NC Legislative Architecture

The North Carolina State Legislative Building opened in 1963. The building was designed by Edward Durrell Stone (1902-1978) in the modern style. It is located one block north of the Capitol in Raleigh. The building has a 22-foot wide, red-carpeted stair that leads from the front entrance to the third floor galleries for the House and Senate. There are roof gardens as well as garden courts at the four interior corners. Each pair of brass doors leading to the House and Senate chambers weighs 1,700 pounds. A 12-foot diameter brass chandelier in the rotunda weighs 750 pounds. Brass chandeliers in the chambers and the main stair are eight feet in diameter and weigh 625 pounds each. The building is open to the public daily and tours are available.

Architect Edward Durell Stone with his son, landscape architect Edward Durell Stone Jr., photographed during the 1960s. (Photo by Benjamin Hicks Stone.)

Mr. Stone also designed the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  He was appointed to the Presidential Commission of Fine Arts by Richard M. Nixon in 1971, reappointed by President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, and again in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. Of Interest: Link to other structures designed by Edward Durrell Stone and his firm.