Photo caption: The U.S. Capitol Rotunda, one of the most popular visitor locations in the U.S. Capitol, showcases significant heritage assets entrusted to AOC’s care, including paintings, sculptures, stone reliefs, and frescoes.


the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the district courts and other offices—and its grounds under a single superintendent, the Commissioner of Public Buildings. In 1867, the Commissioner’s responsibilities were combined with those of the Architect of the Capitol Extension, footnote 1. Congress passed legislation in 1876 that formally established the Architect of the Capitol as a permanent office under the Legislative Branch of the Federal Government.


 Footnote 1: The word “Extension” was subsequently dropped, simplifying the title to the Architect of the Capitol.


As our nation grew, the Congress also expanded and AOC’s responsibilities correspondingly increased. Congress’ multiple physical expansions included enlarging the grounds and constructing new buildings such as the Library of Congress and separate House and Senate office buildings. Throughout the 20th century, AOC oversaw construction and took responsibility for stewardship of the Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings, the Russell, Dirksen and Hart Senate Office Buildings, the Capitol Power Plant, the Botanic Garden facilities and the Supreme Court Building. AOC also assumed administrative responsibility for the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building and oversaw construction of the Adams and Madison buildings. In recent years, AOC oversaw the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center. The over 710,000-square-foot facility is the largest addition in the U.S. Capitol’s history. In addition, AOC received responsibility for the care of Union Square, a 12-acre site between the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall, in FY 2012. Although most of AOC’s facilities are on or near Capitol Hill, AOC also maintains support facilities in other locations, footnote 2. Today, under the leadership of Architect of the Capitol Stephen T. Ayers, AOC’s employees work to maintain and improve over 17.4 million square feet of building space and over 587 acres of grounds.


Footnote 2: For example, off-site support facilities include the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, and the Fort Meade Book Storage Modules in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.


Figure 6 shows the growth of AOC’s facility stewardship responsibilities from 1793 through the present. Figure 7 shows a map of the major facilities on Capitol Hill that AOC is responsible for while Appendix B provides a list of the major facilities under AOC’s care.


 


 

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