Community Colleges of Spokane is planning roughly $155 million in construction projects, nearly $100 million of which are scheduled to get under way next year, says Dennis Dunham, director of capital projects at the college district.

Although some of the projects have been signaled before as they made their way through the state funding process, a couple of them are new, including a planned $34 million photography and fine arts building for Spokane Falls Community College.

The projects together would make up the biggest construction growth spurt for Community Colleges of Spokane since it opened its campuses, Dunham says. The district operates Spokane Falls Community College in northwest Spokane and Spokane Community College in east Spokane, as well as the Institute for Extended Learning, which doesn't have a formal campus. SCC opened in 1956, and SFCC opened in 1967.

Work is slated to begin in 2009 on at least six of the nine projects the district currently is planning. Together, those projects are expected to cost $98.2 million, Dunham says. Five of those projects received recommendations for funding this past summer by the Washington state Board for Community and Technical Colleges, he says. In its next session, the Legislature is expected to give final approval to the board's recommendations for funding projects under the 2009-11 capital projects budget, although several projects here will be put to bid before funds would become available at the start of the next fiscal year in July, he says.

He says the district is reasonably confident that the Legislature will approve construction funding for those five projects because they previously were approved for design funding, and lawmakers typically follow through with construction funding once they have funded design work. The sixth project, which is by far the smallest in terms of funding, will be funded through matching state and district funds, he says.

The district will seek initial design funding for its proposed 58,000-square-foot photography and fine arts structure at SFCC, which is the most recent addition to its overall building plan, Dunham says. The structure would be located on the north rim of the campus.

If design funds come through for the project, the district will ask for construction funds for the 2011-13 biennium. If the project is funded, work on it would start in 2013, Dunham says.

The new building would replace the 14,000-square-foot photography building on the north rim of the campus and the 6,000-square-foot fine arts facility located near the center of campus.

Next year

The work that's expected to begin in 2009 includes four SFCC projects and two projects at SCC.

On the SFCC campus, a new science building, with an estimated cost of $31 million, is slated to go to bid next spring, Dunham says. That 70,000-square-foot, two-story structure would be built on the east-central part of the campus, where two smaller buildings, which formerly housed business communications programs, were demolished last summer.

The project, which was designed by SRG Partnership Inc., of Portland, Ore., will include laboratories, classrooms, and faculty offices, Dunham says. Construction is scheduled to begin in July and be completed in early 2011, he says.

Also on the SFCC campus, a major expansion and renovation of the music building is scheduled to go to bid in the spring. That $15.4 million project calls for tearing down portions of the building and adding 37,000 square feet of floor space, giving it total space of 47,000 square feet, Dunham says. The project will add classrooms, music labs, a recording studio, rehearsal space, and offices.

The building is located on the northern part of the campus. Integrus Architects PS, of Spokane, is the architect on the project. Construction is expected to start in August and take two years to complete, Dunham says.

On the east part of the campus, the district plans to build a 16,000-square-foot, $4.8 million structure to house an early childhood learning center. The one-story structure, to be located on the west side of Mitchell Drive, will include several large preschool rooms, an infant-care area, staff offices, and a courtyard.

The project is set to go to bid in May and get under way in July, with anticipated completion in early 2011, he says. OMS Inc., of Spokane, designed the project.

Also scheduled for next year is a $1.5 million interior renovation of the Warren G. Magnuson building southeast of SFCC. The community college district will take ownership of the building in January after the Washington State University College of Nursing moves to its new building on the Riverpoint Campus east of downtown.

The renovation project, which is being funded with state and district funds, will go to bid in December, and construction is expected to start in the spring. USKH is the architect.

On the SCC Campus, a planned technical education building will go to bid in April, and construction is scheduled to start in July, says Dunham, who estimates the project cost at $34.6 million. It would be completed in late 2010, he says.

The 70,000-square-foot building will be on the northeast part of campus, east of Rebecca Street and across from the college's Heavy Equipment building.

The structure will house manufacturing, construction, and technical training programs, which will be moved from the west wing of the Main Building situated along Mission Avenue on the south part of the campus. LSW Architects PC, of Vancouver, Wash., designed the project.

Also, a $10.9 million renovation is planned for the old science building, located on the northeast side of the campus. The building will house classroom space for the health sciences department and the campus information systems department, as well as faculty office space for physical education. The school opened a new science building in 2006.

The renovation project will involve demolition of about 6,000 square feet of floor space and an addition of 8,000 square feet, which will bring the total floor space to 35,000 square feet. De Neff Deeble Barton Associates, of Spokane, is the architect on the project.

Meanwhile, once the science building project is completed on the SFCC campus, the current science building there will be demolished to make room for a new classroom building, Dunham says.

That project, which has an estimated cost of $19 million, will be put out to bid in the summer of 2011, he says. Construction is tentatively scheduled to start late that summer and be completed in 2013.

The two-story structure will have 58,000 square feet of floor space and will provide classrooms, a tutoring center, seminar rooms, and office space. NAC/ Architecture, of Spokane, designed it.

CCS also is proposing to improve the stadium and athletic fields at SFCC. That project, originally estimated at $4 million, may have to be scaled back due to lack of funding, Dunham says. Design work is expected to begin in July. No architect has been selected for that project yet.

As originally envisioned, the project would include upgrades to the stadium and locker rooms and replacement of the soccer field and practice fields with artificial turf, Dunham says.