Ceiling of the Great Hall at the Library Of Congress
During the renovation of the Jefferson Building in the 1980s, restorers discovered that the metallic ornamentation of the ceiling, once thought to be silver leaf, is actually aluminum leaf. When the building was being constructed during the 1890s, aluminum was more precious than silver. The scale-pattern design of the six large skylights mirrors the pattern of the marble flooring beneath.
Ceiling of the Great Hall at the Library Of Congress
During the renovation of the Jefferson Building in the 1980s, restorers discovered that the metallic ornamentation of the ceiling, once thought to be silver leaf, is actually aluminum leaf. When the building was being constructed during the 1890s, aluminum was more precious than silver. The scale-pattern design of the six large skylights mirrors the pattern of the marble flooring beneath.