Historic Pritchard building up for restoration and expansion

Washington State Department of Enterprises Services has proposed rehabilitating and expanding the historic 1958 Joel M. Pritchard Building to retain the character of the building while enhancing its use.

The Joel M. Pritchard Building used to be the State Library.

In the narrative submitted to the Olympia Site Plan Review Committee, applicant Jeff Landrie stated that the project is part of the Legislative Campus Modernization (LCM) program. The Pritchard building, located at 425 15th Avenue SW, served as the State Library until its relocation in 2001 after the Nisqually earthquake.

The review committee held a presubmission conference of the project on Wednesday, March 22.

The proposed project site is south of the Washington State Legislative Building on the West Capitol Campus in Olympia.

At the meeting, Erica Ceder of design firm DLR Group said the building comprises two pieces – the existing one-single-level glass volume as the reading room and a seven-story volume for book stacks.

Ceder said the book stacks portion was structurally damaged in the earthquake. "That portion of the building is currently not being occupied."

"The proposal involves removing the existing stacks portion of the building and replacing it with a volume of similar height, depth, and proportions," Ceder said.

The "reading room" and the associated basement had been repurposed as office spaces for Code Reviser, Legislative Support Services, the LEG-TECH/Legislative Services Center, and a café. This portion will be retained and rehabilitated.

The narrative stated that a three-story addition would extend eastward into the existing parking lot an additional 234 feet.

According to the narrative, the project also proposes to transform a section of 15th Avenue SW, stretching from the Cherberg Building to Water Street SW, into a parking area of 45 stalls. The parking area would be designed with internal circulation to allow vehicle and pedestrian access to the portion of 15th Avenue SW in front of the Pritchard building.

Olympia Associate Planner Paula Smith said development regulations for zoning do not apply to the project because it is on the Capitol campus.

Tim Smith, Deputy Director of Community Planning and Development, clarified that under state law, they do not apply land use regulations to the Capitol campus. He said the campus is exempt.

"What it means is you would just go straight to the construction permitting with the city… the civil permits, and then the building permits," Smith said.

Engineering review

Senior Engineering Planner Tiffani King commented that the stormwater requirement for this project is a "bit tricky" because it involves state and city regulations. 

"We do have a combination of state-owned stormwater and city-owned stormwater," King said.

King added that the city would be responsible for permitting anything within the city right-of-way, 16th Avenue and 15th Avenue. At the same time, the state would handle permitting for anything on the project site.

King briefly discussed frontage improvements along 16th Avenue and Water Street, requiring new curb and gutter planters and street lighting.

"We will need to make sure that the electrical service is not intertwined with the Capitol campus service. We want to make sure that any street lighting in the city right-of-way's electrical service is separate from any campus lighting," she told the developers.