Capitol improvements More secure_ and better for visitors

WASHINGTON A $265 million plan to expand the Capitol with amassive underground visitor center is taking definitive shape aftermore than a decade of on-again, off-again consideration by thenation's lawmakers.

The Capitol Visitor Center is designed to contain auditoriums, amuseum-size exhibition hall and space for future congressional use aswell as the usual visitor facilities. It will be the biggest and mostsignificant addition to the Capitol in nearly a century and a half.

But the 588,000-square-foot center will be largely invisible fromabove ground, for it is to be constructed underneath the paved plazadirectly to the east of the historic building.

The …