Georgia lawmakers decide important questions in a small complex of buildings at the state capitol.
The most iconic of these buildings is the Gold Dome, built in 1889, where the public can watch their elected representatives in the state House and Senate chambers.
But one important question, related to the Capitol complex itself, is being decided out of public view: How should the historic Gold Dome connect to a new, eight-story legislative office building?
Historic preservationists and some state lawmakers are sounding alarm bells about one proposed answer — a skybridge.
“I do not wish to see the symbol of our legislative process being altered by something that looks like a paper towel roll sticking out of its side,” said David Mitchell, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center. “A skybridge is its own visual objection. You would have a protruding object coming out of a historic building.”
The skybridge would allow people to walk from the Gold Dome to the new tower on the other side of Mitchell Street without going outside, often during cold winter weather, or impeding vehicular traffic.
But another opponent of the idea, Wright Mitchell, president and CEO of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, compared how it might look to a “gerbil tube,” calling it “historically inappropriate” and “visually disruptive.”
The plans are part of a $392 million renovation project at the Capitol complex, most of which, including security improvements and a celebrated regilding of the dome itself, are already underway and generating positive reviews.
“During the session last year, we were all excited about how well it looked,” said state Rep. Debbie Buckner (D-Junction City). “I think the only thing that I’ve heard concern or questions about is what’s coming next.’”
Historic preservationists and their allies in the General Assembly helped to quash a similar skybridge plan in 1983.
And in the present case, there are other options.
The state agency overseeing the Capitol renovations, the Georgia Building Authority, also is considering connecting the old and new buildings through an underground tunnel.
A subterranean walkway would have its own set of challenges. But Mitchell suggests they could be engineered with help from one of the nation’s top engineering schools at Georgia Tech.
And Buckner says the alternative, the skybridge, would be impossible to blend in with the historic structure.
“I’m not an architect but I cannot imagine anything in my wildest dreams of how a skybridge connected to that side of the Capitol would be in keeping with the original architecture of the building,” Buckner said.
The skybridge opponents also object to what they characterize as opaque communication about the process that will guide whether an above-ground or below-ground connection will be constructed.
“I don’t think there have been any discussions to my knowledge,” Mitchell said. “I certainly have attempted multiple times to have communication with governing parties in the Georgia Building Authority.”
Buckner said she didn’t know much about the proposal even though she sits on the House Committee on State Properties.
“I called the Building Authority and asked what was the process and they told me that they did not know what the process was,” she said. “[The Capitol] is the people’s house. We say that frequently. And if it is the people’s house, the people should be involved in the process.”
The deputy executive director and chief of staff of the Georgia Building Authority, Gerald Pilgrim, declined requests to be interviewed for this story but indicated through a staff member that no decision has been made on how to connect the new legislative office building to the Gold Dome.
The new building is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026.
