being Morris H. Whitehouse and Walter E. Church of Portland. They receive one-third of the commission allowance for architects.
Construction of the sub-structure will start in September. The building is expected to be completed in two years.
Thirteen months elapsed from the time of the fire until the selection of the architect for the new capitol was announced. In that interval important decisions were made as to location of the capitol, its cost, the authority to handle construction, and the method of selecting the architect.
Immediately after the embers of the fire had cooled, the board of control, acting on the report of engineers and architects, ordered the demolition of the walls of the old capitol. On May 8 some taxpayers of Marion County brought an injunction suit against razing the walls, on the ground that the legislature alone could dispose of the walls. Circuit Judge Lewelling of Marion County ruled against the plaintiffs and the work proceeded as a project of the state emergency relief administration. A large quantity of brick was salvaged for use at state institutions in the vicinity of Salem.
At the direction of Governor Charles H. Martin, the newly created Oregon state planning commission began to make studies of Oregon's needs for a new statehouse. The commission's inquiry extended to experience of other states and to the rate of growth of government departments. The commission issued interim reports and a final report. In general it recommended acquisition of a spacious campus of not less than 25 acres for capitol grounds, and construction of a capitol group instead of a single building.
Based on the findings of the planning commission Governor Martin applied for a grant from the public works administration of forty-five percent of the estimated cost of the capitol, $3,500,000. This was readily approved by the public works administration, President Roosevelt, the day after the fire having offered to Governor Martin federal assistance for the rebuilding.
Sharp controversy prevailed over the location for the new capitol. Leading citizens of Salem urged acquisition of the eighteen-acre campus of Willamette University, adjacent to the
