Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433760
THE CAPITOL DOME 26 met in the room intended for the Library of Congress, and Jefferson took the oath of office in the Senate Chamber, the only available principal rooms. In May 1801, Hoban was asked to build the House chamber following the original plan, and work on the South Wing's foundations began. e elliptical footprint of the main chamber rose precariously, but as no exterior walls yet existed, it grew into a large, freestanding, elliptical brick room. is proto-chamber, nicknamed the oven, or the bake oven, was connected to the North Wing by a covered passage (fig. 2). In the spring of 1801, the start of his administration, the designing and fastidious Jefferson was certainly frustrated by the chaotic construction site on Capitol Hill. Jefferson knew of Latrobe and had been impressed with his designs for the Washington Navy Yard. In their brief acquain - tance they held a great esteem for each other as educated profes- sionals, artists, and philosophers. Jefferson solicited Latrobe's advice on many projects henceforth; Latrobe would call Jefferson the planter of arts in America. 2 eir friendship lasted until Latrobe's death in 1820. Certainly, Jefferson imagined that this erudite, robust, European-trained architect, engineer, and naturalist could raise the construction of the Capitol to its Fig. 3. Latrobe, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., Plan of principal story and chambers (ca. 1808). Latrobe redesigned the Capitol's interiors within ornton's original exteriors. Latrobe thought ornton's exterior design was comically old-fashioned. Fig. 2. Reconstruction drawing of the Capitol as it appeared in 1803, showing the oven connected to the North Wing by a covered walkway, created for the Architect of the Capitol. L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION ARCHI T EC T OF T HE C API TOL