It’s correct to use “are” when you have “and”. One thing AND another thing=plural You will however often hear native speakers use the contraction “there’s” about something plural, for instance "There's many ways to save money". It’s grammatically incorrect, but very common. Your sentence is grammatically correct, but I would change it to: “In the distance are the Parliament building and the residence of the state governor.” I don’t see any need for “there”. You don’t call IS and ARE articles, if that’s what you are referring to. They are conjugations of the verb “to be”.