Secret Doors & Hidden Skylights: Inside The Capitols Restoration

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) The Minnesota State Capitol restoration makes the building look the way it did more than 100 years ago, when Minnesotas best craftsmen built its most visible public landmark.

But this project is repairing a century of cover-ups and patch-overs. Project Manager Jason McMillan showed us skylights hidden for decades above false ceilings.

We knew they were there because you could see it from the roof, McMillan said.

There are linoleum sheets over oak floors and ceramic tiles, and long forgotten secret doors, like one to the old Supreme Court balcony.

A doorway there that just kind of led to nowhere, McMillan said.

But most of the work here you will never see, even though it may be the most remarkable of all.

Workers are digging below the Capitol foundation to install modern air ducts, 48 inches in diameter, below the surface.

And theyre hiding sophisticated heating, cooling, plumbing and power systems inside five-story vertical shafts behind the brick and granite walls.

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Secret Doors & Hidden Skylights: Inside The Capitols Restoration