When Hart describes the research leading up to the remodeling, his voice speeds up in excitement. He makes the years of research sound like an adventure. He talks of uncovering pieces of parquet. Uncovering the egg and dart design in the cornices. Finding the original paint in the governor's office — a beige wash used to cover the walls before the fabric that had been ordered finally showed up.

Hart talks of analyzing the soil on Capitol Hill, of digging down more than 300 feet and never finding bedrock, only sand and silt.

He talks of searching for, and never finding, the original chandeliers from the governor's board room. (If you know where they are, please call him.) He talks of coming across, quite by accident, the Olmsted Brothers' original site plans.

When pressed, Hart can explain his assignment in simple terms: Make the Capitol safe, make it functional and make it like it was.

A longer version of his assignment can be found in a thick sheaf of paper titled "The Utah State Capitol Planning and Historic Structures Report," prepared by the architectural firm of Cooper/Roberts.

Historian Martha Bradley's portion of that official report explains how the Capitol came to be.

Bradley tells a story that begins in 1888, with the city's gift of 20 acres for a Capitol on what was then called Arsenal Hill. In 1909, Gov. William Spry asked the Legislature to create a commission to seek a design. That same year voters turned down a one-mill property tax to help build the Capitol. In 1910 and 1911, bills passed to allow for $1 million in bonds and $1 million in loans.

The Capitol commission (comprising the governor, secretary of state and various businessmen) hired the landscape architecture firm started by Frederick Law Olmsted to design the site. John Olmsted came to Salt Lake City, looked at the hill and said you need more ground, in every direction. You can't build an inspirational structure 10 feet away from a little iron fence and a house.

The commission members were undeterred and went about holding a design contest. They hired a local architect, Richard Kletting, to design the Capitol itself. Kletting had designed the Salt Palace and Saltair and the Deseret News building.

Bradley says Kletting agreed with Olmsted: We need more land. So the state started to buy up adjoining property.

About this time, a wealthy citizen died. His name was Edward Harriman, and he had been president of Union Pacific Railroad. His widow had to pay 5 percent of his estate, as a death tax, to the state of Utah. With that extra $750,000, everyone felt better about starting construction on the Capitol.