Transcripts For CSPAN3 Capitol Hill Preservation 20140810 :

And Supreme Court for the maintenance, operation, development and preservation of more than 17 million square feet of buildings. And more than 553 acres of land throughout capitol hill including the u. S. Capitol, senate and house Office Buildings, the library of congress, and many others. In 2010, stephen t. Ayers was named the 11th architect of the capitol. After being nominated by president obama and confirmed by the senate for a 10year term. After studying architecture at the university of maryland, mr. Ayers joined the air force while simultaneously earning his architectural license in california. Following five years of active duty with the air force, mr. Ayers went into private practice. He then joined the voice of america, where he led design and instruction efforts in greece and germany. After five years abroad he and his family moved to washington d. C. , and mr. Ayers was hired by the architect of the capitol as assistant senate superintendent. He subsequently served for 13 years in a variety of roles until he was tapped to be the acting architect of the capitol in february of 2007. The role of architect of the capitol is one that requires a leader who is mindful of both the grand vision of american democracy, that these important buildings represent, and the nuts and bolts responsibilities of their maintenance and preservation. In many cases, such as the current restoration of the capitol dome, those nuts and bolts are literally rather than metaphorical ones. This evening well learn how that challenge is being met. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the architect of the capitol, stephen t. Ayers. [applause] thank you so much, elizabeth what a great introduction, it was pollute perfect. I couldnt have described my job better than you did. Terrific. So let me turn things on here and see if we can get started. I thought this evening i would speak a bit about who the architect of the capitol is and what we do. I bet there arent many of you know that we are an organization that kind of works behind the scenes to enable the congress and the Supreme Court do what it does every day. So ill speak a little about that. And then focus in on what we do to be good stewards of these beautiful treasures that have been entrusted to our care. The Capitol Building and the United States Botanic Garden, and the beautiful Supreme Court building by cass gilbert ask many others on capitol hill. I hope to also teach you maybe something you didnt know about capitol hill and what we do. Fair enough . All right. So this is capitol hill, what i like to call my little area of responsibility. This little city within this larger city of washington d. C. What a unique city this is. I love this photograph coming up by Pierre Lenfant. But before we do that, let me point out that on your right youll see the Senate Office buildings, then the Supreme Court, library of congress on your left. The buildings for the house of representatives of course then the Capitol Building in the center. These are the main buildings, the functioning buildings the congress. But we also have a number of properties in maryland and virginia as well as throughout the District Of Columbia that ill show you one or two things about. But first, what makes this city great . And to me its the beautiful skyline, the beautiful layout of this city, and what Pierre Lenfant wrote to George Washington when he picked the site for the Capitol Building and he said, he placed it atop jenkins hill and said this is a pedestal, awaiting a monument. And then he took every street and radiated it to and from the capitol billion. The Capitol Building. What a way to make iconic architecture, and what foresight he had to place the Capitol Building there atop jenkins hill, and to create and lay out this city the way that they did. Let me show you kind of what it looks like today, and our area of responsibility on capitol hill of course starts with union square there and were approaching the west front of the capitol. Then we traverse over to the north side, and next to Union Station the congressional property extends down to right next to Union Station there. A building we built about 20 years ago through a Publicprivate Partnership for the Supreme Court designed by Edward Larrabee barnes, that was the Thurgood Marshall building. These are the offices for the senate, and of course the Thomas Jefferson building and the john adams and madison buildings for the library of congress, the jefferson billion widely acclaim in 1897 as the most beautiful building in america, and many people still think it is today. You saw there a capitol power plant where we make the steam and chilled water to heat and cool all of the 17 million square feet of space across capitol hill. Then bartholdi park recently renovated the Botanic Garden, thats been part of our inventory and part of our Hidden Treasures on capitol hill for many, many years. Of course back to the capitol. These are my 10 predecessors in office, and many people ask how can you be the 11th architect of the capitol when weve been in this wonderful capitol city for 224 years or so. Its interesting, and someone asked me earlier that the first nine architects of the capitol were appoint by the president for lifetime terms. And many of them served 20, 30 or more years in office. Then after the retirement of the 9th