Last year I took a look at the Nevada State Legislature Building in downtown Carson, which at the time was having some major demolition work done on the exterior facade. Below you can see a photo I took back then to compare. A year later, and we see some major progress on the work!

Now you might think they are done with their work, since the scaffolding is down, the site is cleaned up, and the sidewalks are open. But they’re not finished. This is just a “pause” while the Legislature is in session, according to the builders’ Instagram. But even being this far along things are looking pretty good. The major structural work is done, with a new striking three-story addition protruding out from the front. Apparently this entrance is hiding all sorts of security upgrades.

What’s still left to add is the exterior “skin” of the building, which is going to be granite paneling quarried from the Sierra Nevada. The outside of the building right now is just a weatherproof shell, and the granite skin will be mounted on top of this.

You can see where some of the paneling has already been installed. They focused on putting the paneling on the parts of the building closest to Carson Street before they paused, so you can see the paneling and imagine what it will look like covering the whole building.

Here is a closeup of the paneling. The granite part is pretty thin to reduce weight, and then it is mounted on an aluminum frame for insulation and hung on the wall.

There’s a lot of this paneling that still needs to be put up, but right now things are complete enough to take a break for a while. The Legislature is meeting until June this year, so we probably won’t see any more work until the summer.

The Legislature Building has been here since the 1970s. They have already remodeled the facade once, in the 1990s, but apparently they didn’t do a great job with the remodel and it was starting to disintegrate in the weather. So that’s why this remodel was needed. And it looks like only the front half of the building is being redone. The back half was built in the 1990s, as part of the previous remodel, so maybe it’s holding up better. Here you can see that “new” wing is untouched in this renovation.

So while at a quick glance driving by you might think the construction is done, there is still more to go. By the beginning of 2026 it should all be done, so maybe we’ll take another look at it then. For now, scroll through for a look at its half-finished state.