevations of the building. Aside from practical matters of adding windows, Jefferson made few changes to the exterior in his transformation of the building into the state capitol; engaged columns became pilasters, the corinthian order became ionic, and the portico shortened.

Jefferson and Clérisseau’s building may appear as a poorly conceived copy of the original temple but the foresight to copy the structure is what makes it historically significant. The Virginia State Capitol is the world first neoclassic temple. It is also arguably the first legislative building to recall a past architectural style to convey its form of government, a republic.

#8   File:MJK50147 Virginia State Capitol.jpg,More info:wikimedia

 

#7   ABOUT THE CAPITOL – HIGH SCHOOL,More info:capclass.virginiageneralassembly

In 1779, the Virginia legislature voted to move the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond. Until a permanent Capitol structure could be built, the General Assembly met in two wood-framed buildings at the corner of what is now 14th Street and Cary Street. These buildings were demolished before 1811, and a plaque now marks the site of these buildings. With the establishment of Richmond as the new capital, six squares of land were selected for the placement of permanent public buildings.

The Capitol was designed by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Jefferson modeled the Capitol after the Maison Carée, an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, France, and secured the services of Charles-Louis Clérisseau, a well-known French authority of Classical buildings, as the Capitol’s draftsman. The General Assembly held its first Session in the Capitol in 1788.

Jefferson’s building is the middle structure of the present day Capitol complex. The Rotunda displays the life-size Houdon statue of George Washington and seven busts of Virginia-born presidents and the Marquis de Lafayette, the Frenchman who fought for America during the American Revolution. The Capitol building has witnessed two wars, a cholera outbreak, and the collapse of its third floor, known as the “Capitol Disaster.” Despite all of this, the Capitol continues to represent a symbol of democracy.

In 2004, the General Assembly embarked on a comprehensive three-year plan to restore both the exterior and interior of the Capitol. Virginia’s historic Capitol has been fully restored to its early 20th-century appearance and the working space of the Capitol has been increased by about one-third by means of an underground extension.

#6    Richmond man arrested with loaded gun outside Virginia State Capitol,More info:wtvr

 

#5    Virginia State Capitol Building in Richmond, Virginia,More info:encirclephotos

#4    State-Capitol-4,More info:virginiahouse

 

#3    THE VIRGINIA STATE CAPITOL,More info:pdparchitects

Designed in 1785, the Virginia State Capitol* is one of the most historic structures in America, in continuous use since 1788. One of four buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson, it is considered the first major public project constructed after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the first to introduce the classical vocabulary to American architecture, the appropriate architectural expression of America’s fledgling democracy.

Following a national search, the Commonwealth of Virginia selected a multi-discipline team of nationally recognized experts in all areas of historic preservation, with George C. Skarmeas as Planning, Design and Preservation Principal, to undertake this iconic landmark’s restoration and expansion. This team included Dominique Hawkins of PDP, who acted as a specialty consultant dealing with several sensitive preservation issues.

#2    Richmond VA Virginia State Capitol Bank Street Entrance to the Historical Building and Visitors Center in the Commonwealth Capital City Downtown,More info:videoblocks

 

#1    West Virginia State Capitol Building Historic Buildings Pictures,More info:expedia

 

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