Olympia's Creative Campus: An Historic Armory Reimagined with Green Technology

The Washington state capital of Olympia is contracting Ameresco to upgrade and update a historic local armory building with a $24 million revitalization into a new arts center featuring on-site renewable power and new-gen energy efficiency technology.

Olympia city officials joined energy services developer and contractor Ameresco in a groundbreaking on the project to remake and retrofit the Olympia Armory first constructed 86 years ago. The city acquired the armory in 2022.

This new renovation, retrofit and remake project will be crowned by installation of a 150-kW solar photovoltaic and 125-kW battery energy storage system at what will become the city’s new arts center.

Ameresco started its energy audit of the Olympia Armory building two years ago. Once retrofit work begins, the energy services company will upgrade energy efficiency technologies in the first phase, with the solar system coming in the second phase of the work.

First phase work will include new energy-efficient electrical and mechanical upgrades such as plumbing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, new safety systems, hazardous material abatement, new lighting and window replacement.

Once the remake is finished, the 50,000-square-foot building will be known as the Creative Campus, supporting the city’s artistic and collaborative communities. Among the anchor partners who will partake in the Creative Campus operations include the Bridge Music Project, Capital City Pride, Community Print, Kokua Services/Hummingbird Studio, Olympia Film Collective, PARC Foundation and TC Media.