The Nevada State Legislature Building in downtown Carson City has just finished up a major remodel, so let’s take a look back at how it used to look.

For a hundred years, from 1871 to 1970, the Legislature met inside the Capitol building. The building was expanded once in 1914 to allow for larger Senate and Assembly chambers. But by mid century they were running out of space again. After an idea to demolish the Capitol and replace it with office building was shot down, they decided instead to keep the historic Capitol and build a separate new building for the Legislature. 6 whole city blocks just south of the Capitol were demolished, some of them containing buildings older than the Capitol itself, and the new Legislature building opened in 1971.

By the mid 1990s, the Legislature was growing again. Out of room in their new building, they expanded it with a five-story addition to the east. They also decided at this time to remodel the exterior, covering up the mid-century rock with a facing known as EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finishing System). This gave the building a stucco look that was ready to bring it into the 21st century. They also created a small entryway with a dome over it at the west entrance, facing Carson Street.

2008

2008

Now we fast forward to the 2020s. After 25 years the EIFS wall panels were starting to show their age. The building would leak frequently during thunderstorms, and even though they replaced the roof, that only did so much. They needed another remodel. So in 2024 they began taking down the EIFS panels, revealing the old rock walls still underneath.

Then they sealed up all the exterior walls, hopefully waterproofing them for good this time.

And finally, they built a new and enlarged entryway, with more advanced security features. The outside walls got a new exterior finish featuring genuine cut and polished granite paneling. Just a couple of weeks ago they finished the last piece, lifting a newer and larger dome on to the top of the building.

The fencing came down this week so we can see the finished result. I have to say, something about the scale looks off. The granite paneling is a nice look, but either the new entryway looks too big or the dome looks too small. Apparently the new entryway contains an extensive security portal, including a blast box to protect the legislative chambers against bomb blasts. But the entryway looms so large over the rest of the building, and the effect gets more pronounced the closer you are. And the windows on the new section being so much larger doesn’t help either.

So it looks like a design that could have used a couple more revisions, but it’s what we have now. They are going to be working on applying the granite paneling to the east wing of the building for a couple more months still, but the parts facing Carson Street are pretty much finished.

And, right on schedule, the Legislature is outgrowing this building too. They’ve already started building a new office building across Fifth Street so the Legislative Counsel Bureau can move there and free up some space. We’ll look at that in a future post.