Spokane Public Schools capital projects director Greg Forsyth says he’s never seen a construction time like this in all the years he’s been affiliated with the Spokane School District No. 81, and he’s been affiliated with the district most of his life.

Forsyth hails from a family of Spokane teachers. With a daughter now teaching at Rogers High School three generations of Forsyths have now taught here, something he did before moving into his current job.

“Never mind just our district, 2015 was the first time I’ve ever seen a year where three major districts all passed bonds—Spokane, Central Valley and Mead,” Forsyth says. “It has created a competition in the marketplace between contractors and subcontractors that feels unprecedented.”

Spokane County voters approved 18 of 21 K-12 school ballot measures in February 2015, and school districts have been soliciting and accepting bids since then. The capital projects that are either planned or underway exceed $850 million in estimated value.

Spokane voters approved a $145 million Spokane Public Schools bond to finance major construction for 2015 through 2021. 

The projects range in estimated value from $4.5 million for classroom additions at Lewis & Clark High School, on the lower South Hill, to the $37 million for Salk Middle School replacement, in northwest Spokane.

At the higher education level, Eastern Washington University just announced it was moving closer to the start of a $35 million project to renovate the Pence Union Building. Meanwhile, Gonzaga University has approached the city with conceptual plans for a $14 million project tentatively called the Center for Athletic Achievement. University officials say the project is in the planning stages.

Architects and engineers are generally the first to see changes in construction activity.

Steven Marsh is the Spokane-based regional manager at Thomas, Dean & Hoskins Inc. Headquartered in Great Falls, Mont., TD&H’s work here includes civil, structural, and environmental engineering and planning for infrastructure projects.

“The amount of work that we continue to get just keeps coming in wave after wave after wave,” says Marsh, who attributes a substantial part of that work to education projects.

He says activity in the company’s structural engineering department serves as the strongest indicator of the gains in its workload here.

“We went from a staff of one to a staff of five in just two years. That is the best barometer to measure the growth among our commercial development and industrial clients,” Marsh says.

Forsyth says construction started last month on the second phase at Salk Middle School, at 6411 N. Alberta. The new 100,000-square-foot replacement school will be located south of the existing school. The estimated construction cost is $26 million. Construction is scheduled be completed in the fall of next year. Work on Salk’s new $6.1 million gymnasium concluded last summer.

The architect on the new Salk school project is NAC Architecture, of Spokane, and Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor-construction manager, or GC/CM, for the project.

Meanwhile Graham Construction Inc., of Spokane, began construction last month on a new commons and modernization upgrades at North Central High School. NAC designed the modernization at North Central, which is projected to cost $17.5 million, Forsyth says.

North Central has seen piecemeal improvements and upgrades in the last two bond cycles. Most recently, the district completed a new math and science wing there. But to get from the older part of the school to the new part, students have to go through a labyrinth of basement hallways or go outside, Forsyth says.

The new cafeteria and commons building will provide a link between the older and newer parts of the school complex, he says.

Construction also just started on the remodel at the Newtech Skill Center, at 4141 N. Regal. Bernardo|Wills Architects PC, of Spokane is the project architect, and T.W. Clark Construction LLC, of Spokane, is the general contractor. Expected to cost just under $9 million, Forsyth says the Skill Center project is fully funded by the state.

Forsyth says ALSC just started schematic design work for a new Franklin Elementary School on the South Hill at 2627 E. 17th. Garco is the GC/CM.

The $26 million Franklin project will update the original section of the structure and replace nine portable classrooms with a 17,000-sqaure foot addition to bring the school up to the district’s new standard elementary school size of 65,000-square feet, Forsyth says.

Franklin was constructed in the Lincoln Heights area in 1909 and was expanded in 1953. Project construction is scheduled to start in June 2017 and to last approximately 14 months. “We’re going to put the students in the old Jefferson school until Franklin is complete,” Forsyth says.

Linwood Elementary School, at 906 W. Weile in North Spokane, is slated for a full replacement at an approximate cost of $22.5 million. Final construction dates have yet to be determined. Linwood sits on enough property that students will remain in the current 45,000-square-foot building while the new facility is completed, Forsyth says.

Other district education projects in the 2021 bond measure include $5 million in upgrades for Adams Elementary, at 2909 E. 37th, and additions to both Wilson Elementary, at 911 W. 25th, and Mullan Road Elementary at 2616 E. 63rd.

Adams is slated to get a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, an elevator and new windows. The Wilson project will cost $4.5 million, Forsyth says.

Mullan Road Elementary will see a small increase in size with the addition of eight classrooms at a cost of $4.5 million. Construction is scheduled to start in June and to be completed by spring 2017, Forsyth says.

Though an exact timetable hasn’t been set, the bond includes $13.6 million for construction of a replacement gym at Shaw Middle School, in the Hillyard neighborhood. The Shaw funding also would include master planning for the overall campus.

Additionally, $4 million in safety and security projects has been earmarked for the 2017-18 school year. Forsyth says safety improvements will be made at most of the Spokane School District’s older buildings.

Keith Comes, managing principal at NAC Architecture, says four of that firm’s top current projects are school projects, two of them in Spokane, one in Ellensburg, Wash., and the other in Leavenworth, Wash. The firm is also involved in design work at the Walla Walla Community College branch in Clarkston, Wash.

At ALSC Architects PS, marketing director Terri McRae says designs are complete for a new Northwood Middle School, to be built just south of the current building at 13120 N. Pittsburg, in the Mead School District north of Spokane. The construction cost for the new school is expected to be $29 million. Groundbreaking there is scheduled for this summer with a completion date of May 2018, McRae says.

