INTERVIEWS
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Bill
Dikis
RDG Bussard Dikis Inc.
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JACK
SHEPARD INTERVIEWS BILL DIKIS FOR STORY ON IOWA STATE CAPITOL
RESTORATION
Interviewed February 29, 2000
JACK
SHEPARD: Imagine that you and I ran into each other in an
airport terminal. You were going to San Diego and I was going
to New York City and we had about two minutes in order to strike
up a conversation. What would you tell me about this Capitol and
the project?
BILL
DIKIS: Well, I'm often asked a question like that. And for
the last 19 years I've been able to answer the question with the
first project that I mention, which is always the Iowa State Capitol
restoration. It's been a wonderful project. It's a great privilege
to work on this building which has tremendous landmark heritage
importance in the state. It's such a wonderful opportunity to
be able to preserve the heritage of this capitol for future generations
of Iowa.
JACK
SHEPARD: Tell me what you think about the quality of the original
construction.
BILL
DIKIS: Well, the original construction certainly came out
of a different era. It's load-bearing masonry, and therefore it's
quite a bit different than today's technology. But, I think the
craftsmanship that we see as we look through the details -- and
we get to see a lot of the details -- is really quite wonderful.
And it often gives me pause to stop and be impressed by the knowledge
as well as the skill of those who worked on the building in those
days.
JACK
SHEPARD: They were doing their absolutely best, you think?
BILL
DIKIS: Oh, they were motivated and driven, I think, to do
well. It must have been a wonderful team of people who made this
happen.
JACK
SHEPARD: Can you comment on what's going on now?
BILL
DIKIS: It's been a delight to see the craftsmen who are working
on the project today and how motivated they are to do as well
as those who had built the building in the first place. All of
the people, I think to a person, who are privileged to work on
this project, are very excited about being a part of it and do
their very best.
JACK
SHEPARD: You think that everybody has been able to step up
their work just a notch because of the importance of their job?
BILL
DIKIS: I think they definitely have stepped up their level
of interest in what they do because the project is so important
to them. They hold it high in their own esteem.
JACK
SHEPARD: So this building is obviously one of a kind.
BILL
DIKIS: There are not many one-of-a-kind projects built these
days. And in those days, just think how amazing it must have been
to see this building rising from the plains of Iowa. It is absolutely
the finest landmark we have in Iowa!
JACK
SHEPARD: Can you give me an idea of the extra steps that have
been taken to ensure that this building is put back the way it
was or as close to where it was as possible?
BILL
DIKIS: The preservation effort entails a very careful recording
of what existed in the first place. Sometimes the information
that we need to develop is not actually there, or is very difficult
to get. On rare occasions we need to use circumstantial evidence
in order to be able to get to the restoration effort itself. The
research efforts document a great deal of the building either
by its very presence or by the photographic research and written
research that we're able to find. We make a great effort to preserve
the materials that are in place. And we only reluctantly remove
those materials and add new materials where it's absolutely necessary
because the originals have lost their life value. And so when
we put those things back they're done with a great deal of careful
effort in dimensioning, photographic evidence, and so on to replicate
what was there so that we preserve the character and the texture
of the original building.
JACK
SHEPARD: This is a little bit of a history lesson, isn't it?
BILL
DIKIS: It is. In fact it's sent me to the library many times
to enhance the understanding of the building and its original
builders. It's interesting how much we can learn about today's
buildings from our historic buildings. There was a great deal
of knowledge that still is amazing today in terms of how the weather
interacts with buildings and degrades them and what we can do
to prevent that. But, it's also a very interesting opportunity
to integrate modern day technology and embed it within the building
-- things like fire prevention technology, life safety, things
that we can take advantage of today and integrate very quietly
into the character of the original building.
JACK
SHEPARD: Very quietly. I've spoken with more than one person
who has said that the highest compliment they can receive is when
someone walks into a room and says, "I thought you said you worked
in here." We talked last week about one thing that you're doing
to make sure that the stone in certain areas can withstand all
the water that's going to come down on it. Tell me about the extra
steps that might not have been known about in the past.
BILL
DIKIS: An advancement in technology that's available to us
today to help prevent the stone degradation that has happened
in the past. First of all we have changed the stone material from
sandstone to limestone which has proven to be much more resistant
to the weathering process. One of the other things that we have
changed is on sloped ledges that are exposed to the rainy atmosphere.
We've covered those with a lead-coated copper so that it will
shed the worst of the rain.
JACK
SHEPARD: So we're hoping that this is going to last another
hundred years?
Bill
DIKIS: We think it'll last much more durably during this
next hundred years than the last hundred years, only because we
know more about what's available than the original builders did.
JACK
SHEPARD: When your grandchildren come along and you're walking
up there at the Capitol and pointing to something that you were
instrumental in putting back the way it was originally, how's
that going to make you feel?
BILL
DIKIS: I'm going to feel wonderful to be able to point that
out to my grandchildren. I've taken children into the Capitol,
and it's been just delightful to have them understand what I do
for a living.
JACK
SHEPARD: That's great, and it's THE monument that every Iowan
associates with the state.
BILL
DIKIS: It is; it's a symbol and an icon for the state. I hope
it can become a national landmark sometime.
JACK
SHEPARD: It's definitely a museum and a working building at
the same time.
BILL
DIKIS: It is.
JACK
SHEPARD: That's a little bit of a trick, isn't it?
BILL
DIKIS: It's very tough to keep today's functional requirements
habitable in such a historic building as this, but it works very
well.
JACK
SHEPARD: Part of this restoration project has been updating
some of the Capitol's function to a more state of the art situation.
BILL
DIKIS: Yes, especially for the Legislature who makes extraordinary
demands on the building. The needs for computer technology and
the speaker system, as well as the more quiet things like fire
protection for the inhabitants and those sorts of things, are
just a very interesting mix of the old and the new.
