East Capitol Campus Plaza, Washington State Department of General Administration

FSi provided the mechanical design for this major renovation to 10 acres of parking garage and plaza area for the State’s Capitol.

The East Capitol Campus plaza and garage occupy the eastern half of the state’s capitol grounds. The 10-acre rooftop plaza, built over 300,000 SF of parking garage, provides open space for the tenants of the adjacent state office buildings and is immediately adjacent to the historic West Capitol Campus.

To repair chronic leaks and seismically upgrade the Plaza garage, the existing plaza surface was removed down to the original roof structure, providing an opportunity to repair the garage and redesign this large open space to better accommodate the aesthetic, functional, and technical requirements of the East Capitol Campus.

The project consisted of five phases of work over 10 years. The consultant team began with program planning, site analysis, user interviews, public workshops, and a design charrette to identify outstanding issues and develop a design plan. Subsequent phases included the rooftop plaza development around the Department of Transportation headquarters and Office Building No. 2, renovation of five acres of rooftop plaza at the north garage, as well as development of a comprehensive site art and lighting program. The last phase, completed in 2006, restored a historically significant water fountain and redesigned an existing memorial to the soldiers of the Korean War.