“We’re doing a lot of school work,” McRae says.

 “These were significant bond issues the voters passed, and what it does is give architectural and engineering firms a good amount of work for the foreseeable future,” she says.

McRae says the firm has completed design and remodel work for the expansion of Evergreen Middle School, at 14221 E. 16th in the Central Valley School District, and Garco is the GC/CM

The current school building has about 73,000 square feet of space, and the planned addition will increase that by about 31,000 square feet. The $21.8 million Evergreen project is scheduled to begin this month and to be completed in December 2017. That project is one of six that the Central Valley School District plans to start in the next two years.

Those projects are being funded with $121.9 million that voters in the CV district approved last year, as well as an estimated $58 million in state funds. It was the first bond measure Central Valley voters have approved in 17 years, says Tanya Conklin, Central Valley School District’s public information officer.

“We had strong support from the community in recognizing the need to dedicate resources to our schools,” Conklin says. “We’re still hosting events we call, ‘Let’s Talk Construction’ and they are still getting good turnout because it’s a great time for parents to get their questions answered.”

McRae says ALSC is currently in the design phase for complete remodels and additions at both Opportunity and Sunrise elementary schools, and construction is scheduled to start in August. Construction is also scheduled to soon be underway at both Chester and Greenacres elementary schools for remodeling and additions.

WLK Joint Venture, owned by Walker Construction Inc. and Leone & Keeble Inc., is the general contractor for Opportunity, and Graham Construction Inc. will serve as the contractor for Sunrise. Both projects are each estimated to cost $21 million to complete.

Chester Elementary has a total estimated cost of just over $19 million, and Greenacres Elementary is expected to cost just over $21 million. Architects West Inc., of Coeur d’Alene, and Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane, are the project architect and general contractor at both schools.

The CV district started work in February on a new Liberty Creek Elementary School at 23909 E. Country Vista Drive in Liberty Lake.

“This project will be about 13 months of work, depending on the weather, but we’re hoping for substantial completion by next spring,” says district Deputy Superintendent Jay Rowell. The completed building will include more than 74,000 square feet of space, with 39 standard classrooms, a computer lab, music classroom, and special education classrooms.

The new school is being constructed a short distance from the current Liberty Lake Elementary School, at 23606 E. Boone.  

T.W. Clark Construction LLC, of Spokane is the general contractor, and MMEC Architecture & Interiors, the Spokane-based architecture firm previously known as Madsen Mitchell Evenson & Conrad PLLC, designed the project, which is estimated to cost $21.6 million.

The Central Valley School District is home to 12,650 students, up 2,000 students from the 2002-03 school year. Meanwhile, the Mead School District has grown by 700 students in the past decade and has an enrollment of just under 10,000 students.

Mead voters last year approved a $69.5 million construction bond. Northwood Middle School will be replaced altogether while Midway Elementary School and Shiloh Hills Elementary school will each receive additions and modernizations, says Ned Wendle, Mead’s director of facilities and planning.

“The discussion is that nothing gets demolished at this point,” Wendle says. Classroom space in the current Northwood building could host temporarily students from Midway and Shiloh Hills.

As of yet, no decision has been made about what to do with the current Northwood building once the new one is complete and modernizations at the elementary schools are finished. Wendle says state law prevents the district from using what will be the former Northwood Middle School for educational purposes for students.

 

Higher education

At the end of January, Eastern Washington University in Cheney announced it was moving closer to the start of a major two-year, $35 million project to renovate the Pence Union Building (PUB). The project is designed to transform and enhance the student experience on campus, EWU’s website says.

One of the biggest challenges will be relocating many essential university functions currently located in the PUB. For instance, dining services will move many of its operations into Tawanka Halll during renovation. EWU has hired Perkins+Will, a large international design firm, to provide architectural and engineering pre-design services for the PUB upgrade and renovation, the university’s website says.

The PUB was built in 1970 and includes 120,000 square feet of space. The remodel will add 4,000 square feet to the building.

At Gonzaga, a proposed $14 million facility would expand the sports complex that includes the McCarthey Athletic Center and the Martin Centre, on the campus east of downtown.

The Center for Athletic Achievement would be a three-level, 41,000-square-foot addition on the south side of the Marcin Centre, which is west of the McCarthey Athletic Center, a predevelopment application on file with the city shows. ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, filed the predevelopment application on behalf of Gonzaga.

There is no timeline for the project at this point, says Gonzaga spokeswoman Mary Joan Hahn.

At Whitworth University north of Spokane, the university late last year selected Spokane-based Leone & Keeble Inc. as the general contractor for its $13.5 million music center remodel and addition project, which is scheduled to be finished in August.

The music center addition will encompass 21,000 square feet of floor space and will include two large rehearsal rooms, one for choral rehearsal and one for instrumental, as well as teaching studios, a recording studio, practice rooms and lobby space. The project also will including remodeling about 16,000 square feet of space in the existing building, says Lauren Clark, Whitworth’s media relations manager.

Built in 1978, with significant support from the Cowles Family Foundation, the music center has been named the Cowles Music Center, in honor of the family’s support of arts and education at the university.

Another area higher education project involves a new student recreation center at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. McCrae of ALSC says the firm has completed design work for the 30,000-square-foot center at NIC.  With an approximate cost of $7 million, the project is scheduled to go out for bid in April.