So without any further ado, let me say hi to Dan and Dan, how are you doing? Good, Carlos. Good. Thanks for having me here. All right, well, let's jump into it. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you got started? Sure, yeah. So as you said, like you said, I'm the Chief Product Officer at Waymo. And for those of you who aren't familiar with Waymo, we're a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they're going. In terms of your question around the personal story, I think it's a bit of a winding road that took me where I started to where I am now. It all started more in terms of software engineering. I started as a software engineer across three different startups. And I went that direction because I was actually torn in terms of the direction to go, but I felt like if I wanted to go technical, I needed to go start technical. But after the three startups, I quickly realized two things. One that when I looked at the really senior engineers, that probably wasn't the skill set and the things that I wanted to continue to exercise. And secondly, I really wanted more social impact in terms of what I, the outcomes that I wanted to have. So I spent some time volunteering with some nonprofits. An example would be there's a nonprofit called Benetech Initiative. If anyone's familiar with that, they do technology for social good. So volunteered with them briefly in terms of looking at human rights violation monitoring and technology that could help that. I felt like I needed to then go to grad school. I wanted to get more context on the business side and on the social impact side. So I went to Harvard for an MBA and a policy degree, spent a few years there. And was really trying to explore that intersection of where I see technology, social impact and a sustainable business model coming together. That said, when I graduated, it was in the midst of the financial crisis. And so I decided that I was going to hide out in technology for a year or so while I figured things out. But I didn't realize what I, what, what ended up happening is I came to Google and I fell in love with product management. I started on Google Maps, worked a little on Google Hangouts as well. So over several years, really fell in love with the craft of product management. But after a few years there, I really yearned for that social impact element. And when the opportunity came up at Waymo, it just felt like too good to pass up that it was really finally this intersection of social impact of technology and a sustainable business model. So that's, that's kind of what brought me to Waymo through that path. I'm smiling because I come from a similar background. I went through similar struggles. I started engineering because that was what I was supposed to do. But I soon realized that I just wanted to leverage engineering in a different way. And back in the day, product wasn't really a thing, or at least as mainstream as. Exactly. Yeah. For me, it definitely wasn't like a clear career path at that time. I totally agree. So you joined Google, started working on different products. And I wonder, what is that switch from mostly software products to also a product that also combines a strong hardware component? Yeah. So I think it's definitely an interesting challenge when you have both software and hardware. I would say that when you think about those, there are definitely many similarities across the core skills as a product manager. A couple of differences. Some are more obvious than others. Clearly, there's different time frames you're dealing with. You have to think about more manufacturing and supply chain in those areas. But I think the biggest challenge to your question is around connecting those two cultures and having the software and hardware sides really talk to each other. Because I think when you take a step back, you're like, oh, maybe it's just around communication and things like that. But I think it goes deeper than that. I do think that in some sense hardware and software sculptures are just naturally different because of the world they grew up in. And so how do you really challenge your software and product managers to be able to establish requirements years out before they've really thought about that? And then how do you challenge your hardware product managers to really build flexibility when it's really hard for them to have flexibility? So I think the core challenge around that is bridging the hardware and software bits and making sure that they're staying on the same page. So in product, we always say that it's important to fall in love with deep problem and not that much with dissolution. So in your particular case, what are those of macro themes or big problems that you are excited about solving? Yeah. So thanks for the question because I love this web because I do think that the mission and core problem that we're trying to solve at Waymo is really compelling to me and to the folks at Waymo. It is really around safety. We think about 1.3 million lives are lost on a global basis every single year. It's one of the top causes of death. And then out of those deaths, 94% of those are actually preventable. They're based on human error. And yet we almost have become desensitized to that problem. When we hear about a traffic accident, we think about more of the traffic rather than the life that was lost. So I think that's the core problem. I think there are other elements that we want to address as well. So for instance, access, 20 to 30 million Americans don't have a driver's license or around sustainability. If you think about 95% of the time your car sits on your driveway not doing anything or only 1 to 2% of cars are sold or EVs or plug-in hybrids. So these are some of the challenges. I would say the core one is really around safety. I think that's the core challenge that we're trying to solve. And I'm glad to hear that because sometimes we tend to think too much about software or optimizing for a local maximum. I'm creating an add-on for this product and that other thing, which obviously it's important in some way, but zooming out and really understanding the impact that you have in the world, literally saving lives and reducing emissions, it's powerful. I know that technology has a key role in that. It's something that I want more PMs tried for to think bigger about the problems that we're trying to solve beyond just websites or mobile apps. Absolutely. So I'm sure you've seen so many different types of product management philosophies throughout your career. So what do you think are the biggest misconceptions for people who are thinking about product but maybe they are not working there with that you think it's important for them to know? Yeah. So when I think about misconceptions or a myth, there's maybe two that come to mind. One actually goes to our shared story, Carlos, right, which is around what's the best way to become a PM? You probably get this question a lot. I feel like I get this question a lot for people that are considering careers in product management. Should I become an engineer first? Should I go to grad school first? And I would say that I think the fastest path to being a PM is to be a PM. That I took a more roundabout way because one, like we talked about, I didn't know about product management. I wasn't sure about product management. So I kind of optimized for optionality. I think things like going more technical first gives you more optionality, going to grad school gives you more optionality. But I think if you really want to be a PM, you're sure about it. The best thing to do is be a PM. And then I think the question is really around, do you become a more of a generalist PM? And you have a bit like a mix of different types of PM roles, whether it's consumer enterprise or more technical or more user facing. Or you want to specialize early. But I think that's one question that a lot of people wrestle with. I think another one is around today, I think especially over the last few years, things like large scale experimentation have really kind of been refined as a tool set for product managers. And I think it's been really powerful for us. But I think sometimes we forget about making sure that we exercise the full tool set as product managers. So for instance, at Waymo, if you're thinking about either kind of more moonshots or startups, I think you don't have the luxury of billions of users right off the outset. And so for us, a lot of investment in user research, a lot of investment in incremental pilots. So for instance, we have an early rider program that has allowed us to have that first touch point with public users. I think those are really important elements that we shouldn't forget as body managers. When I talk a lot, when I talk with a lot of non-PMs who always come to us and say, hey, I want to become a product manager at Google or some of the alphabet companies, it's definitely top of mind for a lot of them. Before I start giving advice, I always ask them, what do you think PMs do? Because like sometimes from the outside, people imagine that you are there on your desk, having these big ideas and are waiting for the engineers to execute for you. It's not that fancy, trust me. And there are a lot of people who are actually PMs in the trenches who also are thinking, oh my god, what did I do to myself? So it's good to understand the different point of view as well. So I mean, just talking about people who say, okay, I consider my options and you know what, I'm going to go for it. I want to be a PM. What do you think are the key keys? Yeah, in terms of course skills, I would kind of break it down to four different areas. One is around being able to set a vision for the product, but also being able to be data-driven and analytical. Because I think you're probably, often your greatest ideas aren't going to come screaming at you from your metrics. But I do think some of the most dangerous product mistakes are made when we don't get the right metrics or we ignore the metrics. So I think that's one element, that's one core skill. I think another one is around influence. And I think that there's a key one is around influence. So if I think about the difference between a good product manager and a great product manager, I think influence is one of those differences. Sorry, my screen save was just turned on. And so I think that's one of the biggest differences. That's one of the core skills that's really there.  