State officials: Office project should be visually appealing

Buildings in a $260 million state construction project that would extend Capitol Campus will be highly visible, and planners want to make sure the public likes what it sees.

State officials advised architects Monday about the "skin" of three buildings planned on the Capitol Campus in Olympia. The buildings will be visible from the heavily used interchange that links Interstate 5 with the campus.

A public meeting on the proposals is set for tonight at the Capitol. The Legislature placed the project on a tight timeline last year, when it included funding for it in the capital budget. Construction on the new home for the Department of Information Systems is scheduled to begin this summer and end within two years.

For inspiration, project leaders examined the "spatial sequence," "shadow lines," and "articulation" of the columned buildings that house the Legislature and Supreme Court. But those buildings are supported by their stone-and-brick walls, which in some places are 3 feet thick.

Modern steel frames will hold up the new offices, so architects looked for new ways to follows the classic pattern: a definite bottom, middle and top on each building, and no flat, glass walls.

The group advised the architects from Seattle-based NBBJ to change their design toward one that will include more stone and less metal and glass, to match more closely office buildings such as the Insurance Building on campus.

"It strikes me that the stone means so much on the rest of the campus," said Secretary of State Sam Reed, noting that the Capitol and surrounding buildings are clad in locally mined sandstone.

Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, might be a member of the Capitol Campus Design Advisory Committee and chairwoman of the Senate's construction budget committee, but she admitted Monday she was no architectural critic.

Looking at the crosshatch of metal and glass on one plan, she said, "That first one strikes me as looking plaid."

"Overall, the buildings seem somewhat boxy," mused Fred King, an architect on the design committee.

The committee has been eager to make sure the buildings are more pleasing to the eye than nearby state offices. Notably, Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, once referred to the concrete edifices of Office Building 2 and Department of Transportation across the street as "a Berlin Wall."

"Less is more. I think we've carried that to an extreme with some of these buildings," said Ron Tan, an architect on the design committee.

Reed, a member of the committee, also issued his oft-repeated warning that the three-building development on the east side of the campus must stay on schedule. The buildings need to be ready to house the Washington State Patrol, which will be displaced in two years when construction begins on the $112 million Heritage Center near Capitol Lake.

"Even the funding for these buildings is contingent on making that happen in a timely manner," Reed said, because delays will cause cost increases not paid for in the current budget.

The two most-visible new buildings on the corner Wheeler Avenue and Jefferson Street will hold offices for the Department of Information Services and the patrol. A third building located between them will primarily house the state's huge computer systems.

On the site now is the 75-child Capitol Campus Child Care Center, a small legislative office building] and a parking lot for state workers.

The plan calls for 20 parking spaces at street level, but the design includes an underground garage capable of holding 800 more on the site.

After the public hearing tonight and taking into consideration the committee's feedback, designers with NBBJ said they planned to develop a final design and present it to the committee within three weeks.