The west front that the U.S. Capitol presents to the Washington Mall is undergoing a $16 million face lift that is supposed to be finished in time for the 1993 inauguration.
Construction began in earnest during Congress' five-week Labor Day recess and centers around restoration of the west front's signature terraces - the site on which presidents now take their oath of office every fourth January.This latest restoration is being paid for with money left over from shoring up the west front's limestone walls when they began to give way in 1982. It is less ambitious than the $73 million west front expansion that architect of the Capitol George White sought to do then.
The 1982 plan ran into opposition from preservationists and Congress, which opted instead for a simple restoration that came in under its $49 million budget.
The current west front work also pales beside a proposed 446,000-square-foot, three-story underground visitors' center that White says would let Congress "put its best foot forward" to millions of tourists by realizing Olmstead's vision of a pedestrian plaza on the Capitol's east front.
The Senate Rules and Administration Committee gave White the go-ahead to come up with detailed drawings for the $71 million visitors' center last month.