One of the things you mentioned early on is just maybe things are, you know, almost, you think it's basically, you know, people just listen to whatever the product manager says. And like you were alluding to, I think one of the biggest challenges, one of the core skills of a PM is be able to convince and be able to, whether it's using data or whether it's using emotions, be able to convince folks of what you think is the right thing. So for instance, one way I think about it is the best product idea or best feature is useless if you can't convince people to make it happen. I think other elements around technical fluency. So like I said before, I still believe that the fastest way to be a PM is to be a PM. But I do think technical fluency is important, right? For us to be able to win the respect of our engineering counterparts, be able to go toe to toe with them, be good design partners, and also be able to push back when things are pushed back on us. And lastly, I think one of a critical skills for a PM is bringing clarity to ambiguity. When I think about kind of the biggest, most ambiguous problems that we wrestle with, I always want to be able to put a PM on it and have, she will then bring that sort of clarity to that understanding the different stakeholders, the different challenges. And so I think those are some of the core skills that I would expect that I think are critical to being a successful PM. Thank you for sharing that in such a transparent way. Now I want to talk about yourself because obviously you've been working for a long time and now I'm sure you also keep learning. I'm a big believer in the concept of lifelong learning. So what are some of those key skills? Learning to be just about work. But in general, what are you most passionate about learning? How do you make sure to save time for it? Well, let me by start off by saying I admit that I'm actually, I think I'm actually pretty terrible about this, this lifeline learning concept, Carlos. I don't have any hobbies. I don't set aside time for this. I can't remember the last time that I went to kind of a more formalized training. So I think one of the things then I have to do is make sure that learning has to be incorporated into my life or my day-to-day work. And that's the only way that happens. And so if I think about some examples of areas that I'm trying to learn on, one is in my personal life. If you ask my kids, I think their biggest frustration with me is that I'm always distracted. I'm always thinking about kind of something else or thinking about something next. And so I'm definitely working very hard on trying to be in the moment, not plan for the next natural disaster when we're already dealing and trying to trying to deal with the current one. So I think that's one is right staying focused and in the moment. When I look at my career-wise in terms of development there, I actually would think of two examples there. One is actually just in general. When I think about to your question around how do product leaders kind of grow with your organization, especially as our scope gets bigger and things like that, I think for me, I've never felt like a natural leader when it came to things. And so when I come to leadership and new leadership challenges that come about, I feel like I almost every few years have to confront myself and see if I'm ready to reinvent myself again. One way I think about it is I sometimes see myself as a rubber band, and each time the role gets bigger, you kind of stretch a little more. And you almost feel like every day you're paying a bit of a cost in terms of that stretch. When am I reaching the point where this is the most my personality or how I work will let me go? And I think I don't know if it's true for many people. I feel like that's been my journey and feeling like at those times really have to push through it and feel like how do you have not just the mental, but kind of your whole essence really bought into taking that next step and making it so it's not a feeling of constant tension and pull, but that once again you've kind of stretched to a new level. To me that's a big part of growing for me. More specifically I would say another example on growth and learning that I think is a trend that we see within the valley is more and more for product leaders. We're expected to lead a more integrated organization. So I think, so for instance at Waymo we have product management, technical program management, UX design, UX research, and product data analytics altogether. And I think those work really well together. I think there's a reason why that's a trend. But I think that's also a challenge for product leaders is that we have to build trust with these new functions that we're not going to always be biased towards product management and we'll have to learn about those domains so we can give mentorship to those areas. So if I think about those are some of the like needing to incorporate learning into our day to day and then trying to grow and learn from a personal level in terms of being in the moment and around learning about multifunction organizations. I actually shared that philosophy that you said about integrating learnings part of your life that actually comes in the world like long learning because I believe that you can only learn when you actually need it, when you're in a situation where you can either get out or up. So I think in a way that's why in college sometimes, even though we had amazing professors and very interesting topics, if you are not in a situation where you feel that you can apply it right away or you don't know how relevant this is going to be to your life, it's harder to empathize. But when you are there and something depends on you, there is no way out. That's going to really make the learning come true. Yeah, I agree. So obviously now that Waymo is larger, you're not the only PM there absolutely. So how do you balance that influence that you have as a Chief Product Officer with also the wiggle room that you want to give to your product leaders to shape the vision of the company? Yeah, I think this is actually a really timely and challenging question actually. So I would start off by I do think that the role of the Chief Product Officer or product leaders really around setting the vision and the overall guard rails of the product that we want to build and resolve conflicts especially on priorities that come up.  And ideally the roadmap is an outcome of great internal brainstorms across your product team where you get the best answers. But I think the heart of the question I think is a really challenging one as a product leader understanding what's the right level right where you have accountability for the whole product but also giving autonomy to your team. And so I think about it as more of kind of like a two-step program because I would fully admit I don't feel like I've fully solved this and I feel like the first step of the program is you have to develop at least the awareness to understand when you're too high level or too detailed. Because I think you're never going to figure out the end game unless you get that sense. And whether it's cues that hey you're getting questions that you don't remember or you haven't briefed on the rationale for it. And that's kind of a signal that maybe you're too high level and you don't have enough insight and ownership. Or hey you're too detailed because you're in the weeds on something you're sensing frustration right or you don't have time to stay on the more strategic level. So I think that that awareness is critical then being able to adjust and modulate I think is a critical element. Lastly I think the second step is the ideal right where you have a clear rubric right for giving guidance to your team. Hey these things need to come to me or these things you don't. I wouldn't say I'm there yet and I think that's a kind of real that's where you want to be. So then it's very clear through the organization what needs to come to you or not. But I think you know getting at least to the first step is critical as a product leader. I have another million or maybe billion dollar question for you. So obviously Google has been notorious for building a lot of products not just external products but also internal products for employees to collaborate more efficiently. So in product we always talk about build versus buy. I'm curious to know what is your take and best practices on like when a company should decide to build something internally versus maybe leveraging an external solution. Yeah I think this is one of the areas where the alphabet structure is allowed. Google and the other bets to come up with different approaches here. And so at least for Waymo the approach that we're taking is we have a lot to do when it comes to building self-driving technology. And so overall our approach is around whenever something off the shelf can suffice for that functionality we need we'd much rather focus our engineering on things that either are core to the technology or very close and well integrated to it. I think the challenge of applying that policy is that there are going to be natural tendencies to build in-house. Whether you have more control you can own that more there's a concern that it won't be customized enough to your needs but I do think we have to think about the ongoing tax of the investing in each of the solutions so really trying to push on hey why can't we use that off the shelf software for this use case. So that I would say that's that's the best policy for us. Now I also want to talk about culture specifically product culture as your team grows especially like now across multiple demographics like how do you build a nurtured strong product culture. Yeah product culture is definitely super important. I would say that when I think about some of the most challenging areas probably three areas come to mind. One is how do you set the right balance and I know it's going to be a little controversial to say that this is a balance but there is a balance between really having a strong expectation of high performance and making sure that there's also psychological safety within the organization and I think this is something that that I've learned over the years right is I think early on it was very very focused on making sure that every output was was kind of perfect or or everything that we did was and I think the problem with that is then it creates this feeling that you know mistakes aren't allowed and so I think that's an important element to think about in terms of setting up your product culture is how do you set that good balance between the two. You want people to be able to experiment and try new things and and feel like it's sometimes okay for there to be mistakes even while you keep a high bar for your outputs. I think the other one is around collaboration. If I think about what's core to a successful product organization I feel like collaboration is at the heart of it. Like a product org lives and dies by whether it's perceived as collaborative with its cross-functional partners and I think that starts with the organization itself. How do you early on you have to make sure you stamp out any kind of elements of you know whether it's politics or selfishness and make sure that collaboration is a true value that comes right from the beginning. And I think the last one is around inclusion and diversity. I think this is definitely a relevant topic throughout the valley but I think it's also super relevant to building good product cultures. If you think about product teams we're meant to try to represent our users and unless we have that sense of diversity amongst ourselves we're not going to get all the voices heard and we're not going to then bake the best products and so we've been doing that a lot of that here at Waymo overall and then within the Waymo product org especially. We've done everything from kind of reevaluate everything in our hiring process to find whether there are any biases making sure we're getting diverse pipelines and also pulsing and making sure we understand what are possible blind spots that we have around inclusion and diversity around the overall organization. So I think those are some of the three toughest and most important elements of building a strong product organization. Thank you and I want to wrap things up when I ask you a question about the future. So where do you see most opportunity for product managers in the next few years? Yeah I think I see two trends that I think are really big opportunities for product managers. One is that I do see a continued evolution of where product management can be applied. So I think initially whether it's from early organizations or early in industry is you often find product management being more applied to user facing roles or more kind of traditional product development. I think we're continuing to see a trend. We saw this within the AV industry for instance right like where you typically apply that more to like your mobile app or your those things and then now we're seeing that kind of broaden and make sure that there's product coverage across the full technology stack and across the organization. So I think that's one important trend that I think is going to be important for the industry but also an opportunity for product managers. It's a new set of challenges for us to take on. I think the other trend is like what we talked about the very beginning right is around I think in Silicon Valley we often talk about social impact and wanting to improve the world and it's almost become just a kind of a trite phrase. But I think looking at the true moonshots the true things that we think will change society and the world for to make it a better place. I think there's continued opportunities for us to even think bigger and think beyond what is available to us today or possible today. I think those are probably two trends. One that I hope to continue I think will be really powerful for society that I think will also lead to more opportunities for product managers. Thank you for your time Dan and you're such a big thinker and an inspiration so it's been a pleasure to learn and share this time with you. Is there anything else you would like to add? No I think those are the main things that I think I'm excited thanks so much for the time here Carlos I'm really excited about what the product school has done. I agree that I think it's an amazing function as product management for us to and it's great that we're investing in it because I think it's a powerful function especially in terms of the impact that we have on society. Bye Dan thank you for everything. Of course thank you thanks for having me.


