The Interpretive Center: Making safe space for everyone

| By DES Communications

Two women, Angela Gongora-Hines and Kailee Moulton, standing on a wooden deck at the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center, surrounded by large green trees.
Over the past two summers, Angela Gongora-Hines and Kailee Moulton of DES have worked to enhance safety and usability at the Interpretive Center.

Over the past two summers, with safety and beauty in mind, DES staff have improved the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center. As the nights get longer and the wet weather returns, we’re celebrating the work they’ve accomplished.

It’s more than a mile from the state Capitol’s iconic dome, but the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center is also part of Capitol Campus. The Interpretive Center comprises a restroom, deck, and dock nestled along Capitol Lake, between downtown Olympia and Tumwater. Just steps away from the car traffic on Deschutes Parkway, it’s sited at one end of a half-mile stretch of paved trail flanked on either side by waterway and wetland. It’s a waypoint in an area popular with walkers, runners, cyclists, and birders. Like any public space, it needs attention. 

Department of Enterprise Services (DES) carpenters, painters, and grounds professionals launched their work in 2022. It resulted in safer steps and safer sightlines.

This summer, they replaced rotting deck and post materials that had seen too many wet seasons. The area’s weather can pose other problems, too. That’s why Parks Grounds lead Kailee Moulton ensured that DES installed a permanent sign as travelers approach the deck: “Slippery when wet.” (The old sign, “Icy,” wasn’t quite on point.)  

“We’d get so many calls for falls out here,” she said. Runners, walkers, and cyclists would swerve, hit slick wood, and down they’d go.  

So carpenters, led by Carpentry and Paint Shop supervisor Angela Gongora-Hines, added a six-foot-wide strip of nonslip material to the deck’s most well-traveled areas. 

No one wants to be surprised outside a restroom in the dark. As users approached the building from the road, tall brush hindered the view of the sidewalk. Staff replaced the brambles with shorter plantings that afford more visibility.

DES’ work was undertaken with beauty and durability in mind, too. Carpenters added custom-fit cedar vehicle bollards at the entryway to the site. These functional, formidably sized posts also convey the makers’ respect for wood handcraft. They removed plastic panels on the nearby kiosks, which had attracted graffiti. In keeping with the muted palette of other Capitol Campus buildings, which mirror the sky and the water, they repainted the buildings from khaki-brown to a gray-blue shade. 

Kailee manages the Interpretive Center’s day-to-day needs. She says that her staff’s frequent response to small issues helps encourage everyone to treat the dock, buildings, benches, and walkway with respect. Speaking of benches, a matching pair of new black, metal benches were also installed in alignment with other site upgrades.

“When something’s being paid attention to, you get less of that negative [impact],” she said. “If you care for it, others care for it.” 

Angela has more work planned, such as replacing unsuitable beams that top the handrail leading to the dock.  

“A lot of people love parking at Tumwater Falls Park, coming down this way, going around the lake, then coming back. A lot of people like to birdwatch here,” said Kailee, noting the swans that gather on the far side of the lake.

Her observation of people traveling through, resting, or using the facilities “goes through my head when I’m maintaining something,” she said. “Who are the users? What would I want to see if I were here?”

Photo gallery

An outdoor scene highlighting the new, short plants at the entrance of the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center.
Tall brush hindered the view of the sidewalk. Led by Kailee Moulton, staff replaced the bushes with shorter plantings that afford more visibility.
Three Washington State Patrol officers on bikes talking to a woman near the entrance of the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center. Large green trees are behind the group, and a restroom building is to their right.
Washington State Patrol monitors the Interpretive Center often to increase public safety.
A woman talking about and gesturing toward the deck at the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center. She stands between two wooden bollards, with large green trees and a garbage can in the shot.
Angela Gongora-Hines leads the carpentry work taking place at the Interpretive Center. DES crews have replaced deck materials, widened the nonslip pathway, and installed wooden bollards.

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