The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. is a building of great influence and has a powerful symbolic presence in the 20th century imagination. We associate it with all manner of political events from the American Civil War to the Watergate investigations. It is a building that attains a character by virtue of its residents, the US Congress.

What does this building possess to make it such an enduring monument? Does it fulfil the original intention of the architect? Do we read into it more than was intended? Is it less complex than it appears?

The long construction period [1793-1868] was characterised by personality conflict between the Capitol's architects and their client, the United States Government. To what extent was the building a product of the architect and how much was attributable to the politics of the time? How is the building seen by the American people and most important of all, what does it represent?

In this dissertation, my hope is to examine the US Capitol as a political object. It is a physical embodiment of the American political idea and as such represents the ideals of the American political system.

What does the building represent? The people? The politicians? Or the political ideals? In what way does it take the architecture of the past to fashion a steady future for the new state? America was 24 years old when the Capitol was first occupied, only a third completed and growing to accommodate the functions of government moved from Philadelphia. As the shell for such a young state, it drew on the symbols of Ancient Rome both for stability in the eyes of it's people, but also as a recognition of its roots in Europe.

The Capitol is an enduring monument to freedom and liberty and in a sense can be seen as the central temple of the new Federal City: Washington, D.C. It could be interpreted as a substitution for Christianity with politics becoming the god of the United States. Does democracy become a worshipped and revered deity under the dome, a religion practised in the Senate and Representatives? What is the agenda of architectural representation? Does it possess a Republican pedigree in the tradition of Cicero? Or is it an Augustan edifice proclaiming the Imperialism of the New World?

Certainly the US Capitol is a fascinating building, intriguing in its mixture of old world symbolism and new world process. There are many questions in addition to the ones above. I hope that over the next few months there will be some answers.