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Architecture firms are at the front end of the construction process, and they currently are working on some big projects that will be coming down the pike in the next year or two. This month, Inland Business Catalyst takes a look at just a few of those projects that will be coming to the Inland Northwest in the near future. Currently, commercial construction is buoying the overall activity in the region. While new-home construction is on the decline, commercial jobs continue to pop up. The city of Spokane, for example, issued building permits for about $100 million worth of commercial construction projects through the first six months of this year. The city estimates that it will issue permits for $217 million in commercial work this year. If that proves to be true, it would be city’s second-best year on record; only 2006, with $281 million in permitted commercial jobs, had a higher volume of activity. Architect: NAC|Architecture Inc.
General Contractor: Bouten Construction Co.
Total Cost: $30 million 
Kootenai Medical Center plans to build a $30 million Women’s and Children’s Center on its main hospital campus in Coeur d’Alene. Daniel Kurtz, a senior associate at Spokane-based NAC|Architecture Inc., says the firm has started work on design development drawings and construction documents. Bouten Construction Co. will build the hospital addition and hopes to break ground on the project in the first quarter of 2009, Kurtz says. The Women’s and Children’s Center likely will take 18 months to complete and is generally expected to be finished in mid-2010. The three-story, 65,000-square-foot addition will be located at the northeast corner of the main hospital building, near the Interstate 90-U.S. 95 interchange. When completed, the hospital will have more than 420,000 square feet of floor space in all. As envisioned, the women’s and children’s center will be located on the second and third floors of the addition and will include a total of 43 patient rooms. Those include 10 labor-and-delivery rooms, 16 postpartum-patient rooms, nine pediatrics rooms and an eight-bed neonatal intensive-care unit. Two operating rooms, primarily for Caesarian-section births, also will be located in the center. The first floor of the addition will include additional expansion space for KMC for which a use has yet to be designated. Kurtz says KMC currently houses its women’s and children’s services on the second floor of its main patient tower. Once the Women’s and Children’s Center opens, the hospital will be able to remodel that space for another use, he says. Founded in 1966, Kootenai Medical Center has expanded dramatically in recent years. In addition to the general hospital, it also operates a heart center and cancer centers throughout North Idaho. Architect: NAC|Architecture Inc.
General Contractor: Not selected yet; construction bids to be taken until Sept. 4
Total Cost: $42 million
Deer Park High School will be newer and dramatically bigger in the near future. Work is expected to start this fall on a modernization of the current high school building and an addition to the present structure. As currently scheduled, the project would be completed before the 2010-2011 school year starts. The existing building, constructed in 1978, includes about 81,000 square feet of floor space. When the additions are completed, the facility will have just under 150,000 square feet of space. Steve Howard, facilities manager for Deer Park School District, says the school will continue to operate on campus while improvements are made. Five portable buildings with a total of 10 classrooms will be brought onto campus to accommodate any classes that are displaced. Work will occur in phases to minimize the impact on the school’s operations, however. “The basic philosophy is new space will be constructed the first year, with some renovation taking place,” Howard says. “We’ll occupy that space during the second year of construction on the current building.” The expansion will house additional classrooms, an auxiliary gym, a wrestling/aerobics area and a performing-arts center. The modernization will involve new exterior and interior finishes, new building systems—plumbing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, among others—and a significant reorganization of the floor plan. That reorganization includes the formation of two entry plazas, which will include a large common area at the building’s front entrance and a smaller plaza entry for events. Enrollment at Deer Park schools has grown steadily in recent years. Last school year, more than 2,300 K-12 students attended classes in the district, which is about 300 more students than the district had three years earlier. Deer Park is located about 15 miles north of Spokane. YMCA NorthArchitect: ALSC Architects PS
General Contractor: Vandervert Construction Inc.
Construction Cost: $11 million By this time next year, the north end of Spokane should have its own YMCA. Work is just getting under way on a 55,000-square-foot YMCA facility on 16 acres in the Pine Water Plaza development, located at the junction of Newport Highway and Nevada Street. The two-story structure is scheduled to be completed next May, says Rustin Hall, a principal at ALSC Architects, which designed the building. Similar to other YMCAs in the Spokane area, the North Side complex will include a fitness center, a gymnasium, a teen center and an aquatics center. Hall says each of the aquatics centers is designed with a water feature that’s unique to that location, and the North Side facility will include a lazy river. Prior to and during design of the new facility, the YMCA sought input from the neighborhood’s teenagers. The participating teens had two consistent messages: Don’t make it too structured, and keep in mind that “we aren’t all jocks.” With those in mind, a teen center is designed into the center of the building with a number of flexible spaces. “They could take over one-third of the building, and the rest would still be functional,” Hall says. The facility also will include a YWCA outreach center, which will take about 2,000 square feet of space. The North Side YMCA will be the third new facility constructed by the organization this decade. In 2000, a 49,000-square-foot Spokane Valley YMCA opened in the Mirabeau Point area. The new Central combination YMCA/YWCA is being constructed at 930 N. Monroe, just north of downtown Spokane. Work on that 80,000-square-foot structure started earlier this year, and that facility is scheduled to be completed next April. ALSC designed that facility as well, and Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, is the general contractor on that project. Hall says both the North Side and Central YMCAs are designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. The goal, he says, is that each will attain LEED’s silver certification. More Projects Slated in the Spokane AreaThe city of Spokane reports that it has five projects currently under plan review that are valued at a total of $35.4 million. The largest of the five is Gonzaga University's Cincinnati Villa dormitory project, which is valued at $16 million. The project, which will be built where practice soccer fields are currently located at the east end of the Jesuit school’s campus, will help Gonzaga address housing needs for its growing student population. The next largest project in terms of dollar volume that currently is under plan review is the $6.4 million Lilac Terrace retirement complex, to be located next to Lilac Tower at 7707 N. Wiscomb, on Spokane’s North Side. Other projects in design review include the $5.5-million Walnut Corners apartment complex, along Walnut Street just north of downtown Spokane; the $4.4-million Northtown Square retail building, on the former Wendle Ford automotive dealership site across from NorthTown Mall; and a $3.1-million North Cedar Self-Storage complex addition. In Spokane Valley, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to build a $1.3-million laboratory building. The structure will be just west of the state agency’s Eastern Washington headquarters on Discovery Place in the Mirabeau Point development. Dave Huotari, a principal at ALSC Architects PS, says construction crews could start work late this summer and the one-story structure is scheduled to be completed next spring. The building will house a wildlife lab, a fish lab and offices, he says. Huotari says Fish and Wildlife currently has a few labs around the region but nothing like the facility that will be built in the Valley.
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