Historic Preservation

Historic preservation on one level is understanding and appreciating history and what it teaches us about ourselves. However, preservation also means taking action.

Since the U.S. Capitol and most of the other buildings under the jurisdiction of the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) are working office buildings, AOC employees must be mindful that their work to support the occupants does not damage or destroy the parts of the buildings that are architecturally or historically significant.

Video Transcript

Mary Oehrlein: There was a period of time when saving our historic buildings was not important.

Fortunately, we have moved beyond that and now people realize that it is important that we have that for future generations to understand how we lived in the 21st century.

Donna Klee: The mission to serve, preserve and inspire is also the mission of historic preservation in general.

We want to take elements of the great architecture that we have, the works of art, and keep them for generations to come.

Susan Wong: With new construction, you can demolish and build new but to preserve an historic treasure, it takes a lot of handiwork and careful craftsmen.

Joseph Abriatis: When these were made 150 years ago, it was only artisans with clay making these by hand, and what you don't realize and appreciate from the ground is just the incredible detail and how many individual parts and individual pieces that make up this colonnade.

The flower, for example, is seven individual castings.

There's four of these giant scrolls on each corner, and this scroll alone is 17 individual parts.

Oehrlein: In the same way that we save literature or we put art in museums so that people can see and appreciate it, our buildings are, you know, part of our cultural heritage and if you wipe them out, you lose, you know, that whole period of history and what our culture was and how we lived.

Matthew McDonald: This isn't just a monument.

Klee: It's a snapshot of our past that we can't retain if we don't protect it.

And part of preservation isn't to make it look perfect. It's to stabilize it. It's to maintain it. It's to make it last for another 100 years.

Pete Mueller: We do our very best to deliver a state-of-the-art facility and really the foundation for that delivery is the AOC values of teamwork, integrity, pride, professionalism and safety.

Klee: In preserving our history, we can inspire generations.