When the state mothballs its General Administration Building later this year, it won’t leave the lobby’s mosaic mural behind.
The building requires seismic and mechanical upgrades, but instead of making those repairs, state employees who still work in the building are moving to other locations.
c, according to state Cultural Resources Manager Marygrace Goddu. Moving the 30-foot by 11-foot mural won’t be easy.
“After creating almost a skeleton frame around it to protect it,” said Goddu. “Lift it and float it out, in one piece, that will be the technical magic.”
Luckily it doesn’t have far to go.
The newly opened state office building next door was designed with room to display the mural.
Seattle Artist Jean Cory Beall assembled the 150,000-piece mosaic in the lobby of the General Administration Building which has housed the agencies like the state patrol and the budget office.
Goddu said preserving artwork on the Capitol campus is well worth the taxpayer dollars.
“Art and heritage are important reminders for us,” Goddu said. “They enrich our public places, and they help remind us who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going.”
The mural could be moved sometime in 2018.
