Miller Hull

By Joann Gonchar, FAIA

The Washington State Capitol complex in Olympia has a spectacular and uniquely Pacific Northwest setting. Situated on a bluff above downtown, and with distant views of Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop, it overlooks a man-made lake at the southern base of Puget Sound. The campus’s historic western half, built starting in the 1920s, has mostly neoclassical structures, with a master plan designed by architects Wilder and White and the Olmsted Brothers. The buildings and the grounds were conceived to work together, to establish axial views, expansive lawns, and diagonal roadways, with more naturalistic wooded edges.

Within this sensitive context, the Miller Hull Partnership has recently completed the nearly 60,000-square-foot Irving R. Newhouse Building, the first structure added to this part of the campus, a National Historic District, in nearly 70 years. The new LEED Platinum building, which houses the offices of the state senate, is crisply modern but sympathetic to its more traditional neighbors, while delivering exceptional environmental performance. “We were very focused on making sure the building was the best one for this time and place,” says Nick Clesi, Miller Hull project architect.

Read the full story at Architectural Record