Olympia - State Capitol - Chandelier and dome interior

Olympia – State Capitol – Chandelier and dome interior


Image by MathTeacherGuy
Interior upward perspective view of the dome and Tiffany chandelier. Washington State Capital, Olympia. The top of the dome is 287 feet (about 90 metres) above. This is a self-supporting masonry dome, sometimes noted as the fourth highest self-supporting masonry dome in the world.

I just had to ask an expert what happens to the rain water. Olympia can easily get 2 inches of rainfall in a day and can have 3 weeks of rain and drizzle non-stop. If all the rainwater simply flowed off the dome it would leave horrible ugly streaks and deteriorate the masonry. To keep the appearance pristine and to keep the dome from slowly eroding away, the architects designed in hidden rainwater diversion channels. They are concealed under the dome and divert huge volumes of water down through the walls and into a culvert system under the building. One oddity is that after planning and engineering such great detail, the architects never documented where the water ends up. Wetherholt Engineering figured out the mystery. (I’ll never tell).

I love this picture but it doesn’t get a lot of views, and no favorites. I love it anyway.

Here is an outside view of the dome:
Outside view

I have set the copyright for this photo to "attribution, non-commercial". This allows it to be used freely in school projects. Credit: "Photograph by Gerald P. Hawkins, Santa Clara, CA. Used with permission."

Tags:Capitol, Chandelier, dome, interior, Olympia, state