The East Capital Campus is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation, with the work being completed in phases. The northern portion is rapidly nearing completion (Phase IV) and the southern portion, where the Halprin fountain is, will be redesigned and constructed in 2006-07 (Phase V). The water was shut off in 1992 and Water Garden lost one of its most significant design elements. At the time, it was thought the sculpture was leaking hundreds of gallons of water directly over a multi-story underground parking garage. However, later, it was discovered the water meter monitoring the flow to the sculpture was flawed, so the truth about leaks was never known.

Even without running water, however, the sculptural park-like area has remained in favor with state employees who use it frequently for rest, as a lunch or meeting spot, and residents in the surrounding neighborhood, whose children enjoy the fountain area as a modest playground.

Initial concept design documents for Phase V redevelopment called for the elimination of Water Garden, and be replaced with an elliptical pathway. However, an article written by Rick LeBrasseur and published in Landscape Architecture Magazine in 2003 brought the pending demise of Water Garden to the attention of the professional landscape community, and the state's Department of General Administration (GA) began to reconsider, and explore other options.

Interagency agreements were developed between GA, Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP) and the Washington State Arts Commission (WSAC) to create a "context report," similar to a historic structures report, that would provide GA with greater perspective to analyze the value of Water Garden to the citizens of the state of Washington. A private landscape architecture firm working on the East Capital Campus redevelopment, created a separate report detailing the financial impacts of four options: demolition, rehabilitation of the fountain, removal to another site, or replacement (building it anew from the original drawings). These options range from $846,000 to $1,703,000 in estimated cost.

Greg Bell, a member of the public art staff of 4Culture, the arts agency serving King County, was contracted by WSAC to research and write about Halprin and the fountain from an artistic perspective. Donovan Gray on the OAHP staff, researched and wrote about the origins of the East Capital campus development in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He also surveyed individuals who worked in nearby buildings and the surrounding neighborhood, asking their opinions about Water Garden, their history with the piece, and what they thought should be done with it. Gray also had an opportunity to visit with Halprin at his San Francisco office in early November while in the Bay Area on family business.

The result is a fairly thorough and thoughtful review of Lawrence Halprin's contributions to landscape design in the Pacific Northwest, as well as nationally and internationally, and an analysis of why Water Garden is a significant asset not only to the state of Washington, but to the world of landscape design as well. Water Garden is a Halprin design representing a significant transitional phase in his work, from earlier, open landscaped areas such as the Avista grounds in Spokane, to the latter urban gardens represented by Freeway Park, Lovejoy Fountain and Ira Keller Fountain, and monumental work such as the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C.

That report, and the positive recommendation of members the State Capital Campus Design Advisory Committee, helped influence the State Capital Committee (which oversees the campus and its buildings) in March 2005 to approve retention and restoration of the fountain, rather than its demolition, even though the cost of doing so is substantially greater. Though unrelated, this also coincides with legislation passed at the same time by the Washington State Legislature bringing all buildings and grounds of the capital campus under the protection of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Historic Preservation. Both are indicators of a strengthening historic preservation ethic in Washington state government.

The recent three-year $120 million rehabilitation of the Legislative Building, in addition to numerous work on other historic buildings to repair damage caused by the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001, has brought to GA a new awareness and respect for historic preservation. It is a unique confluence of events and activity that has helped create the right atmosphere in Olympia to save and restore Water Garden, rather than write it off as a lost cause.

Download the OAHP Report (PDF)

Donovan Michael Gray is a Preservation Design Reviewer working with the Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. As of August, 2005, OAHP will become a cabinet-level independent agency. Gray also works as a Preservation Planner with the Department of General Administration.