North Dakota Bridles At Capitol Insult

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota's governor has bitten back at a Minnesota lawmaker who compared his state's Depression-era Capitol building to an insurance office, calling the critic ignorant of classic architecture.

The Capitol in Bismarck was built during the 1930s with a plain concrete and stone exterior, ostensibly to keep costs down.

In a Thursday debate on funding for renovations to the Minnesota state Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota Republican House majority leader Matt Dean said North Dakota's Capitol is "embarrassing" and resembles a State Farm Insurance building.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple isn't impressed.

Dalrymple describes the Capitol in Bismarck as a classic example of Chicago skyscraper design and says people who don't appreciate it don't know much about architecture.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved)

Minnesota's Capitol is below.  Which state do you think has the better capitol?