Waterfront cafe and bar in Olympia is one idea to save historic radio station
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- The Heritage Commission supported the proposal to preserve the KGY building.
- By 2050, about half the port and half of downtown could flood during bad rainstorms.
- The plan projects sea level rise of 3 to 5.5 feet in Olympia by 2100.
All of downtown Olympia is at risk of major flooding in the coming decades, Climate Resilience Coordinator Natalie Weiss said. The city’s Heritage Commission met on June 24 to discuss what buildings and other pieces of infrastructure could be affected by rising waters, and what could be done to mitigate the potential damage.
The commission also heard a proposal from Nora Yao, a University of Washington Master of Architecture student who pitched the preservation of the historic KGY radio station located at the northern tip of the Port of Olympia peninsula. The midcentury over-the-water building housed the 100-year-old station from 1960 until its ground lease ended in 2024.
At the time of the move, the building’s health was put into question, and there were calls to have it demolished and for the creosote pilings it stood on to be removed from the water, according to previous reporting from The Olympian.
The commission ultimately supported Yao’s proposal, but costs for bringing the building back to life for an adaptive reuse weren’t identified. Yao said the proposal has also been sent to the Port of Olympia, with official endorsement from the Heritage Commission.
Yao said the potential cost of such a project was a great concern for the port commission. Currently, there is no money behind the project.
Yao said the former KGY radio station building should be preserved because of its historic significance and place in the community. She said it housed the state’s earliest radio station, which was founded in 1922. She said it has also served as a civic memory, having functioned for decades as a “virtual civic space” that connected Olympians through news, events and public broadcasting.
Yao said the building itself is also significant. She said it was designed by Robert H. Wohleb, who also designed Olympia City Hall. And it sits on pilings directly above the tidal mud flat, which gives people the feeling that the building is floating on water, she said.
She said because of its location and the environmental constraints on protecting the shoreline, new construction in an area like this would be highly restricted and would likely not be permitted today. That’s why she’s proposing an adaptive reuse of the building.
Yao said her plan aligns with the Port of Olympia’s master plan and goal of turning that area of the peninsula into a more community-oriented space.
Yao pitched two possible futures for the KGY radio station. One is a community meeting house, and the other is a Port of Olympia history cafe.
She said turning the space into a community center would extend the station’s historical role as a public community platform into a physical civic gathering space. She said it could provide meeting rooms and social spaces for community dialog, local initiatives and public events.
Yao said the history cafe would allow the port to tell its story, past, present and future.
She said either plan would bring economic revenue and visitor flow to the port, but the Port of Olympia expressed more interest in the historical cafe. She said this way, the building could be accessed at nearly all times of the day, if it were to run as a cafe during the daytime and a bar at night.
Long-time KGY radio personality Dick Pust asked during the meeting if there was any money behind the project or any ideas on how to turn the concept into a reality. Yao said she’s been in talks with the Port of Olympia, which expressed concern about the potential cost of such a project. But she’s hopeful it could gain support, she said.
Pust said he really hopes the project can move forward. He said he basically lived in the building for nearly 50 years as an employee, and he was there when it opened.
Olympia Historical Society President Greg Griffith said he appreciated the work Yao did to look into preserving or replacing the pilings under the building. He said he hopes the port commission and staff will act upon the plan.
“This is really something that I think will give some impetus to preservation of the KGY,” he said. “We don’t want to lose it, I worry about it a lot, but hopefully this will come to reality.”
A ‘very serious’ outlook on sea level rise
Climate Resilience Coordinator Natalie Weiss said during the June 24 meeting that the areas of downtown surrounding Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet are very low lying. She said sea level rise will affect much of downtown and the port, and flooding could potentially harm the east to west connection, separating the two sides of the city.
“There’s lots of assets downtown that are really critical, not just for Olympia, but also for the region as a whole,” Weiss said. “So really looking at the water bodies that are a big part of, you know, our identity in Olympia, but also seeing this as an increasing risk as sea level rise will be accelerating into the future decades.”
