Overview

The domed US Capitol Building is recognized around the world as America's most iconic symbol, the forum for representative democracy, and the physical stage for the transfer of executive power. As the United States grew in size and complexity, the Capitol was built, rebuilt, enlarged, and extended many times under the direction of the few who have served as Architect of the Capitol. This official heads the agency dedicated to preserving and upgrading this magnificent structure, and all the buildings and grounds of Capitol Hill. In Under the Dome, Alan Hantman, the Architect of the Capitol from 1997 to 2007, provides a personal account of how the Capitol works as a physical space; who runs it, how and why decisions are made about the security of the Capitol and the people who work there, and how politicians think about the Capitol Building. He also recounts security threats to the Capitol during his tenure--including the 1998 shooting murder of two police officers and the Capitol evacuation on 9/11 as a hijacked airplane approached--that underscore one of his greatest challenges as Architect. The tension between securing the Capitol and opening it to the public drove the design and construction under his direction of the Capitol Visitor Center, the largest expansion of the Capitol in its history, increasing its size by seventy percent.

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Alan M. Hantman was nominated by President Clinton, and confirmed by the Senate, as the tenth Architect of the Capitol for a ten-year term in 1997. Prior to serving as Architect of the Capitol, Hantman was vice president of planning, architecture, historic preservation, and construction at Rockefeller Center in New York City. In 2000 he was elected to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects. Peter Lerman is a narrator from the heart of New York City: Brooklyn born and raised. Manhattan and Brooklyn were suffused with the flavors and sounds of the entire world. He tasted it all and heard it all. When you come of age in NYC, nothing is foreign. When you hear a low grumble in his voice on occasion, it is authentic. His first wife told him that he loved her not nearly as much as he loved the sound of his own voice. This made him wonder if other people might love the sound of his voice as well. And so, a narrator was born. Also, an amateur thespian, a trade show presenter, a lecturer, an off-key cabaret singer, and an inveterate teller of jokes one does not tell in mixed company. Peter has been a professional photographer in New York City, owned a model and talent management company, and knocked around from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back again only to wind up in Connecticut. His breath control is fabulous because he is also a board certified respiratory therapist. He has appeared onstage as Horace Vandergelder in Hello Dolly, Gangster #2 in Kiss Me Kate, Bobby Gould in Speed-the-Plow, the Governor of Texas in Best Little Whorehouse . . ., Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace, and Lenny in Rumors. The voice is deep and resonant. Sometimes formal, sometimes not. Never stale. Always eminently listenable.

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