About the Highways-Licenses Building

View the Highways-Licenses Building on the Capitol Campus Map.

The Highways-Licenses Building is one of the first buildings constructed on the East Capitol Campus. It sits at the north end of the plaza, overlooking the large green lawn. The building currently houses the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Licensing.

The Highways-Licenses Building sits across the East Capitol Campus plaza from the similarly designed Employment Security Building.

Like the historic West Capitol Campus, the buildings and landscapes on the East Capitol Campus and landscapes follow a general design style to create a cohesive look and feel. East Capitol Campus mirrors West Capitol Campus with its open lawn and clear paths surrounded by large buildings. One state employee said, “Capitol Campus is like an open picture book, with Capitol Way as the spine. The left and right pages offer very different viewing experiences.”

History

In 1954, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that all state agencies should be headquartered in Olympia. Upon the completion of the Joel Pritchard State Library in 1958, the state government had no more space for new buildings on the West Capitol Campus, prompting the state to expand the Capitol Campus.

In 1958, Paul Thiry, architect of the Joel Pritchard State Library, designed a campus extension covering 48.5 acres on the east side of Capitol Way. At the time, the proposed area consisted of apartments, houses, and Olympia High School. The Legislature approved Thiry’s idea and purchased the property shortly after.

A black and white image of the old Olympia High School site taken from afar. The brick building is three stories tall and faces a street lined with trees. Two white cars are parked in front of the school.
Olympia High School, 1960. Photo from Washington State Archives.

In 1959, the East Capitol Campus site became a recurring topic at State Capitol Committee meetings; around the same time, the Highways Department pushed for the committee to fund the connection of the Capitol Campus to the freeway. By the end of 1959, the committee began funding the construction of the Employment Security Building and Highways-Licenses Building and planned to purchase the Olympia High School site in preparation for the development work. Crews demolished the school building in 1961 to make way for the new Highways-Licenses Building.

In 1962, the first development projects on the East Capitol Campus, the Highways-Licenses Building and the Employment Security Building, brought a very different architectural style to the Capitol Campus. Instead of using the classical architectural style, these new buildings followed the new formalist style (then known as classic contemporary), using cast concrete panels, symmetrical layouts, and stripped-down design elements.

A black and white image of the front of the Highways-Licenses Building taken from across the East Capitol Campus Plaza. The building stands tall above groves of trees and a large, grassy plaza with the Washington State Flag and American Flag waving in the wind.
Highways-Licenses Building, 1978. Photo from Washington State Archives.

Seattle architectural firm Harmon, Pray and Detrich designed the two buildings. Their placement at opposite ends of the East Capitol Campus plaza strayed away from Thiry’s proposed row of buildings lining the southern end of the plaza.

At the time of construction, employees in the Highways-Licenses Building were not happy with their new building due to the lack of stairs and only two elevators. Reportedly, employees often had to wait upwards of 15 to 20 minutes to ride the elevators. To resolve this issue, in 1995, crews added an exterior staircase to the building, slightly altering its appearance.