Weiss said downtown and the Port of Olympia used to be an estuary and looked similar to the Billy Frank Jr. National Wildlife Refuge.
“I think the big story here about our geophysical history is really, this used to be a place where there was water, and water wants to return there,” she said.
She said Olympia also has a unique tidal range. She said the city has one of the biggest ranges between low tide and high tide of anywhere in the continental United States. Extreme low tides are met with extreme high tides that lead to flooding downtown.
Weiss said this reality led to the city partnering with the Port of Olympia and LOTT Clean Water Alliance, which is a regional wastewater treatment agency, in 2019 to create the Sea Level Rise Response Plan. She said the plan lays out a phased adaptation approach to sea level rise all the way to the year 2100.
Weiss said it is predicted that sea levels will rise by 1 to 2 feet by the year 2050. Sea levels will rise by 3 to 5 and a half feet in Olympia by the year 2100, compared to current levels, according to the plan.
She said there are a lot of “important assets” downtown that are at risk of damage from sea level rise. The first is LOTT’s water treatment plant located at 500 Adams St. NE. The plant serves 130,000 people across the region, she said.
There are downtown transportation routes at risk as well, including the Fourth and Fifth Avenue connection to west Olympia. Weiss said there are critical implications for emergency transport and storm drains on those roads if they flood over.
Weiss said really, all of downtown and the shops on Fourth Avenue, the Farmers Market and general waterfront access would be affected by sea level rise and flooding.
She shared a map during her presentation that highlighted the historic buildings in downtown Olympia. By 2050, about half of the port and half of downtown could flood during a bad stretch of rainstorms. By 2100, all of the port and most of downtown could flood just during high tide events.
Weiss said the effects of sea level rise on these historic buildings look really intense and very serious. However, the city has a plan to adapt.
“In the sea level rise response plan, we really looked and saw that, you know, there are manageable adaptation strategies that are at our disposal, and the cost of adaptation is far less expensive than the cost of staying in place,” she said.
Weiss said in the near term, the city has been doing mostly informational work and creating ways to streamline smaller projects.
In the midterm, she said the city is focusing more on planning physical strategies like sea walls and berms. Long term, she said it’s all about implementing those physical strategies.
Weiss shared a number of projects the city has already undertaken to combat sea level rise’s effects on downtown. She said the city has installed back flow prevention systems on some stormwater outfalls that enter Budd Inlet. These pipes release treated stormwater and wastewater into the inlet and prevent tidal flows from backing up into the pipe.
“So if the water gets too high, it all backs up the system and goes into the street and causes flooding,” she said. “So installing these back flow preventions is really just kind of band-aiding the system and making it so we can’t have those backups.”
She said city staff have also been working on operational readiness, or ensuring that people are prepared when there are high tide or flooding events. Weiss said this includes monitoring the weather, conducting outreach about high tides and making sure people have access to sandbags.
Weiss said the city also installed tide gates near State and Fourth Avenues, which she said have prevented some flooding.
She said staff have a number of midterm strategies planned for the near future as well. She said they’re focusing on having a “linked integrated system across the shoreline of nature-based solutions.” This includes having green stormwater infrastructure, raising landscaping in some areas, and potentially installing flood walls or raised streets.
She said a lot of this work would happen along Percival Landing.
Weiss said the city’s response plan includes the multi-jurisdictional plan to restore the Deschutes Estuary and bring back natural tidal flow to downtown Olympia. She said sea level rise projections have been incorporated into the redesign of Heritage Park.
Weiss said the Arc of Statehood, which is the pedestrian pathway located along the eastern shore of Capitol Lake, will be raised by 3 feet to offer protection from flooding until about 2070. There are also habitat berms in the restored estuary plan that would help protect downtown from flooding.
In the end, an interlocking and linked system of tide and floodgates and natural barriers will create a watertight wall along the shoreline, she said.
Weiss could not be immediately reached for more information on when some of these projects will be seen downtown, how much the projects will cost or funding sources.
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