1911 isthmus plan stirs some debate

Groups have differing ideas on importance of original architects’ idea for preserving view from Capitol

By Matt Batcheldor | The Olympian • Published August 30, 2008

OLYMPIA – Both proponents and opponents of a proposal to allow taller buildings on the downtown isthmus have cited the 1911 Wilder and White plan for Washington state's Capitol Campus to support their arguments about what views from the Capitol were meant to be preserved.

The plan, by New York architects Walter R. Wilder and Harry K. White, called for a campus of several buildings rather than one large Capitol, like most capitols at the time. It oriented the buildings on a north-south axis to take advantage of views of Budd Inlet and the Olympic Mountains to the north. It also proposed construction of a reflecting lake, which was finally realized more than 40 years later.

But it did not address specific view corridors, and illustrations with the plan showed buildings between three and five stories on the isthmus and a railroad station with a tall tower roughly where the Heritage Park Fountain stands now.

The issue of building heights resurfaced this year when local developer Triway Enterprises proposed raising building-height limits on the narrow strip of land between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet so it can build five- and seven-story mixed-use buildings with 141 condominiums. The City Council will hold a five-hour public hearing about the proposal Sept. 16 at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Olympia.

The Wilder and White plan has been the subject of at least 10 letters to the editor or other reader-submitted opinion pieces in The Olympian in the past six months.

"The Capitol Group plan envisioned uninterrupted views from the Temple of Justice to the waterfront, and from the waterfront to the Capitol Group of buildings," wrote Mary Murphy of Olympia. "Wilder and White wanted the dome of the Legislative Building to be visible everywhere in the city."

"The Wilder and White plan," Chris Aldrich of Tumwater countered, "which has guided Capitol Campus development since 1911, set the campus view corridor across the fountain block. The height amendment has no effect on the historical view corridor. Despite opponents' newfound hopes, the view corridor was never meant to swallow the entire isthmus."