Vertical Access’ Top Ten of 2010: Project 3 – United States Capitol Dome

Lantern of the United States Capitol Dome

In May 2010, Vertical Access documented the existing condition of all of the cast iron ornament and panels at the exterior of the United States Capitol dome. As with a similar investigation of the cast iron ornament that VA did in 2007, VA performed the work for the Architect of the Capitol, which is managing a phased rehabilitation of the dome. Hoffmann Architects is the associate architect for the rehabilitation project. One of the challenges of working on the dome was dealing with the 50 plus mile per hour gusts of wind. Fortunately, Vertical Access technicians were able to work on the leeward side of the dome for part of the investigation. In the end, the wind conditions grounded the VA crew for a half-day over the four days of site work.

Kelly Streeter using TPAS at the United States Capitol Dome

For the recent survey of the cast iron dome, VA customized TPAS to include drop down menus with fields for each type of cast iron element and longitudinal and latitudinal location on the dome. The customized TPAS blocks automated the process of naming photographs with building location and element identification information. The customized TPAS blocks also included information about the conditions documented in 2007 so that changes from the previous survey could be evaluated.

Read about Project 1: Union Theological Seminary Brown Tower
Read about Project 2: University of Buffalo Alumni Arena