Miller Hull

On most state capitol campuses, buildings are treated as monuments—fixed, permanent, and resistant to change. In Olympia, Washington, the opposite has just occurred.

The Newhouse Replacement Building, designed by The Miller Hull Partnership as part of the state’s Legislative Campus Modernization initiative, is not simply a new government office building. It is a deliberate rethinking of what civic architecture can be when permanence is no longer assumed, when materials are treated as part of a lifecycle, and when sustainability is measured not just in performance metrics, but in cultural continuity.

Originally constructed in 1934 as a temporary structure, the former Newhouse building endured for nearly 90 years—far beyond its intended lifespan—before mounting life-safety and seismic concerns made replacement unavoidable. The typical response in such cases is demolition, followed by a clean break with the past.

Miller Hull chose a different path.

Read the full story at ARCHITECT