The Wisconsin State Capitol building is a Beaux Arts-style building that was built from 1906 to 1917 to house the Wisconsin State Government. It was designed by George B. Post to replace the previous version of the building, which burned down in February 1904. The current building is the third to be located on the site and stands at 284 feet tall, making it the tallest building in Madison, Wisconsin. The dome is the largest in the world to be entirely clad in granite.
The first capitol of Wisconsin was located in the village of Belmont, Wisconsin, before the state government chose to move to the future site of Madison. The first capitol building was a Greek Revival-style structure constructed in 1837, which was replaced in stages between 1857 and 1869 with a larger, Classical Revival-style building with Romanesque Revival elements. The building was further modified and extended in 1882 with new wings.
The present building was designed to replace the previous capitol building, with the construction process focusing on completing each wing one at a time. 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. It features porticoes 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 east wing is home to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with a sculpture known as Law on the portico pediment. The west wing houses the chamber of the Wisconsin Assembly, with a sculpture known as Agriculture on the portico pediment. The north wing is home to a hearing chamber, with the sculpture known as Virtues and Traits of Character on the portico pediment. The south wing houses the chamber of the Wisconsin Senate, with a sculpture known as Wisdom and Learning of the World on the portico pediment.
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. The upper roofs of the wings are low-slope with front gabled portions in the middle punctured by skylights, with the roof being almost entirely enclosed by a parapet.
At the center of the building 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. In the center of the building is the rotunda, which is topped with a large dome that rises from a tall base. The statue on top of the dome was sculpted in 1920 by Daniel Chester French and is a personification of the state of Wisconsin, with the outstretched arm of the statue representing the state motto, “Forward.”
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. Today, the building is home to both the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Wisconsin State Senate, as well as the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor of Wisconsin.