HELENA — In the last few days, you may have seen scaffolding and a construction crane around the Montana State Capitol and wondered what’s happening. The answer: They’re preparing for a major restoration project, the most significant work on the building’s exterior in decades.
“It'll be exciting,” said Russ Katherman, administrator for the Montana Department of Administration’s Architecture and Engineering Division. “I think folks really will be super pleased when it's completed.”
(Watch the video for a closer look at the upcoming work.)
The top priority work is focused on the Capitol’s roof, including the copper dome. In the coming weeks, crews will continue building scaffolding to the top of the dome. Copper panels and ornamental pieces will be removed. The statue atop the dome, named “Montana,” will be brought down and sent out for restoration. While the dome is covered up with protective wrapping, workers will be inspecting the inner structure to determine what condition it’s in.
“We've had an army of experts looking at it and investigating it, but once we pull it apart, there'll be some additional reviews and then repairs to the underlayment,” Katherman said.
In addition, crews will be rebuilding the roof on the whole building, except for one wing that was repaired recently. That includes work on the skylights over legislative chambers. The cast-iron balustrade, a railing around the top of the roof, has been taken out piece by piece, to be refinished and repainted.
The copper on the outside of the Capitol dome dates back to 1934, and it went through significant repairs in the 1980s. While it may not be evident from ground level, Katherman says hail, sun, snow and other forces over 90 years have taken a toll on each piece.
“Over time, with just freeze-thaw cycles, summer heat, expansion and so forth, those joints all start to weaken,” he said. “We need to restore the whole dome and all of those elements to make it last for many generations to come.”
The plan is to put on new copper panels, matching the appearance of the 1934 dome. However, they won’t have the same gray-green patina that the current dome has – at least not for many years.
“It will be a bit brighter; it will be much more copper finish, which folks are used to,” Katherman said. “But the patina itself is actually a protective coating of copper, so that's why it tends to last so long.”
Katherman said they’ll have to take a closer look at the condition of the existing panels after they come off before determining what can be done with them. The Montana statue, too, will need to undergo an evaluation.
“We're going to have to make a determination based upon what the experts tell us, can she be restored with the current copper, are we going to have to replace some pieces?” said Katherman.
The scaffolding will be hard to miss for people attending Saturday’s America 250 kickoff event on the Capitol lawn. Katherman says so far, they haven’t heard complaints about that.
“My own perspective is that this restoration work really helps folks reflect on Montana's history, that we're doing a lot of great care and restoration for the Capitol, and I think folks really take pride in a lot of that,” he said.
In 2023, the Legislature approved more than $28 million in funding for the restoration work on the Capitol. Katherman said the roof was the top priority, but in the future, he’s hopeful lawmakers will provide additional funding so they can address other issues, like working on the exterior sandstone walls and wooden windows.
