EDUCATION: School construction remains strong

Roughly $30 million to $40 million of new school construction work is expected to begin this year in the Spokane area, supplementing about $110 million in projects that began last year or earlier and are still under way. Meanwhile, another $50 million to $60 million in proposed education projects here are waiting for funding or are slated to get underway next year or later.

Among those projects is Washington State University at Spokane's planned $29 million Academic Center, which is the first of three more buildings it eventually wants to construct at its Riverpoint Higher Education Park east of downtown. Design work is currently going on, but no construction schedule has been set on that project, which has yet to be funded by Legislature. WSU will ask for that money next legislative session, and hopes to call for bids on the project in about a year and a half, says Bill Gray, campus executive officer and dean for WSU-Spokane.

The structure would house WSU-Spokane's admissions and registration departments, a library, and classroom space, and would enable the university to move the rest of its Spokane programs to the Riverpoint campus from other locations downtown.

The other big future project would be a new, bigger basketball arena at the Gonzaga University campus. That possible $20 million project will get under way once 80 percent of the funds needed for the project have been pledged or secured, says university spokesman Dale Goodwin, who declines to say how much has been raised so far.

Gonzaga's 4,000-seat Martin Centre arena consistently sells out, due to the success of the university's men's basketball program in recent years.

Following is a look at some of the education projects already under way or expected to begin this year.

Eastern Washington University

Eastern Washington University has entered into a partnership with Spokane developer Rob Brewster to develop a $5 million housing and retail facility at the corner of Second and F streets in downtown Cheney. The four-story brick building, to be located two blocks from the EWU campus, will provide housing for 140 university students on its upper three stories, and will have a coffee shop and a universityoperated bookstore on the first floor. Site work is under way, and the project is expected to be completed before classes start at EWU next fall.

Robert B. Goebel General Contractor Inc., of Spokane, is erecting the 50,800-square-foot structure, which is to be called Dorothy Brewster Hall, after Rob Brewster's grandmother, who was an educator.

Brewster will develop and own the building, and EWU will lease the housing and bookstore space, as well as some dedicated parking. Brewster will seek a commercial tenant for the coffee-shop space.

This school year, EWU had to find campus housing for 1,700 students, far more than the 1,000 students it housed five school years earlier. EWU says the partnership with Brewster will allow it to add housing less expensively than it could on its own.

Community Colleges of Spokane

Design work is under way on three projects at Spokane Falls Community College, that will have a combined cost of about $8 million. The largest of the projects is a $5.6 million expansion and interior renovation of the campus's library, though that project likely won't get under way until the spring or summer of 2003. The expansion will add about 15,000 square feet of floor space, giving the building 50,000 square feet of space, says Butch Slaughter, facilities project manager for the Community Colleges of Spokane. Renovation of the building's current space will follow. Construction is expected to take about two years to complete. Integrus Architecture PS is designing the project. A contractor will be sought next year.

This summer at SFCC, a $1.7 million expansion and upgrade of the school's Fine Arts Building is scheduled to start. That project will involve building a 3,300-square-foot addition to the west side of the building and upgrading the entire building's heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. Bernardo-Wills Architects PC is doing the design work; construction is expected to take about eight months.

Work also is slated to begin this summer on a $750,000 addition and upgrade to SFCC's Student Development building. The project includes updating the building's mechanical systems and adding 1,400 square feet of space to be used for services for multicultural students. Bernardo-Wills is the architect for the project, which will take about eight months to complete. Bids for that project and the improvements to the Fine Arts Building will be sought in April or May.

Gonzaga and Whitworth

Gonzaga University has one major project under way and another scheduled to begin soon.

Work has begun on a $4.2 million student-housing project in the 600 block of East Sharp Avenue, on the north side of the Gonzaga campus. There, two buildings, each of which will house 90 students, are being built by Inland Construction Co., of Spokane. Site work for that project began last summer, with the demolition of a row or older houses there. The new student-housing buildings are expected to be completed by the start of next school year, says Ken Sammons, Gonzaga's director of plant and construction services.

Meanwhile, construction is set to begin around the middle of May on an expansion and upgrade of Hughes Hall, Gonzaga's chemistry and biology building. That project, for which a contractor hasn't yet been selected, will include construction of a $6.6 million, 35,000-squarefoot addition at the north end of the three-level, 46,000-square-foot structure. The expansion will provide more room for both the biology and chemistry departments, which currently are crunched for space, Sammons says. Work on the addition is expected to be completed by June 2003, after which, if funding has been secured, the renovation of the older portion of the building will begin.

The renovation part of the project, which is expected to cost $2.4 million, will update the 1960s-era structure. ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, did the design work for the expansion and renovation.

Whitworth College hopes to start work this fall on a $6.5 million academic building, the private college's first new academic building since 1956.

Nearly half of the needed funding for the project already has been raised through donations, but the schoo doesn't plan to break ground on the building, which is to be called Weyerhaeuser Hall, until pledges have been secured to cover the entire project, says Whitworth spokesman Greg Orwig.

Steve Thompson, Whitworth's director of facilities, says that could be as soon as this fall. If so, the building could be completed in time for the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year.

Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, has been hired to perform preconstruction services and to be the general contractor once work begins. 3E Design Group PS, a Spokane architectural firm, designed the project.

The three-story, 33,000-square-foot building will be located on the former site of Leavitt Dining Hall, between the Lindaman Center and McMillan Hall, near the center of Whitworth's campus. It will include a 230-seat lecture hall, smaller classrooms, office space for three academic departments-history and politics, sociology, and the School of Global Commerce.

Central Valley School District

In the Central Valley School District, construction of both the Central Valley and University high schools is expected to be completed this year, while expansion work at two elementary schools in the district is to get under way.

Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, began work in the fall of 2000 on the new, $40 million, 230,000-square-foot Central Valley High School. Construction there is expected to wrap up in August, just in time for students to attend classes when school starts next fall.

The new school building is located just east of the former, 160,000square-foot Central Valley High, at 821 S. Sullivan. After the new school is completed, the older structure will be razed, and its site will be converted into green space, a bus-loading area, and a parking lot.

Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, designed both the Central Valley High project and the University High School project, which also got under way in the fall of 2000.

The new University High, which is being built by Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, also will be a two-story, 230,000-square-foot structure. It is located on a 48-acre site near the southeast corner of 32nd Avenue and Pines Road.

That project, which should be completed by June, is estimated to cost about $39 million. The former U-High building, located at 10212 E. Ninth, then will be used as temporary quarters for two elementary schools in the district, while those schools are being remodeled. The 23-acre U-High campus, with its 150,000-square-foot school building, then will be put up for sale.

The two elementary school projects, which together will cost just over $12 million, are slated to get underway this summer at McDonald Elementary, at 1512 S. McDonald, and Adams Elementary, at 14707 E. 8th.

The district plans to expand each school to about 45,000 square feet of floor space, enough to accommodate up to 450 students, says Dave Jackman, the district's director of auxiliary services.

McDonald Elementary currently has 31,000 square feet of floor space and room for 310 students, while the 40,000-square-foot Adams Elementary has the capacity for 400 students.

In addition to adding space, the projects will involve extensive remodeling and reconfiguration of the schools, Jackman says. Coeur d'Alene-based Architects West PA designed the expansions of both schools. Work at both schools is expected to be completed before the start of the 2003-2004 school year.

Coeur d'Alene High upgrades

The $11 million expansion and renovation of Coeur d'Alene High School began about a year ago and is expected to be completed this fall.

The project, which is being done by Panco Construction Inc., of Spokane, includes adding about 50,000 square feet of floor space and renovating another 92,000 square feet of space. Several new classrooms will be added, as well as a second gymnasium and a new commons area that will replace a grassy area in the school's original open-air configuration and tie the campus's four main buildings together. The auditorium of the 1970s-era school also is being remodeled, along with other areas of the school that weren't updated in a remodeling project there about six years ago, says Steve Briggs, director of finance and support services at Coeur d'Alene School District No. 271.

Architects West PA, of Coeur d'Alene, designed the project. The school, which has an enrollment of about 1,300 students, has remained open during construction.

Fairchild Air Force Base

The Medical Lake School District is planning to build a $10.7 million 75,000-square-foot elementary school at Fairchild Air Force Base.

The new school will replace Blair Elementary School, which is made up of four separate buildings ranging in age from 40 to 50 years, and is located near the main entrance to the West Plains base. The new structure will be located deeper within the base.

The school district awarded a design-management and construction management contract to KJM & Associates, of Bellevue, Wash. The project is currently in the design phase.

Two grants, one from the U.S. Department of Defense and one from Washington state, will be used to pay for the project. Construction is set to begin by Sept. 30.

Cheney School District

A $4.5 million dollar modernization of Cheney School District's Windsor Elementary School, which began last fall, is expected to be completed this summer. Spokane-based Northwestern Construction of Washington Inc. is the contractor, and Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, did the design work.

The older sections of the school, located at 5504 W. Hallett Road, on the West Plains, are being modernized to include telephones, computer wiring, sinks, and upgraded mechanical systems. The special -education systems in the school, which was built in 1959, also is being improved, says Dave Sackville-West, business manager for the Cheney School District.

An addition built in 1993 doesn't need to be modernized, SackvilleWest says.

Deer Park School District

In Deer Park, a new $6.5 million school that will replace Deer Park Elementary is expected to be completed by August.

The new school, located at 1500 E. D St., will house pre-school through second grade students, and will replace the current Deer Park Elementary, which is located at 428 N. Main and currently houses students in kindergarten through second grade, says Steve Howard, Deer Park School District's project manager for the new school.

The 55,000-square-foot brick structure was designed by Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane. New Horizon Telcom Inc., a Spokane construction company, is the contractor.

With just 26,000 square feet of space, the old school at 428 N. Main is overcrowded, says Howard, The new building will enable the district to consolidate there its pre-school classes, which currently are located in nearby Clayton, Howard says.

The school's appearance will be similar to that of the school it's replacing and will be very much the traditional "red brick schoolhouse," complete with a bell tower, Howard says. Children in grades three through five attend Arcadia Elementary, which is located at 1120 E. D St., near where the new school will stand.