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18 offices." 5 This need for additional meeting rooms and offices has been a recurring issue at the Capitol. It was in fact a major driving force behind Congress's post-9/11 direc- tive to add 85,000 square feet of underground space for the Senate and 85,000 square feet for the House into the plans for the already-designed Capitol Visitor Center. There is a saying in the architectural profession: "A camel is a horse designed by a committee." Bulfinch's exterior dome was ungainly and referred to as an "upside-down kettle." With the president as the chairman of that "committee" dictating basic design param- eters, the unhappy results were perhaps pre-ordained. While each Architect of the Capitol needs "champions" in the Congress to help facilitate necessary support for important projects, there is often a delicate balance between "support" and the imposition of design pref- erences by members and their staffs. Latrobe had also experienced strong presidential input from Thomas Jefferson, but fortunately that was a more positive architectural patronage, based upon well-informed sensibilities. Bulfinch's Dome was roofed over with wood and copper, was difficult to maintain, and constantly leaked. Its wood construction was also a significant fire haz- ard, a liability that the Congress later came to recog- nize through its experience with the costly 1851 fire in the Bulfinch-designed Library of Congress, then also housed in the Capitol. The fire destroyed the reading room and two-thirds of its books. The Bulfinch Dome only survived some 30 years. THE THIRD DoME: THE nATIon ExPAnDS In 1851, as our nation continued to grow with the addi- tion of new states, President Millard Fillmore selected the design of Thomas Ustick Walter of Philadelphia for the expansion of the Capitol. While Bulfinch's Dome had clearly been too large and ungainly for the Capitol's original base, a Dome of greater "presence" and pro- portionality was needed for this newly elongated base. Walter clearly recognized this and in 1854, while the expansions were underway, he took the initiative to create a design for a much larger and more compatible Dome to replace Bulfinch's "upside-down kettle." He created a beautifully rendered seven-foot long elevation of the Capitol featuring an impressive fireproof cast- iron Dome and displayed it in his office. It was enthu- siastically viewed by Members of Congress, some of whom immediately supported its funding. Based only on this drawing, Representative Richard Stanton (KY) proposed legislation to appropriate a $100,000 budget, although Walter knew it would cost at least $500,000. That initial appropriation passed, but the Dome ulti- mately cost over $1,000,000 (fig. 7). As noted by Bill Allen, Architect Walter had, in his Fig. 7. Walter's seven-foot long elevation drawing of a new Dome (photo from long-lost original 1854 drawing) THE CAPITOL DOME