Dave McKinney
  • Home
  • Reel
  • Investigations
    • Legislative scholarships
    • Lincoln's stovepipe hat?
    • Inside Blago's Jobs Machine: A Special Report
    • Emil Jones: Plugged into Power
    • William Cellini: The King of Clout
    • A grand renovation or 'The Palace of Versailles'?
  • Elections
    • Neighborhood Recovery Initiative: Quinn's troubled 2010 anti-violence program mixed money and politics
    • LeapSource exclusive: Rauner's alleged threats to 'hurt' ex-CEO trigger denials
    • Minimum wage: A Rauner flip-flop-flip?
    • Funds in the sun: Rauner questioned about Cayman Islands investments
    • IDOT patronage: Watchdog, Rauner lash Quinn administration for improper political hiring
  • Govs
    • Quinn
    • Blagojevich
    • Ryan
    • Edgar
  • Obama
  • Madigan
  • Pensions
  • Profiles
  • About
  • Contact

Statehouse spruce-up: A 'divine' renovation or 'The Palace of Versailles'?

PictureFormer 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." 

Picture
Picture
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jack Higgins weighs in on the renovation work at the Capitol.
Picture

Stories:

Latest Capitol rehab tab: $481K for lavish chandeliers, sculptures (9/8/2013)
SUN-TIMES EXCLUSIVE; Quinn vows to block future work on Capitol (9/11/2013)
STATE CAPITOL RENOVATION; Architect: Gov 'completely unfair' (9/14/2013)
Statehouse rehab; Capitol furniture upgrade comes at $500K (9/15/2013)
Proudly powered by Weebly