An era long gone but not forgotten

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published October 04, 2008

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The two projects, which will cost a combined $221 million, will take the place of the 1954 General Administration Building. The Heritage Center, in particular, will be public, with museum and educational space.

An artist's legacy

Jean Cory Beall, who died in 1978, created several notable mosaic murals in Washington state.

In addition to the piece in the General Administration Building, she produced the mosaic of the Capitol Dome found in downtown Olympia, above the entrance to the First National Bank Building, now Bank of America.

Other Beall murals include one for the Federal Reserve Building in Seattle and another for Seattle City Light, now on display in the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.

The mural in the General Administration Building on the Capitol Campus includes 180,000 tiles of glass and stone, hand-cut in Venice, Italy. Beall supervised the installation of the mural in 1959.

While most similar murals have clear sections, this one does not, noted Janae Huber, collections manager for the Washington State Arts Commission.

"The only thing I can see are the repairs. I can't see the seams. That's the skill of the person putting it together," Huber said.

The repairs date back to the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, said Marygrace Jennings, cultural resources manager for the Department of General Administration.

Because the mural is curved, it is both more sensitive to earthquakes and will be more difficult to move and relocate before its home is demolished in 2010.

"It needs to be studied. A really thorough examination of the risks in moving it needs to be completed," Jennings said. "Because it's not made in panels, the whole thing has to be moved in one piece. And because it's curved, it doesn't have the stability of a flat piece. And as you can imagine, it's quite heavy."

Lawmakers on the committee said they expected the mosaic to be moved out of the old building and into the Heritage Center. But that isn't the plan yet, as architects are still finalizing plans and did not carve out a space specifically for the Beall mosaic.

"I would call that a 'wow,' " Sen. Karen Fraser, a Thurston County Democrat on the committee, said of the mosaic's unsettled status.

The group ultimately resolved that the mosaic must be preserved, but where it goes hasn't been determined.

"One of the questions is how much is it going to cost ... to take it out. That's an issue," said Rachel Valencia, spokeswoman for the Department of General Administration.

"And there is the question of how it was built," she added. "Can we take it away from the wall without damaging it?"

Legislators did set aside $392,000 for historic preservation in the demolition project, but if more is required, it could be a tough sell to lawmakers, who now are facing a $3.2 billion shortfall in the next budget.

Time is a factor. The locations of things like storage rooms, restrooms and the gift shop in the Heritage Center will have to be settled before the end of the year, said Assistant Secretary of State Steve Excell, a leader in the project.

That includes deciding whether there's a wall available for Beall's mosaic, he said, adding, "Everyone agrees it's a work of art that should be saved, and everyone agrees it should be on display somewhere where the public can see it."

But that public display could be far from the Capitol Campus, possibly in the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, which has expressed interest in the mosaic.

"I wasn't able to fully support that, because while I think the State History Museum in Tacoma in many ways would be a wonderful place for it, my job is to take care of the Capitol's collection," said Marygrace Jennings, cultural resources manager for General Administration.

Beall stands out as one of only a few female artists to contribute to the large collection of art around the domed Capitol, which includes bronze statues, a valuable abstract painting, murals, the Tivoli Fountain and many other works, she said.

"It was designed to be here, and I'd like to see it stay here," she said.

Ideally, the mosaic will remain available to the public, in a state office building, and on the Capitol Campus, she said.

Wherever it is displayed, the mosaic should probably have an explanation of its themes nearby, so younger viewers can understand the symbolism and significance, Jennings added.

And she likes the logger.

"I think that he is central," she said. "He's the custodian, the caretaker."

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