Capitol Commission

In order to select an architect to design Utah's State Capitol building, a design competition was held. This series contains the materials generated by that competition. The series includes numerous photographs and drawings of ideas for the capitol building, actual submissions for the design competition, a document establishing the rules for the design contest, and numerous photographs submitted as examples of competing architects work. [The winner of the competition is not included.]

In order to select an architect to design Utah's State Capitol building, the Capitol Commission sponsored a design competition. Architects who wished to participate were required to demonstrate that they possessed the necessary expertise by submitting examples of their work. Those that were approved to participate received a Program of Competition outlining the rules of the competition and the design program for the proposed capitol. This Program of Competition was to be signed by the architect, agreeing to the terms of the competition, and returned to the Commission. The architects were then free to submit their proposals for the new capitol.

The Program of Competition states that "all drawings of the unsuccessful competitors will be returned to them" and no full-scale architectural drawings are included in this series. Nevertheless, the contents of this series suggest that submission materials included other items, especially presentation booklets and photographs, that were not all returned to the architects.

The out-of-state architects allowed to participate were limited to seven firms from Boston, New York, Chicago, Denver, and Boise. In addition, numerous Utah architects submitted designs. This series does not contain material from all the competitors. Most notably , there are no submission materials from Richard K. A. Kletting, who won the competition, or from the firm of Young and Sons, which came in second. The series contains a sampling of materials documenting the competition process and the variety of designs that were considered by the Capitol Commission.

The series includes the rules for the design contest, photographic examples of work done by interested architects, booklets and photographs showing the proposed capitol designs submitted by various competitors, and a sampling of the Program of Competition booklets returned by architects who intended to enter the competition.