Oklahoma State Capitol, Twenty-Second Street & Lincoln Boulevard, Oklahoma City

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OK-34. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Since its completion in the Oklahoma State Capitol Complex has served as the center of politics and governmental affairs for the State of Oklahoma. The building was designed by the Oklahoma City based architectural firm Layton and Smith, while the site plan for the capitol complex was prepared by city planner George Kessler of St. Louis, Missouri. The site is a designated Oklahoma Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. History: Consultant from St. Louis, Missouri was responsible for the eighty acre site plan that included the capitol building as its center piece. The capitol building was designed by the Oklahoma City architectural firm Layton and Smith and constructed by the James Stewart Company.

The six-story Beaux Arts-styled building was made of locally quarried granite and limestone along with concrete. Laid out in the form of a cross, the building's north-south porticoes align with Lincoln Boulevard which divides and encircles the capitol. The building was originally constructed without a dome due to a shortage in funding of the million project, but structurally the design allowed for the addition of a dome at a later date. Eighty-five years later, at a cost of million, the dome was finally completed and topped with "The Guardian," a seventeen-foot-tall bronze statue of a Native American holding a twenty-two- foot-long spear. The grounds were redesigned in the early by landscape architect Robert H. Rucker.

The site presently contains twenty-five miles of curbs and sidewalks, 2.5 acres of planting beds, annual plants, and trees. Again, in the site was redesigned by Joe Braun, landscape architect and owner of the Jacob Braun Company of Oklahoma City. The site also contains two significant monuments. One a tribute to Native Americans called "As Long As the Waters Flow." It was designed by Native American artist Allan Houser. The other monument was called "A Bronze Tribute to the Romantic Riders of the Range"and was designed by Constance Whitney Warren, an artist of the American West.

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS OK-34. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Steve Eilers, November 15, West Stillwater, OK steve.eilers@okstate.edu Dr. Charles Leider Professor and Director of the Landscape Architecture Program Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Department 360 AG Hall Stillwater, OK Office: charles.leiderfalokstate.edu OKLAHOMA STATE CAPITOL HALS. OK-34 PAGE 3 : (_ if... A/ .* ..: : *- . " ]!# .riSHS , 'WWB&-!IIIHHW- . jQUHbtfKI Aerial view of Oklahoma State Capitol complex (Encyclopedia of Oklahoma: accessed November 15, ' * r; iv View of slaUk* on grounds called "As Long As the Waters Flow" (Western Lawns: accessed November 15,