Statehouse spruce-up: A 'divine' renovation or 'The Palace of Versailles'?
 Former Gov. Pat Quinn
The $670,000 copper-plated doors installed at the Illinois statehouse may have been recognized for their "divine detail" by an architectural group, but that didn't stop them from becoming a questionable point of lavishness in tough state budgetary times.
I was the first to delve into $50 million in spending to renovate part of the Capitol in Springfield. My reporting, supported by sifting through stacks of state vouchers, showed that $160,000 went toward a custom-made pair of robed maiden sculptures along a staircase, and another $323,000 was spent for a quartet of ornate chandeliers in a Senate office suite. These expenditures came at a point when Illinois was behind by more than $7 billion in paying its vendors and prompted former Gov. Pat Quinn to deride the "excessive flourishes" that he said turned the Capitol into the "Palace of Versailles." The governor imposed a freeze on any more renovations at the Capitol. The Capitol architect responsible for implementing the expensive design work dismissed Quinn's criticism as "unwarranted and completely out of line." |
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jack Higgins weighs in on the renovation work at the Capitol.
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