Lenny Leahy, the Executive Director of Mechanics Hall, and I am thrilled to welcome you to the 2019 Sparrow Lecture. I want to begin with enormous gratitude for those who have made this evening possible, and that starts with Robert Baird. Robert brought the idea of this lecture to us, and he has been beyond generous with his time and his resources to make the program in our Capital Craft Photo Exhibit, which if you haven't seen, please visit in the classroom on your way out. Come together. The artistry and craftsmen that went into the design and the restoration of the US Capitol Dome are at the heart of Mechanics Hall. Our founders, the main charitable mechanics association, were mechanical artists, carpenters, painters, woodworkers, engineers, blacksmiths, and architects. Tonight, we celebrate that history in this beautiful historic ballroom. So thank you, Robert. I want to thank our sponsors for this evening, Turner Construction, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Local 7116, and the New England Mechanical Contractors Association, Oak Point Associates, and Chimbro. Thank you also to our many mechanic and maker patrons that I see in the audience tonight, and of course, our staff and our volunteers, and our Sparrow Lecture Committee. Chair Pam Plumb, our board president, Paul Stevens, Dale Doucette, Carolyn, Greg, Chandra, and Kathleen. Could I get a show of hands of people that this is your very first visit to Mechanics Hall? Oh my goodness. Wow, well, welcome especially to all of you, and I hope that tonight's event is just the beginning of our relationship with you. Mechanics Hall has been at the center of Portland's Art District for 160 years. It has served a community of people who are curious about history, creativity, ingenuity, and knowledge. This building and this ballroom have been home to great debates, conversations, performances, and lectures, and we are excited to continue that tradition with the Sparrow Lecture this evening. I know that before I began working on this program, I didn't necessarily think of construction workers and tradespeople as artists, but as you will see tonight, they very much are. And when you think about what the capital represents, the ideals that guide us as a country, that dome is a masterpiece. It is an architectural and artistic expression of our democracy. And I cannot think of anyone who shares that sentiment more than our very special guest this evening, Senator Angus King. If you follow the senator on Instagram, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. He has captured the capital dome in photographs from every imaginable angle in every light and season, and through his eyes, you truly experience the beauty and majesty of this architectural gem. Senator Angus King was sworn in as Maine's first independent United States Senator in January of 2013, filling the same seat that once held by storied Maine leaders Edmund Muskie, George Mitchell, and Olympia Snow. He served on four oversight committees, rules, intelligence, armed services, and energy and natural resources. And of course, Senator King also served as the 72nd governor of our great state of Maine. During his two terms in the Blaine House, he achieved significant reforms in education, mental health service, land conservation, environmental protection, and the delivery of state services. He was re-elected in 1998 by one of the largest margins in Maine's history. Senator, while our day jobs differed dramatically, we both share a sense of awe for the history and beauty of the buildings in which we work. We are so grateful to have you here this evening to share your knowledge and appreciation of this historic landmark, and we are delighted to provide you with a small respite to talk about the building you so admire rather than what might be going on inside of it. Will you please join me in welcoming Senator Angus King? Before I begin, I'd like to give you a short presentation on what we're accomplishing these days in the U.S. Senate. I'm hesitant about this presentation for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Earl Shuddleworth is here. Earl Shuddleworth, the state historian, started, firstly, Governor Joshua Chamberlain, worked with Earl for many years, and I think Earl will remember this meeting. When they decided to renovate the statehouse in Augusta, of course, the governor's office is in the statehouse. Earl came in, do you remember? And there was a group of builders, and they came in and sat down with me and said, you know, we're going to renovate your office, and I said, no. And the reason I did was I didn't want a headline that said, you know, a million dollars spent on new drapes for the governor's office or something. And then I compromised and said, okay, you can put in new carpet. And then I said, well, maybe, and actually it was you and Kay finally leaned on me, and they renovated the governor's office, and lo and behold, there was a drop ceiling that had been there since nobody knew how long. They pulled it down and there was this beautiful cornice all the way around that had been covered up for probably 50 or 75 years, and it turned into an absolutely beautiful space. So Earl, thank you for persuading me to do that. I cannot stop taking pictures of the United States Capitol. It is just so inspiring, and one of my favorite things to do is either to escort visitors into the Rotunda or to be standing there when people who haven't been there walk in. And universally, there's this... I mean, the word awe is overused, but that's what comes across people's faces. It is truly, I believe, one of the great interior spaces in the world. I took this one day sitting on this bench, and the world down there is so chaotic and hectic that every now and then, if you can just catch a quiet moment, I sat on the bench and, isn't that an amazing place to go to work? That's my office. Now, I'm going to get this out of the way first, and you've seen this on a number of my Instagrams, and you don't have to follow me on Instagram, Angus King, Maine, but it would be nice. It took me six months to persuade my staff to let me do it by myself. So if you want an unfiltered view of what I'm thinking and doing, this is the place to go. So it was just... What I have said several times on these pictures is it's too bad our work doesn't match the magnificence of the surroundings. It is one of the most magnificent places, and the people who built and created this incredible space had a great vision of America. And one of the great stories about the Capitol is that it was built in the early part of the 1800s, and they came to sort of a pause in the 1850s and started the dome in 1855, I think, and then it was stopped. And Congress wanted to stop the work for the Civil War. They were otherwise occupied, and Lincoln wouldn't let them. Lincoln said, no, we're going to finish this because it's a symbol of the Union and of the grandeur of this great country. So the dome was finished after the Civil War, I think about 1866 or 67, but it is one of the great interior spaces. Now, one of the things that people always look at when they come in and Robert's going to do this in more detail, but at the top is a painting, and most people look up and think it's a painting of God. There's this guy on a throne and sort of angels around, but it's not, it's George Washington. And the angels are holding, the women are holding a banner that says, E Pluribus Unum, out of many one, from many one, which by the way has 13 letters, 13 colonies, 13 letters, E Pluribus Unum. Now, one of the really interesting things, and I learned this, Mary and I did our house at Brunswick about 20 years ago, and we wanted a room with a cathedral ceiling and there was a room with a peaked roof and our architect, a guy named Tony Jackson, some of you may know him, a wonderful architect. By the way, my favorite course in college was architecture. I wanted to be an architect, but I was awful in math and I was afraid the buildings would fall down. So I failed in that aspiration. But when Tony did our room, he pointed out that the interior ceiling is different than the actual roof. It's a shallower pitch. And then he whipped out a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral to point out that the dome is here and it's a different dimension, do you see, than the ceiling? And indeed, here's St. Paul's Cathedral, same idea, Sir Christopher Wren. The top of the rotunda inside is a different curvature than the actual dome itself, which I thought was very interesting and I learned that from my living room in Washington. Now here's Robert in the middle of his work. I took that one night and I happened to be there during the restoration of the dome and the whole, I thought that was, the whole thing was covered with scaffolding and lit up from the inside. It was an extraordinary view for months and months that was really very striking. And I did once go, the senators and their chiefs of staff and I suppose members of Congress are allowed to go up all the way to the top of the dome. I made the mistake of doing that once. The view down into the rotunda is one of the most terrifying experiences. I backed away and then went outside and looked out across the mall, which was fine. But there's something about looking down into that and I can't imagine you're having to live with that every day. But it is an extraordinary place. Now one other story I want to tell, this is the statue of freedom that's on the top of the dome and she looks east. The front of the capital is the east side that faces east and that's where presidential inaugurations were for, I don't know, 150 years. There's a famous photograph of Lincoln's second inaugural on the steps on the east front of the capital and on the balustrade behind him in the picture is John Wilkes Booth. And it was about a month before Lincoln's assassination so John Wilkes Booth was plotting even at that time. He's in that famous photograph. But anyway, the east side was designed and the west side is now which faces down toward the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument is where inaugurations are now. There's a lot more room for people but up until I think Reagan was the first president who was inaugurated on the west side. Anyway, this statue is really interesting and it has an interesting bit of history. You can see that she's wearing a helmet with a plume on top. The original design for the statue was that she was going to have a cap, a soft cap that would sort of fall over to one side and the cap was the symbol of the French Revolution. At the time of the French Revolution it was called a freedom cap. Well, it seems that the person in charge of the final construction of the dome was a fellow who had been a senator from Mississippi and was then Buchanan secretary of defense and his name was Jefferson Davis who by the way, for reasons that still I think are a mystery an honorary degree from Bowdoin College in 1859. I've never been able to ascertain why that was the case. So, Davis said, no, we're not going to have the cap because that might be interpreted as an anti-slavery statement. Cap of freedom. So, that's why today you look at Madam Freedom on top of the dome of the capitol and she has a helmet. This picture I just took about three nights ago. I was walking home and you can see down here there's restoration going on on the house side. This is the Senate side here. The house side is here and the moon was coming up and it was just too much.  