Best State Capitols

[hauntedheadnc]

Montana's is lovely in its way, especially on the inside, but it just seems to me that dome would have looked better as a pyramid or as a stairstep ziggurat.

[Duffstuff129]

*Cough* Conecticut *Cough*


Thanks to timetoeatthedogs.com

[LMich]

British Columbia's is really something else.

BTW, I thought I post some of New York's, which I like:


Kurtman518


thebnut

Oooo...found some more great photos of Michigan's capitol rotunda:

dome


wizardkitten

glass floor


lectroidmark

[mainstreet]

Sort of like Florida, New York's gets hurt pretty badly by the ugly brutalist buildings around it (or in the case of Florida, right behind it).

And, wow... British Columbia's is absolutely amazing. So is Quebec's, I like the fountain in front. Maybe it's just me, but Ontario's looks sort of like a university library or something. It's probably the brick type, and the style, not sure what it would be called. Here are some more pics of BC's:


http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/AOB3514.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...f_close_up.jpg

[vid]

Ontario's is right in the centre of University of Toronto (the province rents the land for one dollar a year).

Aerial view: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.asp...9512&encType=1

[JManc]

michigan's dome interior is my favorite. love the coloring.

the canadian buildings look great too..esp. ON, QC and BC

agreed about NYS's capitol. the empire state plaza over powers it.

[vid]

I always though the plaza was the legislature, I though the original building was just a museum or something.

[urbanactivist]

Originally Posted by Duffstuff129

*Cough* Conecticut *Cough*


Thanks to timetoeatthedogs.com

Whoa I LOVE Connecticut!!! It bears a fair amount of similarity to New York, but the dome is a deal breaker. Very niiice. Now I'm torn between this one and Ohio as to which I like best.

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Another important point to consider is that when someone comes into a thread and says something like "I don't understand why my home state capitol isn't getting more love because obviously it's the best one", on an emotional level that makes me want to hate the building that person is talking about.

Especially when it's Texas, and there are already stereotypes floating around in the back of my head.

If you want Texas to get its due, don't play into negative stereotypes. When most of the people in the thread are giving several examples of good buildings and a bunch of Texans enter shouting TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS! That all plays into those stereotypes.

Don't want to belay this comment any more, but please note that are many forumers here from Texas, and only one of them made a comment even remotely similar to what you posted above. Which means that as a group, they did NOT adhere to those stereotypes. In regards to the one comment that could be perceived as "pro-Texas", I had a similar reaction to yours, but I also felt the need to immediately apologize for having a one-sided view. It would be great if you could be more open-minded instead of playing out the same stereotypes that Texas forumers expect to see and hear on this site.

[Buckeye Native 001]

I think the Canadians have won this round.

Not in any way comparing one as better than the other, but New York, Florida and Arizona all seem to have an original (historical) capitol building surrounded by 1960s/1970s garbage that serves as administrative offices. Can't think of any others off the top of my head with the same problem, but I'm sure they're out there.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by vid

I always though the plaza was the legislature, I though the original building was just a museum or something.

no the ESP houses all state agencies and bureaucracy but the capitol building still houses the assembly/ senate (and their offices) as well as the governor. texas' has its agencies scattered all around the capitol and the immediate area in nondescript buildings.

[LMich]

Isn't this true of most larger states? Besides the house and senate, Michigan's capitol is also mostly ceremonial.

(all my photos)











I still wouldn't group New York's capitol setting with some of the other mentioned. It was always a state capitol building in its own right (as opposed to a territorial capitol), still holds the legislative chambers, and is still a stand-alone structure.

[sopas ej]

Looking through this thread, it made me wanna look up the Capitol of my state, California. I've visited it a number of times, and I like it, particularly the inside. Of course I know that it was built in the era when buildings had to look like copies of other buildings, this one in particular being a copy of the Federal Capitol in DC.


From wikimedia

From nikonians.com


But I just now learned from the capitolmuseum.ca.gov website was that in the late 1960s/early 1970s, because of the growth of California government, there was a plan to demolish the Capitol which by then was considered too small and antiquated, and build this:


From capitolmuseum.ca.gov

Eeew! I guess that twin tower thing for an American state capitol was a trend back then? Thankfully it was decided to restore and seismically strengthen the Capitol; the whole project took about 7 years. The restoration was completed in 1982, restored to its 1906 appearance (apparently over the course of its history there were remodelings that destroyed its original interiors in the effort to "modernize" the building).

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by LMich

Isn't this true of most larger states? Besides the house and senate, Michigan's capitol is also mostly ceremonial.

that is true for illinois. in fact there is more state government office space in chicago than there is in springfield, which is why some refer to helmut jahn's unusual thompson center (formerly the state of illinois building) in chicago, by far the largest state office building in illinois, as a second state capitol despite the fact that it does not house any legislative chambers. still though, jahn did try to invoke the spirit of the traditional capitol building dome and rotunda with his modern interpretation of a gigantic circular central atrium. the building is absolutely huge, taking up a full city block in the thick of chicago's ultra-dense loop, so it's hard to get a picture that fully encapsulates the scale of this beast. of note, the building was featured in the climax scene of the movie "running scared", noteworthy for when billy crystal's character hurls the bags of cocaine that the antagonist is after from the top of the atrium where they splatter upon crashing to the floor 18 stories below.

the james r. thompson center (aka illinois' second capitol):

exterior:

source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...X7U6N0Py8mY4Ug


interor:

source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13430752

[ColDayMan]

Originally Posted by LMich

Isn't this true of most larger states? Besides the house and senate, Michigan's capitol is also mostly ceremonial.

It's true for Ohio as well. Even with the Senate extension, the majority of "work" is done in the city's first (Rhodes), fourth (William Green), and fifth tallest (Vern-Riffe).

[mainstreet]

I think it's also true for New York that a lot of the offices are in the city and not in Albany, though I guess official legislation still goes on in Albany.

[JManc]

no, most of the state offices are in albany but there are also quite a few in NYC. the governor has an office there. a lot of services are split up between upstate and downstate. for example, people born in NYC would go to the NYC government as opposed to the state government to get a copy of birth certificate.

[vid]

In Canada, government offices are all over the place. It's very decentralized. All Ontarians go to Thunder Bay to get their birth certificates because the office that handles them is located here. They mail things out though, and there are service centres in every city that can provide basic services or connect people to them.

In the 1970s the province actually built an office complex here that would have become a second legislature, called Mini Queens Park. They were going to use it twice a year or something. It's now just government offices.


©Government of Ontario

It's a hideous building out by the airport.

[urbanactivist]

^^^ LOL it's the "birther office"... better tell President Obama

[mainstreet]

Edit: Accidental post, ignore please...

[vid]

Originally Posted by urbanactivistTX

^^^ LOL it's the "birther office"... better tell President Obama

If you're referring to my post--that's not the place where birth certificates are handled. This is:



And I think, if we ever separated from Ontario, it would make a great legislative building.