Ranking the state capitols so far

I've checked 16 capitol buildings off the list since officially starting the project on August 27, 2009 - add to that Madison, where I'll be on Monday, and that's 17, or a third of the total, in 17 months. At that rate I'd be done by late 2013, although of course there's pretty much no way I'll keep up that pace - I hit eight capitals in two weeks this past summer, and nothing like that will be, or really even could be, repeated.

Nevertheless, we're off to a blazing start and one that at least puts me substantially ahead of the game even as the pace inevitably slows from one a month. But being at a third of the contiguous 48 got me to thinking about how I'd rank the various buildings in terms of their structural appeal. So, below, the rankings of the first 16 capitol buildings, a list that will be updated as new buildings are visited. This first time only, I'm going to start at the bottom and work my way forward; future updates to the list will probably be done starting at #1.

16. Dover, DE
I feel bad for not liking Dover, maybe because it seems kind of cliché. But there's no real way of getting around this one. It looks uninteresting on the outside - it wouldn't be out of place on a college campus. It isn't much more interesting on the inside - it doesn't have a true dome, and so it doesn't have anything on the interior but a flat skylight and no rotunda to speak of. The legislative chambers are fine but certainly nothing spectacular.

15. Carson City, NV
Not too far ahead of Dover, really, though at least it has a bit more history on its side. Drew already compared the building to a college admissions office when I first posted the photos last year. The first floor interior is maybe a little classier than Dover; the legislative rooms are probably more boring (and also now unoccupied). Ultimately I find the exterior a bit more appealing, and that accounts for most of the difference here.

14. Raleigh, NC
The first two visited for the project (Raleigh and Carson City) turn out to be two of the most boring so far. Perhaps not coincidentally, Raleigh also only holds the governor's office, with the state assembly having moved elsewhere. The exterior looks like a bank; the (former) legislative chambers are pretty blah; the dome is at least a dome, but really not much to speak of. It's not Raleigh's fault that 1840 was a less exciting architectural time than, say, 1880, but I have to call them like I see them.

13. Phoenix, AZ
For a structure built in 1901, the Phoenix capitol (which no longer houses any branch of government) is surprisingly not ostentatious, but between the desert climate and the fact that Arizona was not yet a state and wouldn't be for 11 more years, maybe it isn't so shocking after all. I like the building, and the copper dome is great, but it's pretty functional inside and outside, with the dome being the only signature feature - and while it's an attractive dome, there are many more impressive.

12. Concord, NH
Nice on the outside, but in kind of a quaint way - it lacks the oomph of many of the buildings we'll get to later. The Senate chamber is subdued; the House chamber looks like a college lecture hall. The interior architecture doesn't seem to have a single guiding principle and certainly is not built around a rotunda like in the most visually arresting capitols.

11. Annapolis, MD
This hurts, because I love the history of Annapolis and the state house in particular - but this isn't about history. The building is very appealing in its own way, but it lacks an imposing presence. More damningly, it's kind of a frankenbuilding - the line between the original building and the 1905 annex is pretty noticeable, and it seems pretty clear that the state would have happily knocked down the original if not for its grand historical value. The 1905 chambers are nice but not incredibly distinctive.

10. Trenton, NJ
Proving I'm not a homer. The exterior is nice enough (it seems to owe some inspiration to the French), but the dome is so hard to see from ground level in most places that it almost feels like an afterthought. The rotunda is fine but kind of meek. The chambers are okay but lack a real kick. This, like Annapolis, is a building that was first built in the late 18th century and then added onto rather than being replaced in the early 20th, and I think hurts it - most of the best ones coming up were built in the late 19th century to replace another building. Again, history is nice, but if we're just talking architecture, frankenbuildings are not the way to go.

9. Boise, ID
Great dome, reminiscent of a smaller version of the U.S. Capitol, and the interior is nice enough with lots of marble, but there isn't a lot going on - there's kind of a sterile feel compared to most of the others of this style, possibly because the building is a few decades newer. The legislative chambers are pretty straightforward and unadorned.