No, you can take a million pictures with digital until one of them looks good. That's that. But it is an inspiring place to work and it's just, I hope that you will come and visit. I'll end with this. Any Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock my office is open for anybody from Maine that's in town for coffee and really good blueberry cake and we also have young interns and some of you have told me tonight you've had tours of the capitol which is really wonderful. So come and visit and now I want to introduce Robert Baird. Robert is a craftsman who started, I love his story, he started working for his father in Williamsburg on restoration at the bottom of a well looking for artifacts. So this guy went from the bottom of a well to the top of the capitol dome. And he was in charge, his company won the bid to restore the capitol dome. It's cast iron and it hadn't been, I don't know how long it had been since it had been maintained, but it really needed work and it was a long and arduous and wonderfully executed project and the good news is he lives in Brooklyn, Maine. That's Brooklyn with an I. That's the real Brooklyn. And we're really honored to have the work that he did in Washington for all of the citizens of America and we're so happy to have him with us here tonight. Robert Baird. Thank you Senator King. That was very generous and it's really a privilege and an honor to be here with you tonight. I want you to know that I love the state of Maine. I was struck by Maine when I first came here in the early 80s. I spent a week at Wooden Boat in Brooklyn and John Wilson was kind enough to let me stay at the boat house down on the water with my wife and have our pick of any Wooden Boat that we could climb into. And I bit, hook, line, and sinker and I've dreamt about Maine my entire life. I'm originally from Utah was raised in Utah and my father was one of the early conservation architects in America. He was actually mentored by Dr. Ed Kindrew who was the architect for Williamsburg. My father was chosen to be the architect for the restoration of an early Mormon community on the Mississippi River called Nauvoo. And at the age of 10 years old my father moved our family from Utah to Illinois and we lived on the banks of the Mississippi River. And it was there that I got my early education and developed a love for preservation. Like Senator King said I did find myself in the bottom of a well and somebody mentioned to me that I ended my career on the top of the dome and I can't think of a better way to end a career in preservation. So today I get to talk about the US Capitol which is one of my favorite subjects. Like Senator King there's no other place more amazing than to walk into the Capitol. I for three years had the opportunity to watch the sunrise and the sunset from the top of the dome. And I wasn't there every single day but mostly six days a week and I grew to love the views around Washington DC. I want to start my presentation by talking a little bit about cast iron because most people don't know that the dome was actually manufactured in cast iron and I want to give a little bit of context about cast iron and its properties. Cast iron is a ferris metal and it weighs 500 pounds a cubic foot. Its melding point is 2060 to 2200 degrees. It has a carbon content of 1.4 to 4% and it shrinks an eighth of an inch per foot from its molten state to its solid state. The history of cast iron is quite interesting. Of course the iron age started at 2500 years BC but cast iron was actually used as early as 500 AD in architectural structures and they were found in China. Actually monasteries were built up in the mountains and were tied to the mountain by cast iron columns. In 1770 the iron bridge over the Seven River was the first major engineered cast iron structure. In Ditherington in the Flax Mill it had a structure made of cast iron. In New York City there was a military arsenal and armory or an arsenal that was made from cast iron and water vellette. By 1820 cast iron was being used by the British Empire all over the world and the commissioners house in Bermuda was actually had a cast iron structure. It's interesting that my dad was able to do that restoration. As a preservationist in the early 70s my father was one of the first cast iron structures in America. There was a complete restoration where the building was disassembled and re-erected. My brothers and I helped do that restoration in my parent's garage. There was nobody doing that kind of work around. We lived up in the Rocky Mountains and there was a thriving foundry industry still in our community so we were able to use local foundries and pattern makers to accomplish that work. By the 1850s cast iron was being widely used around the world and in Great Britain which was the largest manufacturer or user of cast iron was using iron in outposts all over the world. In Glasgow, Scotland the McFarland foundry became world renowned was producing a lot of that iron. This is an illustration from their 1869 catalogue of their showroom and they made everything from fountains to railing systems to canopies and to glass and iron structures. In the early 1850s about the same time that Thomas U. Walter was chosen to work on the U.S. Capitol one of the great engineering accomplishments was at the World's Fair and it was the Crystal Palace. It was designed by a gardener who had this idea they were getting ready to do this world exposition and they couldn't figure out how they were going to build a building big enough and this gardener came up with an idea using glass and cast iron to build the Crystal Palace. It was 1,850 feet long 400 feet wide 108 feet high and one of the most amazing structures and it was all glass and cast iron. So in 1850 a brilliant engineer from New York City was at this exposition. His name was James Bogartis and he saw what was happening with cast iron and he came up with this idea to build buildings out of cast iron, cast iron store fronts and in 1859 he filed a patent with the U.S. patent office and became really the founder of cast iron architecture in America. By 1860 cast iron factories were springing up all over the United States to build cast iron facades and a lot of that was attributed to James Bogartis and his patent. Every major industrial city in America had cast iron structures. So cast iron was starting to become in the forefront of architects and designers. Now was it just created out of thin air? There were precedents for this dome that Thomas U. Walter had seen and was familiar with. One was the St. Louis County Courthouse it was completed but the dome was actually cast iron. Another one of the structures that Walter was really intrigued with was St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg which had a cast iron dome. So I want to take time now and talk a little bit about the history of the capital. The capital has had a series of architects that have been involved in the design and managed the work at the U.S. Capital. The very first architect of the capital was William Thornton. William Thornton was kind of a renaissance man. He was born in the British Virgin Islands and studied in Scotland at the University of Aberdeen and became a doctor. But he loved art and he loved architecture. And he did a grand tour of Europe saw the architecture in Paris and Great Britain and Rome and self trained to become an architect. And William Thornton heard about this competition to design this new state building in the capital of Washington, DC and he created a design and it was selected to be built. And he became that first architect of the capital. Following William Thornton Benjamin Henry La Trobe who was a neoclassicist was born and trained in Great Britain was really a classically trained architect. And he took Thornton's design and added the central section to the US capital and then added a dome to that structure. Benjamin Henry La Trobe always complained about Thornton because he thought he was just cleaning up this amateurs architecture work. Following La Trobe Charles Bullfinch was the third architect of the capital and he was the very first American trained classical architect to be involved with the US capital and he had gained a reputation for his work in Boston and he was at the US capital and added to that, added the front porticoes, built a bigger dome and was involved in the US capital until 1829. So after after Bullfinch there was a period of time when there wasn't really an architect of the capital. His position had kind of been terminated and the capital was growing and the building was full and by 1850 it was determined that the capital needed to be enlarged. And again there was another competition to select an architect and a design an enlarged design for the US capital and that competition was entered by several architects and during that competition no architect was selected but there was an architect that stood out and these two men really became the brains behind the master plan and the design of the US capital and they were two real unique individuals Thomas Hsu Walter is there on the left and Walter Miggs is on the right Thomas Hsu Walter was classically trained as an architect he was from Philadelphia he worked with William Strickland he helped found the AIA and he was the architect of the capital from 1851 to 1865 What Walter did that was so unique is he hung the drawings that he had created of his master plan for the US capital with the house and senate wings and this enlarged dome and then he invited senators and congressmen to come into his office to look at those drawings and everyone that saw them was so impressed that the president actually commissioned him to be the architect of the capital and then that building was rapidly put into construction and contracts were awarded I think $100,000 was appropriated to build the building a lot of the senators and congressmen didn't really know how much it would cost in the end to build but that money was appropriated and construction started in 1851 of this new Thomas Eustach-Walter design now the thing that was really interesting is Walter was this brilliant designer but the president appointed Miggs from the Corps of Engineers to construct the capital and this often occurs in construction projects when you have a designer and a builder they butt heads and it turned out that Walter had designed this beautiful building and Miggs was impeccably honest excuse me and he wanted to make sure that this project ended up in budget and he was always trying to cut corners and so Walter quit providing him drawings and then he quit paying Walter and by 1859 there was a deadlock the building was in construction the house and senate wings were being built but there was this deadlock finally Walter Miggs resigned and Walter took over the construction of the capital and things started to proceed the thing that's amazing about the US capital is this cast iron dome and the structure as Senator King mentioned it's an inner dome and an outer dome and they're tied together by this amazing cast iron structure so it becomes