architect of the capitol, the congress put term lits on the architects appointment. So my immediate predecessor there, on the bottom right, alan hansman from new york city served as the first architect under that 10year term appointment. He chose not to reapply, which opened that job up to me as the 11th architect of the capitol. On the top left, the first architect, dr. William thornton, with the title as the first architect of the cap cold. Of the capitol. And dr. Thornton, an amateur architect, won the first competition for the design of the Capitol Building and what a wonderful story that is. As elizabeth mentioned, the architect is appointed by the president. I was appointed by president obama and sworn in by chief Justice John Roberts in my favorite place in the Capitol Building, the old senate chamber, a beautiful place designed by the second architect, Benjamin Henry latrobe. You can see the beautiful ionic column theres, and the sweeping arch above and the beautiful skylights, and imagine the Natural Light that used to come into that space during those early years of the 1800s. So my journey, elizabeth mentioned much of that. I went to Architecture School at university of maryland. Do i have any terps here in the audience tonight . All right. I think terps dominate tonight, way to go, thank you for coming out. What a great Architecture School that is. When i graduated from Architecture School, like many architects today, i had no idea what i wanted to do. Whether follow in my fathers footsteps who was a marine and certainly the military life was important to me, and a sense of service was important to me. I considered law school, took the lsat, decided not to do that. But i thought, boy, what a wonderful career that would have been, to be an architect and an attorney. Come to find out the 9th architect of the capitol was an architect and an attorney as well. I decided to go into the military. I really wanted to travel and see the world. Thats what i wanted to do when i was of that age and graduating from Architecture School and i thought what better way to see the world than the join the military, thats what the military does. Travel all around the world. Ask thats what i did. I was shipped off to texas and went to Officers Training school, stationed in california, had a great job, worked as an architect, and for any of you that work as an architect but also under an architect which is really support for young architects, you need four years under a licensed architect before you can apply to take the licensing exam. Theres a significant Internship Program that you need to go through before youre eligible to take the licensing program. So i really got lucky that there was a licensed architect stationed at edwards where i was, and i was able to work under his leadership for a number of years. Interestingly enough, of course, after a few years in the military for those of you that may be in the military, you fill out your dream sheet of the wonderful places you want to get transferred to next, its called a dream sheet, and of course i filled out aviano air base, italy and greece, and spain. And i got orders to el men dorf, alaska. Thats not quite what i had envisioned. So come to find out i did retire from the military at that point and said, you know, elmendorf, alaska, its a wonderful place, ive been there, its just not for me and its not the path that i want my career to be on. So i resigned and then went into private practice. A year later i joined the voice of america and just a few months after that i moved to greece and lived on the island of rhodes. And its so interesting how one door closes and another door opens. And thats the way life is, you know, you cant really plan it. But ive been so blessed and, so excited to be able to work in europe. That was my dream, and i was able to work in greece and germany and albania, and turkey and travel around the european theater, working and visiting and it was just what wanted, it really worked out well, and some nearly 18 years ago after six years overseas, i responded to a job ad with the architect of the capitol. Had an interview over the telephone, and got a call the next day, off a telephone interview, that i was hired to work in one of the managers in the Senate Office buildings, and 18 years later i am really blessed and honored to be the 11th architect of the capitol. So let me tell you a little bit about what the architect does. Many of you know that the General Services Administration Provides facilities and infrastructure and support for the executive branch of the government. Its really the architect of the capitol that does that for the legislative branch of government. Thats basically what we do. I like to use these four images to describe that. First on the left, we manage the Capitol Grounds, elizabeth mentioned these 500 acres that are on capitol hill. But those most important are the ones around the capitol. What we call capitol square. The historic grounds that were designed by frederick law olmstead in 1874 and instructed through the 1890s. Olmstead of course being the preeminent landscape designer at the time. And what beautiful grounds they are. And what a beautiful time of year, theres no better place in washington d. C. In springtime than on capitol hill. What an honor it is to be able to carry on olmsteads original thoughts. We have his orange drawings and and weoriginal