Luxe Congressional Visitor Center Almost Ready

Nov. 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.

Construction on the Congressional Visitors Center was begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to improve security in the Capitol, moving the public entrance 100 yards away from the building itself and putting it underground. The"CVC was supposed to be completed in 2006, when it was already extremely over budget.

Two years later, with the economic crisis worsening, the visitors center is finally nearing completion. 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.

"I don't think it's extravagant," said Steven Ayers, acting architect of the Capitol, during a preview tour for the media today. "And as you walk through here I don't think anyone would describe it that way. 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. We're not building a speculative office building. 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."

Extravagance 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.

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.