an amazing engineering feat to design and build this dome much of the design work for the actual dome itself was done by Schoenborn who was a German engineer that was on the staff of Walter he created all of the drawings that had Walter's name on them and I've seen a lot of these drawings they're magnificent wash renderings these drawings that I show here are five feet wide and nine feet tall and they're hand rendered with pen and ink and washed with color and they're phenomenal so Miggs graduated from West Point he was the quarter master general of the US Army he supervised construction of the US capital from 1855 to 1859 and he was also the architect for Arlington Cemetery so when he left the capital he continued his career as an engineer and became one of the cornerstone people that helped during the Civil War and was a right hand man to grant so a couple facts about the dome the dome is 287 feet tall it was cast by a foundry in New York City James Fowler Kirkland there's almost 9 million pounds of cast iron involved in the dome and it was purchased for 7 cents a pound and that was installed and a lot of it was erected by hired slaves the cost for the dome for the construction of the expansion from 1850 to 1866 was a million thousand dollars and the Statue of Freedom that sits on top that Senator King spoke so nicely about was designed by Thomas Crawford interesting to note Thomas Crawford was a brilliant American sculptor who was in Rome he was commissioned by Walter to develop this model for this statue and he got it completed and then he died of a heart attack and he was doing the model in Rome it took from 1858 to 1863 to get the model to the United States and then cast in a foundry outside of Washington DC and erected up on the dome during the course of that design when Walter finally got the model the model was 3 feet taller than was originally planned so Walter quickly during that 1859 down period quickly redesigned the dome to change the proportions so that that statue would fit up there and it 3 feet taller than it was originally so I just want to show some images quick of construction this image shows the US Capitol with the enlarged dome by Wolfinch and these images show construction of the cast iron the way that the cast iron was erected was there was a big steam powered derrick placed right in the center of the rotunda the cast iron was brought in assembled on the ground and then raised by this derrick and this is a great picture of Abraham Lincoln standing by this steam powered derrick this image shows one of the cast iron columns they're about 30 feet tall being brought in by a team of horses and they were cast in one piece so that's a column that probably weighs 5 or 6000 pounds and is being brought in by a team of horses these images are magnificent I love to look at them closely because when we did work on the building today we take for granted the tools and equipment that we have at our fingertips realizing that in 1850 there were no power tools there was no way to drill quickly cast iron there was no way to quickly cut cast iron everything had to be done by hand when the Capitol was designed the Washington canal came right up the mall and cast iron was brought up the Potomac River and right up to the base of the almost the Capitol and then brought by teams of horses up on the Capitol Hill and this image shows that canal so the dome was assembled and the exterior dome was completed by 1863 and the exterior was completed by 1866 and this shows the dome complete with the Statue of Freedom which was installed in 1863 so the U.S. Capitol is really a work in progress its initial construction started in 1793 to 1826 and then it had its first major restoration in 1851 the east front renovation took place in 1858 to 1962 and then the west front terrace renovations took place in 1993 the Capitol visitor center was built in 2008 there was a first phase for the dome restoration that took place in 2011 and then in 2014 phase two of the dome restoration took place which was the actual work on the dome itself in 2015 another major project was started that will take seven years and that's to completely restore all the exterior stone all the way around the U.S. Capitol and that work is going on now so you'll see parts of the building that are still in scaffolding so this is the dome this shows the apotheosis of George Washington and you see that beautiful interior structure this is what the dome looked like when we started restoration George Donut was placed on the inside to protect the people in the U.S. Capitol because the U.S. Capitol was in full use during the restoration and this dome caught any debris or any dust that was taking place on the on the upper interior dome of the Capitol while that restoration was taking place this illustration shows some of the early renderings that were done by August Schoenborn and then there are images of that beautiful engineered structure during the restoration that interior space between the domes was all cleaned and repainted and it's immaculate so if you get the opportunity if you get permission from Senator King's office you can take a dome tour but you have to have an escort and it's magnificent to see when you walk up into the dome and you walk around the edge of the rotunda and pass the windows there are a series of windows that have engravings that have been made by people's diamond rings from the time the building was built until today and when we were doing the restoration I discovered a couple of those windows and I told the preservation people didn't need to make sure that all of that stays in the building and you can see dates that people inscribed the glass but it's a magnificent structure to see from the inside to do the restoration the dome had to be scaffolded scaffolding was a major piece of the contract over 55 miles of pipe scaffolding if laid from end to end it was used to scaffold the building there were enough scaffolding planks placed on the dome to create a 5 foot wide sidewalk from the dome to the Lincoln Memorial and back to the capital so it took a year to actually build the scaffolding so I received a contract to do the work in 2013 I showed up in the field in early 2014 and we waited for the scaffolding to be built so that we could get up to do our work now fortunately for us the general contractor needed a lot of other things done on the building so we had work to do that we hadn't planned on but before we could actually get into the major part of our contract we waited until that scaffolding could be built and by the end of 2014 the scaffolding was topped off clear up above the Statue of Freedom this is one of those great images of the US capital at night during a storm all lit up so why was the dome restored what were the problems that were so great that it needed to be repaired there were corroded and broken castings random fractures in the iron and missing fasteners rust-jacking there was a lot of issues with dissimilar metals where you have iron and cast iron together and the one material is more noble than the other so one dissolves faster the cast iron was more noble than the wrought iron and the building was fastened with wrought iron fasteners and those fasteners disintegrated these are images of what we found when we got on the job site these are some great big acorn finials they weigh about 350 pounds a piece there was not one thing holding those on the dome except their weight we actually picked those off when we got up there these are a lot of the cracks and what happened was a major gutter system that was built internal in the dome and over the years the cast iron expanded and contracted it had been waterproofed with caulks that were made out of linseed oil and oakum and chalk and that got brittle kind of turned into stone but through the freeze thaw and the expansion and contraction the caulking fell out and the moisture got into the inside of the dome to work on all of the fastenings and that freeze thaw created this brittle iron to go through movement which caused it to break these are ornaments that are on the capitals and we literally could pick them off like picking apples when we were up on the dome this is another area where moisture had gotten in behind parts and as cast iron deteriorates it creates a condition called rust jacking the metal begins to expand and it actually blows itself apart so as moisture would get in behind parts as the fasteners would deteriorate and as the rust grew it literally was tearing itself apart and this is an example of some of that iron that we took off the building other parts were full of debris and rust these are fasteners that we pulled out that you can see the electrolysis where all of the threads and the fasteners disintegrated and in some cases we could just pull the fasteners right out of the building so there were a series of repair methods that were developed to take care of the capitals now as one of America's greatest treasures it's treated like a museum artifact as we started the restoration just when we were really ready to go we discovered that in the 1960s when they done repairs on the dome they had caulked all of those repairs with asbestos caulk and 14 miles of asbestos caulk had to be removed from the dome there was a repair method you can't weld cast iron with any longevity and a repair method was discovered that was developed in Germany to repair engines in great big ships and it's called lock and stitch and basically it's a mechanical fastening method where you take a crack it's drilled and then fasteners are put in and they're ground off flush and then there's a vertical dog bone stitch that is mortised into the iron and driven in and ground smooth you'll see some of that as we go through then there's the lead abatement so the dome was cast iron but it was painted with lead paints so the entire dome had to be completely sandblasted and all of the lead abated so that the repair work could be done and all of that had to be done without affecting any of the general public so think of this the building is in operation you have one of the biggest lead abatement projects going on at the same time so to do that lead abatement the scaffolding was enclosed in containments and then those areas were sandblasted the repairs took place in the containments and we worked our way around the building the dome can be divided into 32 pi sections and one of the amazing things about cast iron is everything can be manufactured and built sort of like an erector set there's just a kit of parts so if you have a column capital it has a kit of parts and all of those parts are identical on all 32 columns now it's interesting to note that the column capitals we discovered when we took them apart are comprised of over 300 castings for each capital this shows the lock and stitch method you can see a string of threaded pins that have been put along a crack and they're being ground smooth this image shows a repair that was done with lock and stitch you can see the threaded inserts and then the dog bones that cross that and then it was all ground smooth and then painted and those repairs are stronger than the original cast iron in this job there were over 14,000 inches of lock and stitch that had to be installed it takes two mechanics an hour to do one inch so you get an idea of how many people and how much time was involved in that effort this shows mechanics doing that lock and stitch repair the other repairs that were done on the job you can't well cast iron like I said but you can braise it and a series of repairs were done on small ornaments that could be removed and braised and assembled versus recasting those parts then there were a whole series of mechanical repairs when the column capitals had to be restored they were originally assembled and set on the columns and then the dome was built around them and all the fasteners were on the inside of these capitals with no way