# Architect of the Capitol The **Architect of the Capitol (AOC)** is the legislative-branch agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, and preservation of the U.S. Capitol complex — the Capitol building, the congressional office buildings, the [[Library of Congress]] buildings, the Supreme Court building, the U.S. Botanic Garden, and the surrounding grounds. The office dates to 1793 and the original construction of the Capitol. For the KB, the AOC is the most purely custodial of the legislative-branch agencies — included here for structural completeness of the [[Legislative Agencies Hub]] map. It surfaced in the news around the January 6 damage assessment and repairs, and (like all the legislative-branch agencies) around the question of executive-branch reach into Congress's own institutions; in 2023 a dispute over the removal of a prior Architect raised questions about who holds appointment-and-removal authority over these offices. This is a stub; expand if the AOC becomes relevant to a specific KB thread. ## See Also - [[Congress]] - [[Library of Congress]] - [[Legislative Agencies Hub]]