AustinElijah E. Myers: Texas State CapitolOne man designs three state capitols in about 20 years. How did one office turn out so many domes?Elijah E. Myers, Architect, credited with Texas State Capitol in 1881 at about age 49. Build: 1882–88. Paid $12,000; the capitol cost $3,700,000, funded by selling public land. He also designed the Michigan and Colorado capitols.
Photo: Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Architects of Record · Springfield, United States
John C. Cochrane: Illinois State Capitol
The open question
Twenty years and $4.5 million. Why does a capitol take 20 years when a fair palace takes two?
On the record
John C. Cochrane, Architect (Cochrane and Garnsey, with Alfred Piquenard), credited with Illinois State Capitol in 1868 at about age 33. Build: 1868–88; $4.5 million.
- Architect
- John C. Cochrane
- Born
- 1835
- Role
- Architect (Cochrane and Garnsey, with Alfred Piquenard)
- Project
- Illinois State Capitol
- Credited
- 1868
- Age when credited
- 33
- Earlier work
- Chicago practice from 1864
- Competition
- Design selected in 1868
- Build time
- 1868–88; $4.5 million
Sources
More from Architects of Record
AustinElijah E. Myers: Texas State CapitolOne man designs three state capitols in about 20 years. How did one office turn out so many domes?Elijah E. Myers, Architect, credited with Texas State Capitol in 1881 at about age 49. Build: 1882–88. Paid $12,000; the capitol cost $3,700,000, funded by selling public land. He also designed the Michigan and Colorado capitols.
DenverElijah E. Myers: Colorado State CapitolAnother Myers dome. Why do these capitols look so alike from state to state?Elijah E. Myers, Architect, credited with Colorado State Capitol. Build: Built in the 1890s of Colorado white granite; opened November 1894. Gold leaf was added to the dome in 1908.
PhiladelphiaThomas U. Walter: Girard College (Founder's Hall)A marble temple for orphans by a man in his late twenties. Where did that confidence come from?Thomas U. Walter, Architect, credited with Girard College (Founder's Hall) in 1833 at about age 29. Build: 1833–47 under his direction; opened 1848. He worked on more than 400 projects.
Washington, D.C.Thomas U. Walter: U.S. Capitol domeThe dome looks like stone but is painted cast iron. What else is painted to look like something it isn't?Thomas U. Walter, Fourth Architect of the Capitol, credited with U.S. Capitol dome in 1855 at about age 51. Build: 1855–66; cost $1,047,291. The dome is cast iron painted to look like the stone below it.