to access them so we had to develop a method to remove the fasteners and then reinstall the parts fastening from the other side and that was taken care of and then there were a whole series of repairs where there were holes and things that needed to be filled and those were all done with epoxy repairs replicating missing castings and broken cast iron it's a really fascinating process starts with field documentation so I was really fortunate in this restoration to have a young team of craftsmen on my particular team I had 11 young guys on my crew two were classically trained architects I had a couple of metal workers a sculptor and then some skilled metal workers but first you have to document what you have to make and these are field notes for our workbooks when we were looking at what parts needed to be manufactured so we had the use of modern technology and we could digitally scan components we could take them off the building scan them with the scanner and then create a 3D model and from that 3D model we could design and make patterns and interpret those in shop drawings and a lot of the parts there were just fragments of them on the building when we took the components off the building we didn't know what they were originally but we had to re-engineer and redesign them so that they would work in their locations we also used an ancient method of making models by making plaster molds and we would take a component off the building and create a plaster mold of it if we didn't have our digital scanner then we could send those molds out to the foundry and they could use those molds to create patterns to replicate parts foundry patterns are made of wood rubber or plastic and when I said earlier in the presentation that cast iron shrinks an eighth of an inch per foot as we were manufacturing parts that had to go back on the dome exactly we had to figure out a way to make those parts fit by creating a pattern that was larger than the part actually needed to be so that when it was cast it would shrink to the right size and we devised a really ingenious way one of our pattern makers we'd create a rubber mold and then from that rubber mold we would figure out a series of pins and we could stretch that mold to get it to the right size it needed to be to make a pattern and then we'd use that pattern to actually cast the part that would shrink back to the right size these are images of those patterns the foundry process is about the same as it was during the time that the US capital was built essentially there's a pattern that is put together it could be wood or plastic and those patterns are molded in sand and then molten metal is poured into that sand mold and the sand mold is broken and the castings are taken out of the sand and then they're cleaned up one of the great things about cast iron is it's very moldable when it's molten and it's poured into a mold it's got really good details and we could capture all the detail in the capital one of the things that we devised along the way we were taking all this material off the dome that seemed like it was junk and we were able to take that cast iron and melt it down and realloy it and use it in the new castings so really a true green material we could actually use the metal that came from the building in the new parts that were going back up on the dome during the restoration probably the two major areas that had the most work that needed to be done up at the Tholos level up below the Statue of Freedom that balustrade had to be completely removed it was in a serious state of disrepair and it was disassembled and carried down the dome so we had 287 feet of scaffolding and we had all this metal at the very top of the dome it had to be carried by hand we had three lifts and but it had to be carried and lowered to the ground and then it was crated up and shipped to our plant in Utah where we were able to re-lay out that Tholos balustrade that we could use manufacture all the new parts and then it was taken back and reinstalled carried up the building and reinstalled back on the dome and to complete that part of the work one of the things that we discovered during this part of the restoration was we had assumed that the dome was perfectly round and when we took the Tholos balustrade off we took all of these accurate measurements but you couldn't measure through the center spiral staircase in the center of the top of the Tholos and the dome is actually elliptical up there it's not round so when we laid this out in our shop of course we lay it out in a perfect circle and then we bring it back and we start installing it and parts don't fit we had to cut and fit every single part on that Tholos and to make it fit and go back together again there were many all of the dome is highly ornate you'd never imagine and the scale of the ornament on the dome is incredible you have to stand next to it to really appreciate it but all of the ornament applied ornament came off of the dome was disassembled, cleaned reassembled and refascined and then reinstalled on the dome we discovered the column capitals and the serious deterioration that was there after the lead abatement we were able to go in and explore take column capitals apart and then take pieces this is one corner scroll there are four of these on every column capital and each scroll is made up of over 20 parts but completely come apart have to be reassembled and then reinstalled this shows new parts getting ready to go up on the dome and this is the reassembly of those column capitals and that's a completed capitol so you never would imagine the level of detail until you're up close the thing that I was amazed by how close the actual cast iron is to the original Thomas U. Walter drawings and on the interior of the dome and on the exterior of the dome we could actually refer to his original drawings and they're very, very close the boilerplate balustrade was another major area that was a problem at the capitol and that was because this where all these gutters came together and they had all deteriorated we ended up taking 54 gutters out of the balustrade and then re-installing, casting new gutters and reinstalling them and then reinstalling that whole balustrade on the U.S. capitol so these new gutters will ensure another easily 150-200 years of life to the dome the water was redirected into the gutters and they were improved so that those problems that had occurred up until then will not happen again after the dome was sandblasted it had to be painted and there was a crew of over 100 painters that worked for a year painting the dome building up the paints to the appropriate thicknesses so you don't understand that cast iron is somewhat porous and the castings after they've been sandblasted all of the porosity is exposed so you have cavities in the cast iron if moisture gets in those they weep rust so the cast iron had been sandblasted but then it had to be prime painted and then coated with epoxy all of those holes filled and then re-coated there won't be any rust staining to take place on the dome in the future this shows images of the guys doing the painting and the caulking and the waterproofing there are 32 big glass windows that were handmade around the dome five of those had to be replaced that glass was re-manufactured out in a glass factory just like it was made when the building was originally built and that glass was re-installed this is our crew our responsibility was specifically to disassemble and reassemble the dome and provide all of the new cast iron ornament there were several other people involved in the project when the when the dome was complete we came to the point when we were putting the last piece of ornament on the building and Stephen Ayers the architect of the capital came and actually installed that last piece of ornament but the capital dome restoration was really an incredible collaboration of artists and craftsmen it wasn't any one person or even the general contractor it was a collaboration of everybody artists, glass specialists decorative painters pattern makers mechanics electricians, plumbers and it's that kind of united brotherhood that I fell in love with I am a firm believer that there is a red thread that ties us all together and the things that happened on this project to make it a success where people came in exactly at the right time to do their specific piece of the job it was really kind of miraculous to see it happen there was a tremendous spirit of brotherhood of the craftsmen now a lot of the employees that were working on the exterior of the dome were from different nationalities and there were lots of Latinos all of the asbestos that was removed from the building was removed by a team of Latino women and they were amazing and we would have lunches on Friday and they'd bring their food and we'd bring our food and it was it was just a wonderful collaboration there was a tremendous spirit there I think the job that was done by everybody who was involved in the project and far exceeded I think what the government really expected because everybody knew that they were working on something extremely special I know that in our case there were lots of things that were done that we did just to make sure that there would not be problems down the road and I know that was the case with a lot of the other people involved in the project the project was completed in 2016 and it was completed just in time for the inauguration to take place so these are images if you could have seen the dome while you saw pictures of the dome up close when it was completed these images are you know really amazing and it was a wonderful project to work on so a lot of the images that you'll see if you go to the AOC's website and you're looking at the dome they were all images that were captured by this gentleman his name is Charles Badal and he shot and saved over 25,000 images of the restoration and documented that whole thing for the US capital and for the architect of the capital an incredible guy so I just want to take another second and just talk about some of the fun stuff that happened there and on the dome during the restoration there's a tremendous amount of wildlife in Washington DC you would never imagine what we came across when we were working on the project we had bald eagles fly over we had eagles that were regularly on the dome there were red foxes and this little guy found his way up to the Statue of Freedom and the painters the painters went up in the morning and there was this raccoon that was just cornered at the top of the scaffold he couldn't go anywhere and somebody went and got one of these safe traps and they got him in it and then they took him over to the National Arboretum and let him go but you would never imagine too that at 280 feet in the air there's as many bugs as there are I mean flies and insects and they are just everywhere I don't know if they're blown in the trade wind or what but it was an amazing experience I just want to say thanks for letting me have the opportunity to come and visit with you about this project and we've got time for a couple of questions if there's four questions somebody has a question they want answered we'll take just a couple yes no questions I'm not sure which is which at the beginning you mentioned that the fasteners were dissimilar to that was that what from the original ok so the fasteners were dissimilar from the cast iron was that a problem of clutching or what no it wasn't cast iron ok cast iron is extremely brittle but it was fastened by the iron fasteners that were hand forged and I actually they may not know I don't think they understood at that time that there was going to be an issue with the dissimilar metals my other question is if you had a kit of the entire if you had a kit of all the parts that were required to make the gull how many parts would make one full set of parts how many unique parts there are there are unique parts there