Legislative Building Stats
Details and stats about the Legislative Building, also known as the Capitol Building, located in Olympia, Washington.
Interesting facts
The Legislative Building took six years to build and is made of over 173 million pounds of stone, brick, concrete, and steel.
It is one of the tallest buildings with a masonry dome in the world and is the tallest in North America, standing 287 feet high.
Building details
| Weight | |||
| Lantern (top cupola on building) | 500,000 lbs | ||
| Dome (curved portion) | 11,200,000 lbs | ||
| Colonnade/Drum (just below dome) | 21,500,000 lbs | ||
| “The Dome” (sub-total of above numbers) | 33,200,000 lbs | ||
| Pedestal (central rotunda portion of the building) | 49,700,000 lbs | ||
| East Wing (all four levels) | 31,100,000 lbs | ||
| West Wing (all four levels) | 31,100,000 lbs | ||
| North Portico | 10,100,000 lbs | ||
| South Portico | 13,300,000 lbs | ||
| Foundations | 20,000,000 lbs | ||
| Total | 188,500,000 lbs or 94,250 tons | ||
| Comparison weight of other structures | |||
| Empire State Building (New York City) is 4 times the Legislative Building's weight | 730,000,000 lbs | ||
| Nimitz-class aircraft carrier | 194,000,000 lbs | ||
| Washington Monument (Washington, D.C.) | 181,708,000 lbs | ||
| Space Needle (Seattle) is 1/10 the Legislative Building's weight | 19,100,000 lbs | ||
| Comparison weight of building materials to other objects | |||
| 26,456,000 lbs of stone and granite = 8850 Volkswagen Beetles 20,900,000 lbs of brick = 5538 Orca whales 63,493,000 lbs of concrete = 3740 African elephants |
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| Height | |||
| From ground level to top of lantern | 287 feet | ||
| From base of dome to top of lantern | 102 feet | ||
| From interior stair platform to ceiling of dome | 165 feet | ||
| Comparison height of other buildings | |||
| St. Peter’s Cathedral (Rome, Italy) | 446 feet | ||
| St. Paul’s Cathedral (London, United Kingdom) | 355.5 feet | ||
| Global Vipassana Pagoda (Mumbai, India) | 315.5 feet | ||
| Santa Maria Del Fiore (Florence, Italy) | 295 feet | ||
| Eiffel Tower (Paris, France) is 3 1/2 times the Legislative Building's height | 986 feet | ||
| U.S. Capitol Building (Washington, D.C.) | 288 feet | ||
| Comparison square and cubic feet to other objects | |||
| Football field is 1/4 the Legislative Building's square footage | 57,600 square feet | ||
| Vatican City is 20 times the Legislative Building's square footage | 4,734,400 square feet | ||
| Cubic space of the Legislative Building | 4,600,000 cubic feet | ||
| It would take 136 Olympic-sized swimming pools or 28 average-sized water towers to fill the Legislative Building completely with water. |
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| Original construction cost | |||
| Materials: | Approximate costs | ||
| Marble | $840,000 | ||
| Plastering | $187,000 | ||
| Ornamental Iron | $45,000 | ||
| Ornamental Bronze | $320,000 | ||
| Stone Carving | $180,000 | ||
| Interior Wood Trim | $84,000 | ||
| Rubber Tile | $65,000 | ||
| Painting | $122,000 | ||
| Elevators | $96,000 | ||
| Plumbing, Heating, and Ventilating | $383,000 | ||
| Total Cost of Building in 1928 | $6,791,595.88 | ||
| Cost of Furnishings in 1928 | $594,172.33 | ||
|
Total |
$7,385,768.21 | ||
| Present day construction cost It would cost over $1 billion to reconstruct the Legislative Building with the same materials and workmanship today. That's 135 times more! |
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| Type and origin of stone | |||
| Exterior Sandstone: Wilkeson Quarries, Pierce County, Washington | |||
| Interior Marble: | Type | Origin | |
| Senate Chamber | Formosa | Germany | |
| House Chamber | Escalette | France | |
| State Reception Room | Bresche | Italy | |
| Main Corridors | Tokeen | Alaska | |
| Lighting | |||
| 150-watt incandescent bulbs on top of the outside lower columns (exterior) | 85 | ||
| 250-watt metal halide bulbs at the bottom of the 8th floor columns (exterior) | 26 | ||
| 421-watt LED light fixture on the 5th floor roof used to light the dome (exterior) | 8 | ||
| 50-watt sodium bulbs used to light the terrace (exterior) | 48 | ||
| 15-watt to 300-watt incandescent bulbs throughout the building (interior) | 2550 | ||
| Fluorescent light fixtures throughout the building (interior) | 2616 | ||
|
Total |
5341 | ||