The East Capitol Campus plaza occupies the eastern half of the state’s capitol grounds and was designed to complement the historical West Capitol Campus grounds. The rooftop plaza, built over a 10-acre parking garage, provides open space for the tenants of the adjacent state office buildings. It is surrounded on three sides by government office buildings and is immediately adjacent to the historic West Capitol Campus. Because the East Campus is one of the first places visitors see as they enter Olympia from Interstate 5, it serves as the visual gateway to the Capitol.

The first phase of this process included initial program planning, site analysis, user interviews, public workshops, and a design charette, which led to the identification of outstanding issues and the development of a preferred design plan. The second and third phases included the rooftop plaza development around the Department of Transportation Headquarters & Office Building No. 2.