The Wisconsin State Capitol Building, constructed in 1906-1917, is an iconic Beaux Arts-style structure designed by George B. Post. It serves as the state house of representatives, state senate, and offices for the Wisconsin State Government. The building replaced the previous state capitol, which burned down in 1904, and is the third building to sit on the present site. The capitol complex includes the Wisconsin State Assembly, the Wisconsin State Senate, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the Office of the Governor of Wisconsin. The capitol building, with a height of 284 feet, is topped with a statue of a personification of the state of Wisconsin, and is the tallest building in Madison.
The building has a unique 45-degree orientation to the surrounding street grid, which is at a 45-degree angle to compass directions, instead roughly paralleling the shorelines of nearby Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, with Downtown Madison sitting on an isthmus between the two lakes. The exterior of the building is clad in Bethel white granite, sourced from Vermont, with an additional 42 types of stone from a total of eight states and six countries are utilized on the interior of the building. The dome is the largest in the world to be entirely clad in granite. The building has a greek cross footprint with four five-story wings that are aligned with the compass directions and radial streets following the compass directions that slice through the surrounding street grid, which places the building at a unique 45-degree angle orientation relative to the edges of Capitol Square and most buildings on adjacent streets.
The building underwent a major renovation in the 1970s that added modern features to the interior and covered up many original features, with later projects between 1988 and 2002 restoring the building while updating the building’s systems and functions for the modern needs of the state government. The exterior of the building’s wings feature porticoes on the ends with corinthian columns, arched windows on the third floor, rusticated bases with entrance doors and decorative keystones, decorative reliefs featuring festoons over the windows on the porticoes, cornices with modillions and dentils, and pediments with sculptural reliefs. The sides of the wings feature simpler cornices with dentils, pilasters, and recessed window openings with arched openings at the ground floor, windows with decorative pedimented headers on the second floor, arched windows on the third floor, two small two-over-two windows on the fourth floor, and a recessed fifth floor features small paired windows, hidden behind a balustrade that runs around the entirety of the building minus the ends of the wings, concealing a low-slope roof at the setbacks on the sides of the wings and above the corner porticoes.
At the center of the building in the inside corners of the greek cross are semi-circular portions of the facade with semi-circular two-story ionic porticos with large terraces and grand staircases featuring decorative copper lampposts, decorative stone balustrades, concealed entrances to the ground floor underneath the terraces, and three doorways on the upper level, with drums surrounded by buttresses featuring small windows and domed roofs above the balustrade on the fifth floor. In the center of the building is the rotunda, which is topped with a large dome that rises from a tall base. The building is an emblematic symbol of Wisconsin’s government that welcomes visitors from near and far to see its grandeur and significance.