Texas State Capitol

"It's taller than the US Capitol back in Washington, you know. I remember the stone being pink but it looks browner today," a coworker said walking up to the Texas State Capitol with me. We were in Austin for a business conference and it was my first time visiting the Lone Star State so she was being very kind to give me her grand tour of the city. Try as I might though, pausing under its allée of oak trees, I could not figure out how to photograph the monumental structure in front of us. It was classically inspired but ratios did not seem to be in proportion anywhere there.

The design emphasized height, wanting people to be impressed by its scale, but it was the small details that amazed me instead. Of them, my favorite was an easy to miss spiral staircase going up the drum of its dome. Spaces explored form and composition in a pursuit of beauty that was more aesthetic than fussy as many government buildings can be. Looking between cracked doors, one will find that even Eastlake hinges help decorate the interior.