Challenge

The state office of Legislature Support Services (LSS) helps bring transparency to the legislative process.

LSS' staff collect and release crucial information about the work of the state Legislature to Washington's eight million residents. They run a toll-free legislative hotline and create multimedia products, such as signs, banners, graphics, and maps of all sizes. The work they produce helps public officials make and amend laws.

But for most of LSS' 24-year history, staff lacked a modern work space. Three years ago, their offices needed an estimated $6.2 million in repairs. These would have required LSS to move out, then move back in: a costly, time-consuming process. Repairs would have cost more than the building was worth.

LSS had to find a new home. But where?

Solution

LSS told us their new offices should be large enough to house both design and production — and a lot of large, heavy equipment.

We considered five buildings in DES' portfolio. The James M. Dolliver Building, several blocks north of the historic West Campus, was the best, most cost-effective location.

Dolliver had a loading dock: a feature highly prized by LSS, which ships materials of all shapes and sizes to legislators' offices. The natural light streaming through its high windows would allow the staff to accurately gauge the print quality of the full-color posters, signs, maps, and other materials. And it offered sufficient space for all LSS' functions: a room for the staff who work its toll-free legislative hotline, print and design rooms, and photo and video production areas.

"Dolliver just happened to be one of those opportunity sites that seemed to fit our programmatic needs," said LSS director Maurice Perigo.

Outcome

DES worked with Olympia contractor J.A. Morris to update Dolliver in about six months. DES professional trades staff performed finish work in the building. Security staff installed new cameras in rooms and card readers in doorways. When planners discovered that one room needed additional support, the project manager worked with the contractor to strengthen the print room floor so that it could hold LSS' heavy equipment.

The work cost about $1.1 million—a fraction of the estimated costs of updates to LSS' former offices.

"DES was raring and ready to go, so that we could start our move-in process as soon as [the 2026 legislative] session was over," says Perigo. "They kept us informed about the status of the work, when it was done, and coordinating with the contractors so that they weren't stepping on each other's toes while they were in here doing the work."

First housing the Olympia post office, the Dolliver Building is now the transmission site for messages of a different kind, between engaged citizens and public officials, for decades to come.