Colorado State Capitol facade Denver Metro Ceramic Art Tile
— — the gold the mountains lent the city.
Not only on a wall.
“The Capitol stands at the east edge of Civic Center Park, looking west across downtown toward the Front Range. White granite, quarried in Gunnison County. The dome is leafed in 24-karat gold from Colorado mines, first laid in 1908 and re-leafed several times since. On the west steps, three stones now carry the brass inscription "One Mile Above Sea Level." Successive surveys, each correcting the last. From those steps the Rockies hold the horizon, and the dome takes the morning light before the city does.
Colorado State Capitol facade Denver Metro Ceramic Art Tile, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
The Colorado State Capitol sits at 200 East Colfax Avenue in downtown Denver, at the east edge of Civic Center Park, directly across the lawn from the Denver City and County Building. Architect Elijah E. Myers, who also drew the Texas State Capitol in Austin and the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, designed the building beginning in 1886. The cornerstone was laid in 1890; the building was substantially complete and occupied by 1894, and the gold dome went on in 1908. The dome rises about 272 feet from the ground. The 15th step on the west side carries the original engraving "One Mile Above Sea Level," marking the 5,280-foot elevation.
The exterior is Colorado white granite, quarried near Aberdeen in Gunnison County and shipped east by rail through the 1890s. The dome itself is copper, leafed with 24-karat gold first donated by the Colorado Mining Association in 1908 as a tribute to the gold strikes that built the state. The leafing has been refreshed several times, most recently in the 2010s, and the gold still comes from Colorado mines. Inside, the wainscoting and pillars are rose onyx, locally called Beulah Red Marble, quarried only at a single small site outside the town of Beulah, south of Pueblo. The entire known world supply was used in this one building. No further deposit has ever been found.
The Capitol is open to the public Monday through Friday, with free guided tours that climb to an interior viewing gallery near the top of the dome for a panorama running from the Front Range west to the high plains east. Tours start from the first-floor rotunda and run roughly hourly. No reservation is required for individuals; group tours are booked through the Capitol Tour Office. The mile-high step sits on the west side facing the Rockies. Later, more precise surveys added brass markers to two additional steps, so three steps now carry an inscription for the 5,280-foot line. Visitors enter through the south door for security screening.