drawings continue to plant today and design today following olmsteads original work. Secondly, when the Congress Wants to commission a piece of artwork, a statue, for example, as you see here with rosa parks, they turn to the architect to enable that on their behalf. So we would hold a Competition Among sculptors to produce Something Like this beautiful sculpture of rosa parks, and we maintain aesthetic judgment what comes into the collection and what doesnt and advice the congress on those matters. So whether its the National Stat water hall collection where two statues from every state come into the collection, and now in recent years there is the ability to change those statues in and out, so weve had an increase in stat water work in in statuary work in the National Stat water hall collection in reason years, or whether the Congress Wants to commission a rosa parks or a sojourner truth, or lastly when theres a Vice President were responsible for carving a white marble bust of every Vice President that serves in office. And today were working with Vice President gore and Vice President cheney on the white marble busts for them, and were looking forward to them coming into the collection. Many of them are displayed in the senate chamber, and others are displayed in the corridors and these wonderful niches that are in the corridors surrounding the senate chamber. And of course the beautiful frescoes that are throughout the Capitol Building and many of the other buildings on capitol hill, whether its the frescoes of the beautiful trumbull paintings and portraits, were responsible for that kind of work on behalf of the congress. Thirdly, as this photograph and our moniker would tell you, were responsible for all the design and construction of New Buildings and renovation and modernization of existing buildings on behalf of the congress and Supreme Court. Lastly, the last photograph on the right, were responsible for visitor services. What an important part of our mission that is. With two and a half Million People coming to the front door of that Capitol Building every year, so many of them for the first time, and so many of them for the only time, to make that experience welcoming and informative, and inspirational, is something we think we are really, really good at, and we pay a great deal of attention to those visitors. Not to mention the over million visitors that come to the United States Botanic Garden every year. We spend a great deal of time focused on creating positive First Impressions and positive memories for our visitors. Its a really important part of what we do, and we have several hundred employees that are dedicated to that part of our business. Certain parts of our business have a regular battle rhythm. What happens every four years . A president ial election. So when theres a president ial election, we work behind the scenes to enable the congress to put on this peaceful transition of power that is so wonderful to this great country we live in. And we completely transform the west front of the capitol during this period. Well close it down in september and work and build that inaugural platform through december, and then from december of course until Inauguration Day on january were outfitting it and doing dry run and installing security and protective measures among many other things. You can see that the west front is completely transformed every four years, and that inaugural platform changes a little bit every four years depending upon the desires of the Congressional Inaugural Committee or the president that have some say in oversight in these matters. So who can tell me how the flags are arranged on the west front during this particular and many of the other president ial inaugurations . This is your second test for the evening. Ill give you a hint. On the middle flag is the current flag of the United States. Then the two outside flags are the flags of the original 13 colonies. So your test is, what are those two flags in the middle . Someone said the president and Vice President s state. Well, thats pretty close. Thats the closest ive ever heard actually. I can usually stump people with this question. Well, the flags are, the flags of the president s home state when that state came into the union. I knew it was. I believe you, i dont think anybody else does, but i believe you. Good guess. So were excited to work with the congress and help them put on this wonderful inaugural ceremony every four years. And thats a regular process for us. It virtually never stops. An immense amount of planning goes into a president ial inauguration. And once we finish one in january, were to work doing a hot wash and Lessons Learned and anything we can possibly do to make that ceremony and make our part of that even better four years from now, and we capture all of that and we bring it back out just a year later as we begin to start that inauguration planning again. Heres what it looks like from where the president stands, isnt that amazing . This is president obamas first inauguration, and you can see president obama and his family standing there on the inaugural platform and this media tower in front where the tv cameras are posed for win or two cameras that are out there, and then these 30,000 seats that we place on the west front of the capitol. Then just look out at the people down the mall. What a special day. That is. Here it is a little up closer