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Thursday, October 19, 2000

Lawmakers OK design for Capitol tourist center

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The grounds of the U.S. Capitol will soon undergo their biggest change in 150 years. But the 200-year-old structure itself will not be upstaged by a new three-story tourist center at its east front.
   The final design of the $265 million center - all of it underground - was approved Wednesday by the Capitol Preservation Commission, chaired by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., the president pro tem of the Senate.
   In a joint statement, Hastert and Thurmond said the new facility will be a "seamless addition to the Capitol complex."
   "There's not going to be anything sticking up to detract from the view of the Capitol," said Bruce Milhans, spokesman for the Architect of the Capitol Alan Hantman, who is responsible for the building, its grounds and adjacent office buildings.
   The center, scheduled to open sometime in 2005, will provide about 4,000 tourists at a time with historical displays, theaters, restrooms and food while they wait to enter the Capitol.
   Pre-construction activities began last January; actual construction should begin in the winter of 2001.
   Congress first considered building an underground visitors' center on the east side of the Capitol in the 1970s as a way to give the nearly 3 million to 5 million visitors to the building each year a respite from the elements while they wait to enter.
   The project was shelved through most of the 1980s primarily because of opposition from Republicans, who said it shouldn't be a priority at a time when the federal government was running record budget deficits.
  
  

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