Joel M. Pritchard Building

The Joel M. Pritchard Building at the Washington State Capitol campus in Olympia was built in 1957–1958 to house the Washington State Library, which had outgrown its previous location in the basement of the Washington Supreme Court's Temple of Justice.[3] The building's architect, Paul Thiry who also designed the Century 21 Exposition complex in Seattle, used Modern design incorporating the Wilkeson sandstone[4] quarried a few tens of miles away and used in the state capitol and other buildings. It was the last monumental building added to the capitol campus and one of the few departures from the Olmsted Brothers' 1928 campus plan.[5] It was described as "among the most important regional archetypes of mid-century architectural design and thought...a textbook on how Washingtonians looked at the future in the 1950s".[6] It was named for Joel M. Pritchard, a U.S. Congressman from Washington and the state's Lieutenant Governor. Thiry won the American Institute of Architects/American Library Association Library Building Award for the design, the first such award to be presented.[4] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

Joel M. Pritchard Building
Joel M. Pritchard Building, 2020
Former names	Washington State Library building, Joel M. Pritchard Library
General information
Type	Library, later office building
Architectural style	Modern or New Formal[1]
Location	Olympia, Washington
Country	United States
Coordinates	47.0345°N 122.9049°E
Elevation	120 ft (37 m)
Current tenants	State administrative offices
Construction started	November 5, 1957
Inaugurated	November 15, 1958
Cost	$2.45 million (authorized)[2]
Client	Washington State Library
Owner	State of Washington
Design and construction
Architect	Paul Thiry
Awards and prizes	AIA/ALA Library Building Award

After the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake, the damaged state capitol building was evacuated,[7] and the library collection and staff were moved out of the building for occupation by other activities.[8][9] As of the 2010s it was occupied by the Code Reviser and other administrative staff.[6][8]

Public art

Up to 2.5 percent of the building's construction cost was reserved for public art.[10] The pieces placed at the library immediately after construction included Du Pen Fountain, a sundial by John W. Elliott, a mosaic by James FitzGerald, photographs by Bob and Ira Spring, and murals by Kenneth Callahan and Mark Tobey. It was Tobey's only work on public display in Olympia, while Tobey, a member of the Northwest School "big four", was considered the West Coast's most famous living painter.[lower-alpha 1] Washington sculptor and painter George Tsutakawa was in charge of placing the art.[13] The Tobey was moved to Tacoma Art Museum in 2003,[8] but returned to the Pritchard Building in 2008.

Footnotes

1. The Los Angeles Times 1958 review, cited in Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art, p. 39,[11] (chapter reprinted at Historylink[12]) noting the library commission immediately followed.

References

1. Sleek, Shiny and New: Olympia's Post-WWII Architecture (PDF), Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, 2010
2. Reynolds 2002, p. 56.
3. Reynolds 2002.
4. Reynolds 2002, p. 69.
5. Capitol Master Plan, State of Washington Department of Enterprise Services, 2006, p. 5-2
6. Washington State Library, Olympia, Docomomo WEWA
7. Brian Zylstra (March 4, 2016), "When 2001 Legislature had a shake-up", From Our Corner blog, Office of Washington Secretary of State
8. Sheila Farr (April 1, 2003), "Building makeover puts Capitol mural in tight spot", The Seattle Times
9. Walt Crowley (February 22, 2003), Washington State Library, HistoryLink
10. Reynolds 2002, p. 66.
11. Deloris Tarzan Ament (2002), Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art, University of Washington Press, ISBN 0295981474
12. Deloris Tarzan Ament (February 16, 2003), Tobey, Mark (1890-1976): The Old Master of the Young American Painting, HistoryLink
13. Reynolds 2002, pp. 71-74.

Bibliography

• Reynolds, Maryan E. (2002), The Dynamics of Change: A History of the Washington State Library, Washington State University Press, ISBN 9780874222487

External links

• Historic Sites of the Washington State and Territorial Library: 1853 to the present, Washington Secretary of State
• Olympia modernism: a self-guided tour of mid-century buildings hosted by Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation