Jim Rosica
The Florida Senate’s renovations are on track, spokeswoman Katie Betta told FloridaPolitics.com Wednesday.
“Construction is right on schedule,” she said. “We expect the dome to be completed by early next week.”
Workers dismantled the chamber’s ceiling and put up scaffolding to install a new dome, modeled after one in the Old Capitol.
Outgoing Senate President Andy Gardiner pulled the trigger on the upgrade, recognizing that the chamber “has received only minimal updates since its original construction in the 1970s,” he said in a memo.
The renovation project will cost nearly $5 million.
The final product in the Senate will be similar to an artists’ rendering released earlier this year, Betta says.
It shows the proposed new ceiling dome and other design elements that echo the Old Capitol’s exterior, such as a pediment on top of columns over the president’s rostrum and the words, “In God We Trust.”
Construction is still planned to be wrapped up before the 2016 Organization Session this fall.
(Photos courtesy Florida Senate)
