File:Illinois State Capitol, Capitol Avenue and 2nd Street, Springfield, IL - 53318778246.jpg

English: Built between 1868 and 1888, this Second Empire and Renaissance Revival-style building was designed by Alfred H. Piquenard of the Chicago-based architecture firm Cochrane and Garnsey to serve as the Illinois State Capitol, replacing the then-31 year old former state capitol in the middle of Downtown Springfield, which had become inadequately sized for the rapidly growing population of the state. The 361 foot (110 meter) tall building, the tallest non-skyscraper legislative building in the United States, is the sixth building to serve as the Illinois State House. The capitol stands on the tallest natural point of land within the city of Springfield, and is the most prominent feature of the skyline of the city. The building features limestone exterior walls, with mansard and gabled roofs and a dome clad in zinc, a tall drum with arched and oxeye window bays, a lantern atop the dome, corinthian columns and pilasters, rustication at the base of the building, double-hung windows, two-story porticoes at the eastern and northern facade of the building, porticoes at the lower level of the drum below the dome, stone balustrades, and dormers at the mansard roofs. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The building was restored and had its systems updated during a renovation in 2011, and as of 2023, is undergoing a major renovation to its north wing, which will restore this portion of the building and further update the building’s internal systems.