A state panel has agreed on where a new memorial for trailblazing lawmaker Cal Anderson should go on the grounds of Washington’s Capitol campus, months after the unceremonious removal of the existing tribute ignited a furor.
A unanimous State Capitol Committee on Monday approved placing the memorial for Anderson, Washington’s first openly gay legislator and a champion for gay rights, on a patch of land east of the Sunken Garden.
As envisioned, it would feature elements to reflect Anderson’s contemplative nature, collaborative style and activist persona including a semi-circular retaining wall and seating area for meditating, and a 4-foot-tall polished granite boulder symbolizing his role in paving the state’s future. It would be landscaped and not taller than hedges surrounding nearby gardens.
Though the committee will need to approve the design concept and the Legislature will have to provide funding for the project’s estimated $312,000 price tag, settling on a location is a major stride forward given the past strife.
“There was certainly pain felt in parts of this process, so I’m very happy that has been rectified in such tremendous, thoughtful form,” said Randy Bolerjack, deputy secretary of state and a committee member.
“Characteristics that shone through to me in testimonials from his colleagues are his hopefulness and kindness, and I believe this memorial will serve as a reminder of those for future generations serving the state from Olympia,” Bolerjack said.
Cal Anderson was appointed to a House seat in 1987 and won three elections before winning a Senate seat in 1994. In February 1995, Anderson announced he was being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a complication of AIDS, according to a HistoryLink biography. He passed away in August of that year.
A Vietnam vet and progressive Democrat, he introduced bills every session to extend the state’s civil rights protections to cover gays and lesbians. It wasn’t until 2006 that lawmakers passed a law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodation, credit, and insurance
In 1996, the state put in the original memorial. In August 2023, workers with the Department of Enterprise Services removed it when they chopped down a Kwanzan cherry tree and took out the adjacent plaque honoring Anderson.
Lt. Gov. Denny Heck called it a “desecration” and Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the memorial be restored on Cherry Lane that runs alongside the Legislative Building. Both Heck and Inslee knew and collaborated with Anderson.
State lawmakers allotted $75,000 for pre-design and HBB Landscape Architecture in Seattle was hired to do the work.
On Monday, Aaron Luoma, a principal with the company, presented the State Capitol Committee with sketches and artist renderings developed from months of conversations with those stakeholders.
“Those renderings, to use the technical term, knocked my socks off,” Heck said Monday. “That’s just a spectacular way to begin to visualize and imagine very concretely, pun intended, what that space might look like.”
Final designs will take about eight months to complete after which the project could be put out to bid. Luoma told the committee that construction would cost an estimated $312,000 and take six months.
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