A Capitol that'd foil Langdon

Not wanting to be a pop culture killjoy, David Hart shakes his head apologetically when asked if the Utah State Capitol has any symbols pointing the way to hidden pyramids in the sub-basement, ancient wisdom and the security of the universe.

"We do have a sub-basement," he said. "But the only thing down there are the base isolators so we can survive an earthquake — and they're new."

The first thing I did after reading Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol," his first novel since "The DaVinci Code," was run up to the Utah Capitol, all Robert Langdon-like, and see if the building is full of the sorts of Masonic symbols that Brown identifies in the United States Capitol.

The two capitol buildings look alike. Maybe ours also holds keys to hidden staircases and the secrets of life.

In Brown's book, a man named Walter Bellamy is architect of the U.S. Capitol.

In Salt Lake City, David Hart is architect of the Utah Capitol.

Hart is a pleasant man about the size of a defensive end — just the sort of person you'd want protecting ancient knowledge and the portals that guard it — but even if "The Lost Symbol" sold 1 million copies on the first day of its release (Sept. 15), is currently atop the best-seller lists and is the reading rage of the country, he does not equivocate.

"No Masonic symbols here," he says. "Not a single one."

Hart should know. In 1999, he was hired as the lead architect to restore the state Capitol to its original luster and make it earthquake-proof.

He's seen every inch of the building, including those parts that over the years had been painted over or covered up.

"We've got lots of cherubs, dragons, beehives, laurel wreaths and angels," he says encouragingly. "But no compasses, levels or squares."

Hart also knows about the Masons' trademark symbols. Although he has never been a member, both his father and grandfather were card-carrying Masons. He remembers his grandfather wearing a Masonic ring and carrying a key chain with a Masonic compass.

He has personal respect for the Masons and has no problem believing that the Founding Fathers, many of whom were Masons, used their symbols in the construction of the U.S. Capitol, as Brown details in his book.

"It makes sense they would use what they were passionate about in their symbols," he says.

But the Utah Capitol was built more than 100 years after the U.S. Capitol, and on the other side of the continent.

"We have symbols in this building, but they're different symbols," Hart says.

The preponderance of cherubs, angels, etc., he suggests, are moralistic in nature, suggesting unity, virtue, industry and victory.