are probably thousands unique parts I just want to finish that by saying when the restoration was done all of the fasteners were changed to stainless steel which will have no reaction to the cast iron so that will never be a problem again yes I have no idea I have no idea in comparison to this building I think the budget the budget for the US capital and I don't know that anybody will ever really know the exact amount that was spent I mean it was roughly around 30 million dollars but it started at about 80 million to do the exterior but then when they started working on the exterior they decided to do the interior cast iron dome at the same time which was done which was really needed to all be done at the same time and a lot of things were addressed so that will never have to happen again but in comparison to what it's going to take to do this building I don't have a clue but it's worth saving well I don't the thing that is amazing is the house and senate that's their offices it's senator king's office and that building is such a significant symbol that it's extremely well cared for I've worked on hundreds of buildings in my career across the country and there are none that have the preventative maintenance that is like the US capital in fact it would be really a blessing if a lot of the buildings I've worked on had that kind of care the capital was in a serious state of disrepair but it was also cared for so that makes a huge difference so this will be the last question and then I'll hang around after I can answer some questions but the paint was a epoxy polyurethane system and the caulks were polysulfide caulks NP1 was the primary paint system basically it's a caulk that can be painted and it was used in the project I'd have to say as an architect I'm totally in awe of the story that Robert told it is just truly amazing all I can say is wow that's incredible and as president of this organization by the way my name is Paul Stevens I can't think of a lecture that we could have had that speaks so much to the mission of this organization which is to support and has been the mission of our organization for 200 years which is to support artists craftsmen and tradesmen in our community and I think we just saw a tremendous example of what trained craftsmen and tradesmen can do in addition to thanking Robert who I think just wandered in here by accident is how this lecture got scheduled thank Robert and thank Senator King for coming and presenting this tonight I follow Senator King on Instagram as all of you should do and it's fun it's great fun to do and as Chandra will test do he actually responds to you sometimes when you make a comment which is wonderful to have a senator that can exchange ideas like that with us I think in closing I would like to thank all of our patrons and sponsors we as an organization raised an enormous amount of money with this event tonight and thank you to everybody that helped make that happen to the committee and to our sponsors and I think I want to give a special thanks and sort of recognition to one of our major sponsors which is Turner Construction and Turner Construction was the general contractor for this project and as many of you may know Turner is currently doing the very large addition and renovation to Maine Medical Center here in town so I think at the end if you have time well you certainly are welcome to come up and ask some more questions but please stop in the exhibit downstairs on the way out many of the photographs that Robert referred to are on display as well as copies of some of those wonderful Thomas Walter architectural drawings and actually there are some samples of the cast iron work that Robert's company did and pick some of that up and feel how heavy it is it's pretty awesome it really is and I think I definitely want to thank and Robert who curated the exhibit for us and that exhibit opened last first Friday and it will be open until the first of next month so thank you all for coming and thank you all for your support and I hope that you will continue to come to events here, thank you


Okay, so after the previous great talk where we learned how easy and fun it is pandas this time we'll Listen from Margarcia who's a maintainer of pandas what is broken with it and how we break it even more? Thank you Can you hear me is that Mike? Okay? Okay? Yeah, thanks. Uh, thanks a lot for for attending my talk just I'm losing my voice and my health is not perfect and my tone might be a bit a bit low If I don't sound very excited is not because I'm not excited about being here I'm very excited just I'll keep to I'll try to keep my tone enough to to have voice until the end of the talk so I'll start yeah talking about Breaking pandas and to break pandas what better than a live demo and it would be an easy one because pandas is expected to break so If it breaks is is good That's usually the main worry about About demos so Let me start see if I can Make it big enough. Okay. Let me start by importing pandas There is a new feature of pandas that you can import pandas without being a speedy and it works in the latest version Okay, this is this is master. Don't try it in your version might not work Then I'll open some some data. Well, I didn't show it long enough But I've got I'll get some data about the presidents of the United States and I'll try to answer answer these questions who was the the younger Like to to die the who took office being the oldest person and who was the president for a for a shorter shortest periods so pandas has really Any cool features including that you can provide anything that it's Kind of reasonable in in the fall you want to open Even if it's in a in a website that needs to be downloaded and even if it's if it's compressed pandas in general takes care of everything Okay, trying to make things a bit a bit complex for pandas, but it works well I need to try to answer the first question. Okay, who died at a at a younger age the youngest age What I will do is just like to take the Death year and get it interesting year and That was that the question or I did it Yeah, who died at the at the younger age. Okay, and Let's answer some more questions like who took office Who took office being the oldest well actually I didn't but I'll do something president I actually Quit focused on and yeah, the first question. The answer is Kennedy. I wonder I wonder that why why is that? Let's go for the second question who took office Who took office? Coffee is Being the oldest for that. I'll just get like from the two coffees I'll get the year and Then I'll subtract the Dead birth in the birth year And I have an error pandas is not really broken here It's just like Jason doesn't support like a daytime format so Everything that we got from the Jason that looked like a date was actually a string. So let's just start Merting things if you know anything about pandas, you might know about the the types we can see also an interesting thing here When you realize you've got this in many cases if you're a regular pandas user that it's like the The year here the death year is converted to a float. That's because there is some presidents that are still alive So there are missing values in this in this field So pandas has something quite nice. Well, you saw that the type is is float pandas has something that It's like now that they year Well, if I try to convert it back to a back to a Yeah, that is failing it will tell me that there are missing values or infinite values Or they don't have a representation in it's not a pandas limitation issues like a hardware limitation There is no representation for integer values, but in the newer versions of pandas We've got something that that we actually have a type integer type that What is that? That's not how I expected it to break Okay, I have yeah, okay, I repeated here. Yeah, that's actually Still Sorry, yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry about that Yeah, let me just get the date again then Should be easier. Let's reassign the the index. So, yeah, and and now we That's right here now this This actually got converted to an integer if I I got the types is a is a different you see the capital The capital I or the lower case I for the original type the capital for the for the one that support missing values okay, and then we the original problem actually was Going a bit too slow, but I'll try to speed up a bit like the Two coffees That needs to be a date time that that was actually our original problem on the same for the left office Probably looking looking better. It's look will look the same. We cannot tell if it's a if it's a string or not and this one that was Broken now it's returning me the the year and now I can check like who was there who was there the oldest one it was Mr. Trump So now we can do something else. Well, I'll just do I shouldn't do that I don't have that much time, but I think it's reasonable if I have if I want to clap the my my types Reasonable party is just like a limited set of values. I don't think it's that much Required to save different strings. I can just like kind of encode them as categories and it's a this is a much much better represent That's a much better representation So now I think I don't have objects anymore that objects are is low in there are Python objects and there is low in in pandas so now what I wanted to know is who Who was less less time a president? There is something quite nice in in pandas that we can create a In office a column that it would be an interval between two periods for that The syntax is a bit tricky. I'll discuss about this a bit later right North and then I will say that I want since the president took the office until the president left the office And this is breaking in this case it's for a well in this case is because I did something Ah, yes It's good like like this team working that you tell me what's wrong You can come to my office if you want. I need this all the time What it's telling me there is a limitation the way that intervals are represented They are they can have missing values, but just a missing value not like a part of the interval missing So or you have like the the the whole thing it's it's missing and Or or it is not in this case. We have a problem here That is that one of the presidents actually didn't leave off ops Didn't leave leave office So there is a there is a missing value. Okay, that's actually a problem that we are going to fix And actually there are many ways. I think I can let you choose which one we can make him leave office today. We can also We can also change the value. So he never took office or we can delete him totally. That's very easy to do in Pandas we can do but we can we can probably yeah Yeah, let's say that The f.log the president in question is don't know j Trump and i'm gonna say that That he office today, that's quite cool. So Hope you're happy because our interval array will work not for any other reason Okay If you were if you would prefer actually we could even go to the past and say like, okay He actually never took office. Let's say So yeah, in any case the we can create our interval Created our interval and now we have this column that it's a an interval and from it We can just get like the in office say array dot length that's will return as the The length and actually now if I want to use this I need to convert it to a series. That's Many details of this but this actually it's not a great syntax. That's kind of like the point of This talk now we have like the exact days that they were in office and we wanted to know the the shorter. So So we've got that Yeah, so this is the the guy who took office less and I did actually a mistake at the beginning when I was showing the Who was the the maximum who took office now is actually don't know Regan because we Will remove him like from office But yeah So the point there are a couple of things actually one of them didn't fail some of the