Former IBM Building demolition begins Oct. 31
October 30, 2012
Capitol Campus Update
OLYMPIA – The demolition of the state-owned building at the northwest corner of Maple Park Avenue and Capitol Way, commonly referred to as the IBM Building, gets underway Oct. 31.
A crew from Correctional Industries, the offender work training program managed by the Department of Corrections, will be on site that day to begin removing carpets, windows and hazardous materials. The crew will install plywood over the window openings to keep the site secure until demolition can begin.
The abatement and removal work will be finished about the first week of December. A construction contractor will then tear down the two-story building.
The entire 14,200-square-foot structure will be demolished, including the basement and foundation. The site will then be filled and grass planted on top of it.
The building, which was constructed in 1958 for the IBM Corporation, is in poor shape. The cost to bring it up to modern building codes exceeds the value of the structure.
The state bought the building in 1975 and used it until February 2011, when the Employment Security Department moved employees who worked there to another building at 10th Avenue and Columbia Street in Olympia.
The $258,000 project is scheduled to be complete at the end of January 2013.