Big contracts keep education hopping

Journal of Business, Mar 08, 2007 by Crompton, Kim

A handful of large projects, ranging upward from $20 million to more than triple that amount, is helping to fuel education-related construction in the Spokane area, and several of the projects are expected to continue into next year and beyond.

The total value of projects currently under way exceeds $246 million, and although some of that work is winding down, projects worth at least another $100 million are expected to get under way this year.

One of the biggest education projects under way near downtown Spokane is Washington State University at Spokane's planned $34.6 million building to house the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park. see EdKerm page 46

Initial site preparation began last summer at the campus east of downtown Spokane, and foundation and concrete-slab work now is under way there, with the building due to begin rising above ground level shortly.

The nursing school building will include five stories and about 80,000 square feet of floor space. It's being built along the north side of Spokane Falls Boulevard, just south of the WSU-Spokane Health Sciences Building, and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2008.

It was sent back to the drawing board for redesign in the fall of 2005, and was reduced in size by more than 20,000 square feet, after construction cost estimates came in $4 million over budget due partly to increased costs for concrete, steel, and other building materials.

Integrus Architecture PS, of Spokane, designed the building, together with design consultant LMN Architects, of Seattle, and Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor and construction manager.

Also worthy of note are Eastern Washington University's revitalized plans to construct a building on the Riverpoint campus to house its Spokane branch operations, although that project wouldn't get under way for a number of years.

The university plans to seek purchase offers this spring for the four-story, 67,000-square-foot EWU Spokane Center building at 705 W. First, where the university has housed its branch operations since 1983, says Shawn King, associate vice president for facilities and planning. it expects to use money from the sale of that building to fund design and planning work for the envisioned Riverpoint building, he says.

An EWU task force is just beginning to look at what activities it wants the school to house in that building, so the size and cost of it hasn't been determined yet, King says. He adds, though, that he expects it probably would be about a 100,000-square-foot structure.

Spoken Public Schools

Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is expected to begin work this spring on the long-awaited modernization of Shadle Park High School, at 4327 N. Ash. That project is expected to have a construction cost of about $50 million and a total cost of about $70 million, including architectural fees, furnishings, taxes, and other miscellaneous expenses.

Greg Brown, Spokane Public Schools' director of capital projects, says temporary classroom structures will be delivered to the Shadle Park campus starting in April and major construction will begin there this summer.

The big project will reconfigure the North Side school, making the main entrance face west, toward Shadle Park, and adding about 55,000 square feet of floor space to the school, giving it a total of 275,000 square feet. The work will include tearing down an adjacent former elementary school that the high school has been using for decades and replacing that structure with new space that will be part of the high school, Brown says. The relocation of the main entrance also will allow for a sizable new parking area to be added in front of the entrance, correcting a chronic parking shortage at the school, he says.

The modernization will be done in four phases through the fall of 2009 to allow the school to be used during construction.

NAC/Architecture, of Spokane, is the architect on the project, but Garco-as both the general contractor and construction manager-participated in the design of the Shadle improvements with NAC/Architecture and Spokane Public Schools staff.

Garco also is the general contractor and construction manager for the ongoing expansion and renovation of Rogers High School, at 1622 E. Wellesley, in the northeast comer of the city. That three-phase project, which got under way last summer, has a construction cost of about $48.5 million and a total project cost of about $68 million.

That project will include renovating the original 1932 art-deco building and adding about 185,000 square feet of floor space to the structure, which will replace some additions built in the 1950s and 1960s and give the school a total of about 260,000 square feet of space.

The new space will include a student commons area capable of accommodating more than 700 students, as well as new classrooms, expanded performing arts facilities, and a new fitness center and other athletic facility upgrades. Also, a clock tower will be erected near the commons entry and more student parking will be added.