problems that I'm showing here Because I did something in the order that I was not expected to do But the first thing is that we converted things to data time very easily with pandas to date time We converted things to interval with extremely difficult syntax. I would say Like that's something kind of very easy easy to solve but I think it it says something that it will come later We also got that this Column dot length what we could have just like calling the length actually we had to create this like the the whole thing here And actually we have to create this we have to call this Disarray that it's the underlying representation of pandas is something kind of internal just to get the We won and we didn't make this fail because I didn't cast the time before Getting the first president but actually the after converting to the integer with missing values You cannot compute the the id x max So why is that pandas relies on numpy all the internal representations are numpy based for the internal types of numpy was like the Origin of pandas and the support is extremely good But pandas implements many other things and and they are growing that are like what we call Extention arrays that it's like date times that are aware of the time zone It's something that numpy doesn't support also time deltas also period the intervals is the one that we saw the nullable integer Is the one that we also saw we also have the categorical the sparse so Which as you saw there are several things that That in pandas don't work quite the same or they are not as as mature when you are using numpy types and when you are using Like extension arrays that was supposed to be a live demo, but actually i'm already quite late on time So i'm going to just run it like this okay, it's still That's kind of important because the the pandas 0 24.2 the latest version has a small changes in this syntax Nothing important that it's relevant But so you know that if you try to run these examples it needs to be on master Okay, we can define our custom types Don't worry that much about the exact syntax, but we just tell a name And we say like that the type of an element in our in our series in our arrays It will be an object in this case a python object what i'm doing is just like representing instead of numpy Representing things storing things internally in pandas in a in a python list Then i create this class of array that it represents things like how are you going to get the data and how are you Going to store like computing the length converting it to numpy adding two values like which the type is associated to Nothing really fancy and quite short and with this we can do things like rating our Our own series Okay with our series with our own types Okay, that's actually kind of straightforward if you don't call many operations in this case I implemented that so I can just like add one here easily. I didn't implement the subtract so if I Try to subtract something i it will fail But i've got my my custom type. It's a kind of a very small version But and then in many cases if i'm implementing my custom format Actually, what I want to do also is do a specific operations like I saw it in interval What we do we don't provide this for in term interval yet But it should be easy to implement if anyone really cares about this data type that is like the accessor So I have my series And on my series I can I can define this Pyl or whatever I want that is what I register here. I place a class that has a Property in this case and then I'm able for a series to access this property that I define that I define here Okay, so in this case I'm I just have a simple function that goes to the To the python object and it returns the the type. So this is how How things are represented in python like I said like numpy has a different It's like a simpler somehow a more like close to the core everything that it's a custom type Actually in pandas is implemented it in this way and as you see there are different levels of of maturity and And it's not it's kind of recent. This was introduced in recent versions. There is still work on progress But you see that it's actually making things much easier in in oversight so after After this I said like the the idea here about breaking pandas is that pandas is huge like the api of pandas is huge and what we have Is that is that it's growing even more and and overcoat is being affected by that What it's getting better is that we're implementing like these extensions So not everything needs to be in pandas. You can implement things separately Like the arrays arrays and the types that I shown like for example the internal is included the accessors to access this And there are some examples already of this like your pandas is using that So if pandas if you want to represent IP addresses you can represent with a specific format and having specific operations Fletcher is a an arrow an arrow back and for representing for example strings in a very efficient way that pandas is not because it's using python python strings so I think my point of the talk a bit is just like to explain that we need to keep breaking pandas and making it pandas more Extensible and actually like making even the internal things that pandas provide like making it like in a in an api One of the first thing that it's already Almost implemented should be ready for the next version is plotting back ends. I'll discourse them in a in a second each of them Another one that it's under discussion and we'll see what it happens Is there are your plugins and then like having direct methods the same as the accessors as I saw like this is a an accessor this thing over here But just being able to to have like direct methods like if my data is interval why not like being able to call length directly and not that So plotting back ends. There are already several plotting back ends They are using different apis and they are doing monkey patching and weird things that I think they don't they shouldn't be using I think we should be better in pandas to let them interact with us So for example if you want to plot in pandas you would plot like this in all of views if you use this This extension your this plugin or module Your you would use this function. So it's totally independent of pandas pandas don't play nicely on letting you plot in whatever you want What we are adding now is just like having a pandas option that you can specify the the plotting back end And in the in the back end actually you just will have the same api for every back end You will be able to plot in bokeh you will be able to plot in In altair or whatever it is and third party developers would be able to provide like modules that You can plot in anything if you want to plot in ascii why not just do it So we'll have one api to roll them all. I think that's a good thing I mean the standards the packages would also be more consistent among them It would be easier for for developers to get started will have better documentation for the api everything would be more uniform I think that's a really good thing In terms of IO plugins Okay, pandas is supporting all these all these Input and output things is able to read from csv I'm sure you know ray json. You just saw it in the example is able to read and from html from the clipboard from excel Parquet is quite an A great format to use like we also hot like pickle somewhere in here And also some like like commercial software status and google BigQuery and that so lots of things in here And also this if you are and have any that it's missing. This is other formats. This is not proper io It's like not the might saving tool this for accessing io But this is like different representations like in in memory representation like python digs latex or strings or or whatever But there are some that many that are missing Like for example, it's able to export in an importing excel But it's not like the formats the the open source the open standards formats like all the s for library office xml i assume java people would be happy if we are able to Export things in xml like data frames and maybe generate an image Maybe a pdf it was someone who developed a library and was asking us if we wanted to include it markdown We got an issue for that And i'm quite sure with time you will you will get more formats in here So what i personally think it's a bit wrong is that The moment we're making a decision we're taking like the The responsibility of saying what is in pandas and what is not and what it's not in pandas It's not supported and it's kind of like a sneaky library that we don't care about What i think we should probably do is like make every one of these io modules Make them make them like a Plug-in even if we distribute them with pandas and for the user there is literally no difference We should be creating an api where we define that That you are able to to access pandas objects for for importing and exporting data in a in a certain way Implement all all our libraries in a similar way as we're doing with extension arrays Having that and then that third party developers can develop them And that you are able to use them in the same way as you will use that I think that would make the code much clearer. It would create like a much better Structure of code where we have like several modules that they all look the same We'll empower other developers to say, okay, you're welcome to create your formats. It doesn't matter We don't know about all the formats in the world, but you do because you need it so you can create it and it would be like a really well supported like Or integrated with with pandas the api would be consistent no matter if it's a third party module or not There won't be big differences between a core and a third party and for the user it would be as easy as Come to install your plugin and an import plugin as pl Just to make sure that people in the scientific python world is happy having a short tell us for For that and also probably like delegating some of this work. I personally believe that Google the gbq like the google big query actually is charging users to for every For the data for the bandwidth that they have with their apis So it literally means that every time that someone is calling pandas dot read gb gbq Google is getting money out of it We're maintaining this library in our free time, which I think it sounds a bit wrong to me So I would personally take this out of the of the of pandas and having it a third party module and let google Take care of that. I'm sure they they will be happy to do that And finally Going to the direct methods that's a bit more the controversial because it's a bit going a bit far even in in what I think we should be doing That is like we saw this before that is like we can have something Like like our column dot interval dot Dot lengths like having the the accessors already Or having these weird syntax or we can even go and say Actually, I use intervals a lot. So why I need to be calling interval all the time I'm not calling for numerical operations. I'm not calling them all the time So I can just like inject directly some methods into into data frame on sirius interesting fact sirius had at the moment 237 public attributes and methods Really, okay. Well looks like I'm out of time. Let's just give me one minute and I'm finished that thing Actually got different timing here. Anyway uh, but yeah, it's like full of things in the first order category for for For the numerical values, but not even one for intervals I think we should be we should be injecting That because if you are using intervals or other structures that are not known by base Basically, you are a second class cities and you cannot use direct methods like like that Please forgive us for that And I think I'm going to conclude here. I just got a couple of slides more But yeah, it looks like I got I thought I got 30 minutes and I got 25. Okay. Well, anyway, thank you Thank you very much