Washington State University Spokane's managers believe the school's branch campus here will need 370,000 square feet of additional space by 2015 to accommodate growing demands.

That amount of net new square footage is an estimate developed part way through WSU-Spokane's process of updating the master plan for the Riverpoint Campus, says Brian Pitcher, the chancellor here and WSU's vice provost for health services.

The estimate takes into account what is known about the campus today, an updated vision of developing it as a health-sciences and biomedical campus, and the future needs of both WSU and other occupants of the branch campus, including Eastern Washington University and Sirti, Pitcher says.

The estimate doesn't include space for a sought-after second year of instruction for University of Washington School of Medicine students under the WWAMI program, which is named after the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, from which the program's students come.

Last year, the Riverpoint Campus became the fifth location where first-year UW medical students could take courses under the WWAMI program. The students take their second year of classes at the UW Medical School, in Seattle, then receive their clinical education at sites across the five states.

Many business and education leaders here favor approval of instruction for second-year medical students here.

Moreover, Pitcher says a committee of academics, businesspeople, and others is working to answer the question, "Is there a case that can be made for a medical school here?" If that question is answered affirmatively, even more space than the estimated 370,000 additional square feet would be needed, he says.

The panel that's looking at the medical school question includes Dr. Thomas E. Norris, academic vice dean of the UW Medical School, who chairs the effort; Scott Morris, chairman, president, and CEO of Avista Corp.; Pete Stanton, chairman and CEO of Washington Trust Bank; Andy Agwunobi, CEO of Providence Health Care here; Tom Quigley, president and CEO of Kiemle & Hagood Co., of Spokane; Greater Spokane Incorporated President Rich Hadley; Pitcher; and roughly 20 other executives.

"We've met twice; we'll meet again in June" in Spokane, Pitcher says. "That feasibility question is coming up in Spokane when we meet."

A key question is whether Spokane's medical community would support clinical education for 240 third- and fourth-year medical school students, given that the panel is looking at a medical school with 120 students in each class, Pitcher says.

Yet, he says, the elements that must be present in a community to launch a medical school—a sizable medical community; the demographic numbers of patients, practitioners, and population; and collaboration between universities such as the UW and WSU—are "all here."

The committee likely will make a recommendation by the end of this year on whether it believes a medical school should be developed here, Pitcher says. That recommendation would go to the two universities and to the public first, he says. Perhaps by the next biennial budget session of the Washington Legislature, in 2011, a request would be made to lawmakers "to formally plan" for such a school, Pitcher adds.

"It's going to be pricey, but our economy won't always be bad, and you have to plan for the future," he says.

The need for another medical school in the state is apparent, Pitcher adds, saying, "Washington ranks in the lowest five states in the country in the number of medical school graduates per capita."

The next building WSU is seeking to construct at the Riverpoint Campus, a planned Biomedical and Health Sciences Building, likely will include 50,000 to 70,000 square feet of floor space in its first phase, with second and perhaps third phases later, Pitcher says. The Legislature has approved pre-design and design money for the planned structure.

WSU-Spokane introduced an academic vision for the master planning process in a public meeting here March 17. Program changes would include consolidation of all four years of pharmacy training here, which also would be seen as key for a medical school; expansion of research space, including a vivarium, for medical education, pharmacy, and other programs; consolidation of speech and hearing sciences in Spokane; consolidation of exercise and nutrition here; expansion of other health science programs of both WSU and EWU.

On April 23, WSU-Spokane discussed infrastructure needs for the branch campus in a second public meeting. A final public meeting on the master plan is scheduled June 3 in the Academic Center Building, at Riverpoint, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Pitcher says the plan should be completed this summer.

Because the precise needs that the 55-acre campus will fill in the future aren't known, much about the master plan update process is conceptual now, says Bruce Thompson, director of capital planning and development for WSU-Spokane and an architect.

One question, he says, is: "Do we have (health-care) clinics on campus? Don't we? And what does that mean? The further out we get, the fuzzier it gets."

Yet, it's known there's room for expansion.

Says Pitcher, "There's got to be 15 buildings you could build of the size of the Nursing Building that could be massed here." That 87,500-square-foot building, which houses the WSU College of Nursing, opened recently and is the newest building on the branch campus. The campus has a total of about 500,000 square feet of floor space in the structures that have been built to date.

Pitcher, who together with Thompson provided a recent briefing on the master planning process, says the schools at the branch campus aren't pursuing acquiring additional property there.

"We have an inventory that we're comfortable with," he says. "If there's an opportunity that makes sense, a donation or an exchange, the universities are open to that."

Yet, because there's so much pressure on the state budget, it would be difficult for a state university to be buying property now, Pitcher says. "We don't see ourselves in an acquiring role. We see ourselves investing in what we have."

Of the possibility of business development on campus, he says, "We do need services. Students need opportunities to take breaks, to refresh themselves, to come early, to stay late." He believes that private business development would be more likely to occur near Division Street than near the core of the campus, where health science and bioscience facilities will be developed.

WSU isn't interested in developing housing on the campus, he says.

"We have been clear that we are not looking at investing our resources in housing here," Pitcher says. "There is an opportunity for the private sector to invest in housing" in nearby neighborhoods, he adds.

"We're expecting to build vertical here. We're not looking at twostory residential development. We prefer to have our bonding capacity invested in instructional and research facilities." He says apartments could be developed on the upper floors of buildings on Main, Division, and Riverside or in vacant buildings on those streets.

"In mature downtowns, you see that," says Thompson.

For years, campus managers, city officials, and others have talked of ways to link the campus and the environs around it in a University District so the two areas could draw development energy from one another. Pitcher says it's fortuitous that the campus master plan update is being done just after the city of Spokane has done its downtown plan and adds that those who advocate such a district have been keenly interested in the campus master plan update.

A key link for the district, however, is development of a pedestrian connection up and over the BNSF Railway Co. tracks along the campus' southern edge, which has been awaited for years. The city of Spokane has received $475,000 to design such a link and to acquire right of way for it, and Pitcher says civic discussion has begun on exactly where that link should be built.

Other campus-planning issues revolve around finding ways for students and others to cross Division as they pass back and forth between the campus and the downtown, he says.

Also, old warehouses at the northeast corner of Division and Sprague, which are on campus land, have been seen as undesirable in terms of creating a first impression of the campus on visitors as they enter downtown Spokane. The structures will be torn down as part of an eastward extension of Riverside, and the city of Spokane hopes to develop a park in that area on campus land, Pitcher and Thompson say.

"We envision that to become a gateway to that area," says Thompson, who adds that materials from the old buildings likely will be used to build something that will honor the railroads' heritage here.