Set on more than 50 acres (20 ha) of downtown Harrisburg, it includes the Pennsylvania State Capitol and a landscaped park environment with monuments, memorials, and other government buildings.

[1][2] The Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex is located in central downtown Harrisburg, four blocks east of the Susquehanna River.

The complex and greater area is protected full-time by the Pennsylvania Capitol Police—its dedicated law enforcement agency—as well as the Harrisburg Bureau of Police, which patrols the entire city.

Arnold Brunner was selected to develop a master landscaping and design plan for this space, which he did using then-fashionable City Beautiful principles.

Brunner had planned this as a "People's Forecourt", an open space whose landscaping would tie the Capitol and the North and South Buildings together visually.

In execution, the area became a parking lot serving the capitol until the East Wing was built, providing a different and more modern type of visual unity.