8. Providence, RI
Also bears some resemblance to the U.S. Capitol. Very similar to Boise in a lot of ways - I give it the nod for a couple reasons. One, even though the interior has a grand staircase in the middle, which cuts into the rotunda, there's a more open feel to that center section, and the interior of the dome is prettier and more complex than Boise's. Two, while the legislative chambers here are similarly just fine, there's the addition of the state reception room, a nice room and unlike any Boise has.

7. Richmond, VA
I was always tempted to put this one lower because it lacks a dome, but from the exterior it's still a pretty imposing structure, clearly a worthy house of government, and there's still a nice (if small) interior dome above the rotunda. Bonus points to Richmond also for doing a better job of integration with its older and modern portions, preserving the history of the original building nicely while not making the interior into a mess.

6. Boston, MA
Boston also comes in two parts, and it's also pretty noticeable because of the wide gap in style, but the more modern section is so nice that I can overlook it. Boston's dome is simple and attractive with its coating of gold leaf; the interior features many appealing spaces like the Hall of Flags with its stained glass skylight, the main staircase, the Senate reception room and the current House chamber.

5. Hartford, CT
The Eastlake/Victorian building would look good from the outside even without the mammoth golden dome, but the dome is great and really pops, making the structure jump out from hundreds of yards away. The interior is very appealing, though I might quibble that the rotunda is kind of small. The legislative chambers are nice spaces with lots of light; the atria have nice skylights, even if they were covered up when we were there.

4. Harrisburg, PA
The dome, with its distinct green terra cotta tiles, is a good start, although the remainder of the building's exterior isn't as distinctive as maybe it could be. The legislative chambers are both extremely fancy with their stained glass, huge paintings, and several-ton chandeliers. The Supreme Court room has a wonderful stained glass interior dome/skylight. The rotunda has a great view of the dome interior and an impressive central staircase. The governor's reception room is a great space. The new wing, built in the 1980s, doesn't add much, but it doesn't subtract as much as you'd think, either, especially since it wasn't just welded right to the back like most of the other buildings with more modern wings.

3. Albany, NY
Albany is an insanely impressive building, but a few things held it back from the top of this list. For one thing, it doesn't have a dome. It's a great building even from the outside, but something about it just doesn't scream "capitol." The Million Dollar Staircase is an incredible work of art; the House chamber is an amazing space; the Senate staircase has an awesome rose window; the Senate reception area is great and the Senate chamber, though we couldn't enter, looked darn good as well. But somehow the whole feels like slightly less than the sum of its parts - as awesome as everything is, there's a vague lack of cohesion about the place, with the time it took to build - more than three decades - quite probably contributing to that feeling. Also, the interior is labyrinthine and often feels more like some sort of museum than a seat of government. I can't argue with the appeal of the architecture, but I can argue with (a) how it hangs together and (b) its appropriateness for its purpose. I love this building, but with an overly complex interior plan I find myself ranking it just behind two buildings that are similarly attractive but a lot less difficult to navigate.

2. Springfield, IL
The tallest state house not built as a skyscraper, Springfield's capitol building is definitely an impressive structure on the outside. It has a great dome, but the interior of the dome is even nicer, with carved scenes of state history running around it and what looks like stained glass at the top. It's probably my favorite interior dome, which helps its position here. The legislative chambers aren't as impressive as Harrisburg's, but they're nice.

1. Des Moines, IA
I thought about this one for a while, but ultimately it has to be Des Moines, even if the weather sucked when I was there. From the outside it's a great building - the one golden dome is set off by four complementary domes, and the whole looks like a tsar's winter palace or something. The dome interior isn't Springfield's, but it's very nice; there's a great grand staircase with artwork all around it. The painting on the walls (often looking like wallpaper, but it's not) and the floor tile are terrific. There are multiple nice skylights - nothing to the level of the Harrisburg Supreme Court skylight, but plenty good. The state law library is a fantastic room with its great spiral staircases, balconies and stained-glass skylight. And the legislative chambers, while perhaps not as ornate as Harrisburg, have great ceilings and a lot of character. All told, this will be a tough one to top.

(If you want to see pictures of a lot of the architecture mentioned here, you can check out my albums on Facebook. Or Google would probably work just fine.)