UTAH STATE CAPITOL—It was a brisk day as government officials and the public attended a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the new North Capitol Building, Friday, Jan. 16. Construction on the approximately 160,000 square foot structure has taken three years to complete and now rounds out the Capitol Building campus. It will open to the public as the 2026 Legislative Session starts, Jan. 20. 

“This is a really exciting day today and we’re not just here to open a building but I think we’re here to honor the commitment to Utah and its people for generations to come,” said Senate President Stuart Adams. “Those that built the original Capitol didn’t build it for themselves but they built for those that would inherit the work like today.”

They imagined a future, he said. “A future, maybe 100 or 110 years into the future.”

“I’ll never forget it was a very impactful day when we were sitting in that Capitol Preservation Board meeting,” said Gov. Spencer Cox. “We just had a presentation on a new parking structure here and we walked out and I grabbed the former Speaker and Senate President and said, ‘are we really gonna spend this much money on a parking structure next to one of the ugliest buildings in the state? Why can’t we think big?’”

The Capitol is very special, he said. “For those of you that have visited other Capitols, we’re very fortunate. This is renowned as one of the greatest State Capitols anywhere in the country.” Just getting rid of the north building improved the Capitol complex significantly, Cox said. “That would have been enough. But then to replace it with something to match the majesty it was always intended from the very beginning to have a Capitol complex that looked like this.”

This will be here for generations to come, he said. “This, of course, will be for our kids. They will come and they will be uplifted and they will be inspired. They will want to carry that flame forward and they will want to make sure that this remains the greatest state in the greatest nation in the history of the world.”