Three more academic buildings would be constructed in the next phase of development at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park east of downtown, perhaps by 2009, if an updated campus master plan becomes reality.


Washington State University at Spokane released the 74-page new plan earlier this year, after having spent months seeking public opinion and refining its long-range vision for the partly developed 48-acre campus. The release was limited, though, and relatively few people here have had a chance to see the finished report, says Bill Gray, campus executive officer and dean at WSU-Spokane.


We ended up with a plan that was far more interactive with the downtown area and the city in general than the 9-year-old original campus plan, Gray asserts. That plan had a suburban, park-like, self-contained design, while the new plan is more urban in character and is designed to blend with or complement surrounding uses, he says.


I think its appropriate for Spokane, and I think it offers an opportunity for the best kind of interface, or interactivity, between the university and the community the university serves, he says.


The envisioned three new buildings would be erected north of Trent Avenue, in a large, undeveloped area between the 5-year-old Academic I Classroom Building on the east side of the 48-acre campus and the 144,000-square-foot Health Sciences Building that is being completed now on the west side of the campus. The three new buildings would be organized around the northern portion of a wide, landscaped central pedestrian mall that would stretch both north and south of Trent through the heart of the campus.


A building referred to in the master plan as the Academic Center is expected to be developed first, and likely would be the northernmost of the three buildings. The names and intended uses of the other two buildings arent specified in the plan. The central pedestrian mall would be developed at the same time as the Academic Center to give form to the campus core, the plan says. The Academic Center is expected to house WSU-Spokanes admissions and registration departments and a library, in addition to classroom space, and would allow the university to move all of its current Spokane programs onto the Riverpoint campus from elsewhere downtown.


The Washington Legislature two years ago allocated $250,000 for preplanning work on that building, which has been projected to cost up to $29 million to construct. WSU-Spokane this week called on supporters to press legislators to include second-phase design-development funding for the project in the 2001-03 biennium budget. Construction is to be funded in the following biennium.


Without a strong expression of community support, the building will not receive the next phase of funding in this session. If the building is not funded for design development this year, it will delay completion until 2007, and significantly slow the development of the Riverpoint campus, the university said in a press release.


Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, and two Portland design firms have been working with WSU-Spokane on the details of the new master plan and the design of the academic center.


Construction of all three buildings would boost the campus to about 600,000 square feet of academic floor space, up from about 330,000 square feet now, the master plan says. The campuss capacity would rise to about 2,650 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, up from the about 1,450 expected after the Health Sciences Building is completed.


The master plan also envisions the creation of a large surface parking lot just south of Trent as part of that next phase of campus development, but describes the lot as a place holder that would be replaced later with additional buildings.


A later phase of development assumes construction of five or more additional academic buildings, several of them south of Trent, plus structured parking in a garage located near the southern edge of campus and beneath new buildings along Trent. That phase would raise the campus to about 850,000 square feet of academic floor area, served by 1,700 parking spaces, and its capacity to an estimated 3,700 FTE students. Numerous variables, such as the demand for higher-education services and construction-funding availability, make it difficult to forecast when that phase might be completed, the plan says.


Long-term capacity


Looking beyond current academic- and economic-planning horizons to the eventual carrying capacity of the site, the master plan estimates that the campus someday could include buildings with a total of more than 1.5 million gross square feet of space. The number of FTE students that could be served by this development is extremely variable but might range from 6,000 to 7,000 students, it says.


While the master plan is intended to serve as a guide for future development, this is the third such plan prepared for the sitethe original was released in 1992, then updated in 1996and each plan has looked markedly different. In 1998, the Legislature gave WSU management responsibility for managing the campus, but its unclear whether that action will result in any greater long-term planning continuity for the site.


Aside from the additional buildings, the latest master plan also envisions pedestrian links to the Spokane River, revegetation of the length of shoreline that abuts the campus on the north and east, and campus gateways at several intersections and at the west end of the nearby Trent Avenue bridge to help visitors become oriented.


It also calls for preservation of a transportation corridor next to the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. mainline on the south side of the campus to accommodate a light-rail line and a possibly relocated Trent Avenue (state Route 290).


For now, though, the plan is based on the expectation that Trent will continue to wind through the center of the campus, following the state Department of Transportations decision about a year ago to move ahead with plans for replacing the deteriorating bridge that Trent crosses on the east side of the campus.


For more than five years, the DOT, the city of Spokane, and WSU-Spokane discussed realigning Trent so it would skirt the higher education park to give it a more campus-like atmosphere. The realignment would have moved Trent to the south between Division Street and Helena Street, which is east of Hamilton Street, eliminating the need for a new bridge over the river just west of Hamilton. The realignment was estimated to cost $25 million, which was to be shared by the DOT, the city, and WSU.


WSU declined, however, to make any funding commitment until after the WSU-Spokane campus master plan was completed. Concerned about the current bridges worsening condition, and with a shared funding agreement not close to being reached, the DOT decided last May to push ahead with preliminary design work for a replacement bridge.


The master plan says that with DOT having made a firm commitment to rebuild the bridge, the Trent alignment through the campus will remain unchanged at least for the next decade.


It also says, though, that there will need to be a collaborative effort with the state DOT to calm traffic on Trent. Trent currently is a high-speed arterial, but over time will need to be converted to a slower-moving urban street controlled by traffic signals, the plan says.