Time for a few new office building names

Changing the name of Washington’s OB2 building to the state Human Services Building has always made sense. If only for clarity of purpose.

It takes someone really familiar with state government and Olympia to know that OB2 stands for Office Building 2, or that it is headquarters for the state’s largest agency, the Department of Social and Health Services.

It’s even murkier how it got its name: Basically a planning document from 1970 identified three future East Capitol Campus buildings, OB1, OB2 and OB3 — one of which became the Natural Resources Building, and another the Transportation Building. Built in 1975, OB2 was left an orphan.

Former DSHS Secretary Kevin Quigley proposed in 2014 to rename OB2 after its functions — the Human Services Building — so that campus visitors could easily grasp what it was for.

Unfortunately legislation to do that got lost in the Senate’s shuffle the last two sessions.

OB2 is not the only structure on campus that could use a new name. The full-block project under construction at 1063 Capitol Way deserves better than its current nickname, the 1063 block replacement building.

The 1500 Jefferson Building that houses both the state Consolidated Technology Services agency and the Department of Enterprise Services could do better than its street name, too.

The Department of Enterprise Services has taken up naming for two projects — Human Services Building for OB2 and The Helen E. Sommers Building for the 1063 Capitol Way project.

There are no public-owned buildings on the main Capitol Campuses named for women, although the state Department of Corrections building in Tumwater is named for Edna Lucille Goodrich, who was a pioneer in juvenile corrections and first superintendent at the Maple Lane School. Closer to the Capitol, the privately owned TVW-network’s building is named for Jeannette Hayner, a former Republican Senate majority leader.

The $82 million building that might take Sommers’ name is right across the street from TVW.

Sommers, a Seattle Democrat, was elected to the state House in 1972, served as one of 12 women representatives at a time the Senate had no women, and her House career ran from 1973 to January 2009. When Sommers retired she was the chief Democratic budget writer and longest serving legislator.

Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, says that Sommers was a leader in the women’s movement and, as House Appropriations chairwoman, acted to ensure that Washington’s pension system now ranks among the top few nationally for adequacy of funding.

“She had an iron backbone when it came to funding pensions,” Fraser said this week.

The process of renaming the two buildings got underway this week.

Fraser likes the Sommers proposal but suggests dropping the middle initial and call it The Helen Sommers Building, which sounds better. If there are other names to consider, now is a good time to speak up.

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 9:21 PM with the headline "Time for a few new office building names."