Washington State University Facilities Planning Department Office Files, 1947-1981

A University Architect served as the construction officer at Washington State University from 1911 forward. The modern form of the office dates from 1947 when it became a full-time, staffed administrative department. In 1967 the University Architect office was renamed as Facilities Planning, and then to Facilities Development in 1993. In 2001 it was renamed as Capital Planning. While Capital Planning is responsible for major planning and development, smaller projects are conducted by Facilities Operations. Facilities Operations descended from the Physical Plant in 1998, which in turn descended from Building and Grounds in 1967. While each line of programs has existed separately, some migration in function has occurred over the years. The primary difference between Capital Planning and Facilities Operations is the cost of the project in question - initially items costing less than $1,000,000 were assigned to Fac Ops, and those costing more to CP. By 2009, this break point is between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000.