Art Conservation in the Michigan Capitol Rotunda
Stepping into the Michigan Capitol rotunda is a memorable experience. You stand (or lie down!) on glass floor tiles, the curves of the inner dome rising above you, full of vibrant colors and topped with gleaming stars. This space is meant to awe and inspire, and as a Capitol Educator, I can confirm that it never fails to impress! I’ve met many people who still remember lying on the glass floor and reaching up to the stars when they were kids. But as enduring as this space is, the Capitol’s rotunda is surprisingly vulnerable.
Extreme temperature fluctuations have chipped and cracked the delicate artwork. Intense sunlight has faded the paint, and leaks have left behind stains. In June 2023, the Michigan State Capitol Commission began a landmark project to repair the damage to these decorative surfaces. This means that for about a year, the glass floor will be full of scaffolding instead of excited kids. While this is disappointing for visitors, and bothersome for Capitol staff – it is also an opportunity. This is the first time in over 30 years such work has been undertaken, making it a historic moment in the preservation of our Capitol.
The last time scaffolding was built in the rotunda was in 1990 during the Capitol’s restoration. By then, restoration work was well underway in the legislative chambers, the ground floor, and on the building’s exterior, but the rotunda was a particularly difficult job. In a 1991 report the construction superintendents with the Christman Company stated that the central rotunda presented the single largest challenge of the entire restoration. The rotunda is one of the most public spaces in the Capitol, used by thousands of visitors and state personnel every day. This made the rotunda restoration an especially disruptive, and visible project.
The sheer size of the rotunda also required a special scaffolding system that allowed workers to reach every inch of the dome’s interior. Safeway Steel Products of Detroit designed a scaffold 40 feet in diameter at its base and about 150 feet tall with access points every 10 feet in elevation. The company spent two weeks building the scaffolding in August 1990. The entire structure weighed over 40 tons and was supported by steel beams mounted under the rotunda floor.
With the scaffolding in place, a flurry of activity began in the rotunda. Tradespeople installed new electrical wires, redesigned the lighting scheme, updated the HVAC system, and repaired windows, plaster, and sheet metal. Decorative painters and art conservators set to work cleaning and restoring over 140,000 square feet of painted surfaces! A team of experts from the Detroit Institute of Arts also came in to conserve the muses. Using cotton swabs, they cleaned the paintings inch by inch, repaired damage to the canvases, and fixed flaking and discolored paint.
After 14 months, the scaffolding was dismantled in November 1991 revealing the Capitol’s inner dome as it was meant to be seen. Colors dulled by grime were now rich and vibrant. Patterns marred by cracking paint were made whole. The stars scattered across the oculus shone in the sunlight. Now, 30 years on, the rotunda is again in need of care. Over the course of six weeks this summer, scaffolding was built from the glass floor to the oculus. Art conservators from the John Canning Company are at work in the dome, reviving the delicate paint. In addition, contractors will install UV filters on the dome windows, and update the fire suppression systems. The entire project is expected to be finished in June 2024.
There’s no denying the work in the rotunda is inconvenient – but it’s also exciting! The scaffolding itself is an amazing feat of craftsmanship that allows us to protect our Capitol for future generations. This project is an opportunity to learn from the 1990’s restoration work and expand upon it with the most up-to-date preservation methods. We’ll be sharing more rotunda history and project updates here as well as on our social media accounts. We hope our visitors, state officials, and staff see this historic venture and agree that the stars in the dome are worth a little inconvenience.