James_Sept-Oct_2025_web - Flipbook - Page 63
IT WAS a rainy summer afternoon
when I drove to Georgia’s state
Capitol building to meet Georgia
Building Authority Chief of Staff
and Deputy Executive Director Gerald Pilgrim, SG Contracting President Sachin Shailendra, construction firm Balfour Beatty Senior Vice
President/Business Unit Leader
Mike Macon and others for a tour
of the $392 million renovation of
the Capitol Hill area. The project
started last year and will take until
late 2027 to complete. (Work halted
this past January into early April so
that the state legislators’ General
Assembly session could be held.)
Renovations began on the
historic 141-year-old state Capitol
in April 2024, and perhaps many
Atlanta residents or tourists who
have traveled by the area or visited
at that time spotted the massive
(and expensive) scaffolding used to
replace some of the weather-beaten gold atop the dome. That was
phase one of the project, which
also included renovations of some
Capitol offices. But that’s now done.
In fact, when driving by the
Capitol recently, I couldn’t help but
note how new and shiny the gold
dome is— especially when the sun’s
rays hit it. A fresh, thin layer of actual gold was applied to the dome—
all done to preserve the historical
integrity of the rounded roof and
ceiling. The small amount of gold is
real and came from Dahlonega in
north Georgia.
In addition to the gold dome
being re-gilded, the renovation includes a new eight-story legislative
office building with a 500-car parking deck along Martin Luther King
Jr. Drive next to the former state
agriculture building. The General
Assembly approved $36 million for
this project because bipartisan state
leaders agreed that this iconic landmark— deemed the tallest building
in Atlanta when it was completed
in 1889— was quickly running out of
needed space. The plan is that after
the building restoration the state
Agriculture Department will move
back in by early 2027.
As part of this project, Pilgrim,
Shailendra and Macon showed
me the old state library, which
currently is serving as office space
for some legislators and their staff.
“That area will be revamped and
restored as a first-class library,”
Pilgrim says. “We’ve started to
S E PT E M B E R /O C TOBER 2025
63
