After a piece of marble wainscoting trim in the state Capitol’s lower-level east wing came crashing down at the touch of a 5-year-old girl this week, Jan Frew, deputy administrator of the state’s Division of Public Works and the executive project manager for the Capitol restoration, said, “It’s concerning.”

The same type of trim runs all through both the new east and west wings of the Capitol, on both sides of the hallways. “Our facilities staff has gone through and physically pulled on every piece to make sure we don’t have anything that’s imminently loose, to make sure there’s no imminent threat,” Frew said. “But we are going to be doing a more detailed investigation to determine, OK, why did it fall, and is there something we need to look at more in-depth on the other pieces?”

Frew said it likely will cost $500 or less to replace the smashed piece of marble trim, but it will take time. “It is a carved piece,” she said. The state has spare blocks of the marble in its raw form, but will have to have the 2-foot piece, which includes a corner, carved to match the missing one.

Depending on what causes are identified for the failure, the state could go back to contractors who did the work during the $120 million Statehouse renovation that was completed in 2010, which included the addition of the lower-level wings. “That’s a possibility,” she said. “We’d have to verify the details that were required at the time of installation, and if we find that something wasn’t done correctly, that may be an avenue that we would be exploring.”

“It’s our hope that it’s an isolated incident,” she said, “but we’re still investigating. … We’ll be getting a marble expert in there.” 

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