Parliament House

Parliament House at night in 2007

**Parliament House** in Whitelaw is the home of the government of the Democratic States of Toin. It contains chambers for Parliament and offices for the President, Vice President, the Cabinet, and the Cabinet ministers individually and is part of a campus consisting of several buildings. Buildings for the Supreme Court of Toin and offices for MPs and Councillors are part of the campus.

## History

After Whitelaw became the capital of newly independent Toin in 1847, President George Patton, Jr gave Parliament 5 hectares of land upon which to build Parliament House, located on a hill overlooking what is now Whitelaw. A two-story wood-frame building was constructed on the site as a temporary facility where the legislature met starting in 1848. Parliament formed the Parliament House Committee in 1853 to oversee the creation of a new building on the property. The Committee held a national competition to find an architect and chose the submission of C. W. Pearlman. Construction on Pearlman's plan began the year after but was stalled in December of that year by poor economic conditions with only the foundation completed. After several years of stalling, Parliament finally approved an appropriation of additional funds in 1859, and construction resumed without interruption. The Supreme Court Building was finished first in 1860, followed by Parliament House three years later in 1863. Office buildings were added in the 1970s and 1980s. No additional buildings were constructed since then.

Government Place was placed on the Federal Historical Register in 1981.

## Buildings

Located on the campus are Parliament House, the Supreme Court Building, Fredrick Thompson Commons Office Building, and the Richard Garrison Council Office Building. The campus also hosts the Cenotaph, as well as the WW1, WW2, Law Enforcement, and Veterans' Memorials.

### Parliament House

Parliament House houses the chambers of Parliament and offices of several elected and appointed officials. The building is the dominant feature of the campus, with its clocktower reaching 90 metres in height.

The building has a rectangular footprint and is constructed of brick and concrete and faced on the exterior with limestone quarried from Goldpines. The structure consists of four floors. The first floor is within the raised base and houses offices. The second and third floors are surrounded by Doric columns and capped with a cornice that encircles the building. The fourth floor is covered with a gabled roof that is situated behind the cornice on the third floor. On the north facade, the entrance is in a portico framed by eight Corinthian columns reached by 50 granite steps. A similar portico is on the south facade but it covers a vehicle ramp to the lower level instead of steps. The clock tower features an internal lantern that shines white, located just above the bell chamber. The tower is also capped by a flag pole that flies the national flag. The floors and many interior walls are covered by Goldpines marble and marble from Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy are used in other parts of the interior.
Parliament House is also home to busts of all former Presidents. Important historical figures are also depicted flanking the doors to the House and Council chambers in full-body statues.

### Arts and monuments

There are 20 major art installations and monuments on the campus. The Cenotaph is the most prominent. The Cenotaph has been restored to its original state numerous times due to eroding weather and damage due to the 1953 Whitelaw earthquake, but has never been upgraded or otherwise modified. Two fountains flank the Cenotaph in the grass lawn immediately in front of Parliament House, with a statue of the first President and Aka, the pseudo-religious, rabbit goddess of the indigenous peoples, widely believed in their traditional religion as having created the Earth. Other points of interest include World War One and World War Two memorials, and the Law Enforcement Memorial. Several totem poles are also present in various locations around the campus, two of them being in the Commons office building and one in a Council office building.

### Natural disasters

Only one major earthquake has affected Parliament House since its construction, in 1953. The earthquake in question damaged the clocktower so badly that it fell over and had to be completely replaced. The original bell survived, but in a crippled state, and is one of the art installations found on the campus.

## Security

Parliament House is under federal jurisdiction, so the National Police Service is the sole responsible law enforcement authority on the campus, but the Department of Security is responsible *only* for the safety and security of the elected officials and their staffers, compared to the NPS which is responsible for the building and grounds as a whole, though the two agencies have a much more coordinated and shared responsibility on a day-to-day basis.

In response to the September 11th attacks, and due to the perceived potential for an additional, or at least related, attack on Toinan soil, the Toinan Army was deployed to create and maintain a security checkpoint at the entrance to the building, complete with a magnetometer and x-ray machine, but the tight security was relaxed to its original state after two and a half months. After a shooting on 29 September 2020, security was increased to post-9/11 status for a period of two months.

After the 2021 storming of the US Capitol, temporary road blockades on the campus were erected. The Toinan Army Corps of Engineers also temporarily erected concrete barriers and sturdy metal fences prior to a House of Commons session, but all were removed in June of that year. The National Police Service and Department of Security increased their protection detail in and around the campus since the American insurrection.