Washington
State
University
2009-2011
Biennial Capital Budget Requests
“The Land Grant University for the 21st
Century”
As Submitted to the Office
of Financial Management, Aug. 18
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Individual Project Descriptions
Washington State University proposes capital projects for next biennium that
complete the Vancouver Applied Technology Classroom Building, design the
Veterinary Medical Research Building, extend the life and mission of existing
older science and engineering buildings, keep campuses safe, and provide vital
infrastructure for students.
Introduction
The university’s proposed capital construction budget is essential as WSU
positions itself to be the “Land Grant University for the 21st
Century.” The historic land grant mission to provide research, instruction and
outreach still serves state priorities well. But some of the historic
commitments, such as to engineering and science, can no longer be implemented by
buildings with antiquated teaching and research laboratories that need to be
renovated or replaced.
The new leadership team
assembled by Pres. Elson Floyd recognizes that no university, not even a premier
land grant university, can address every need for this century. With limited
state resources, this request is prioritized to modify, preserve, and support
existing buildings and to advance the institution in those academic areas where
WSU already has substantial expertise and capacity. These are the areas where
WSU can make the most impact on research and education for the state. Such areas
are WSU core programs in engineering and design disciplines, health sciences,
global animal health, clean technology, and agriculture. These are themes woven
through both WSU capital and operating requests, as well as its strategic plan
and goals for federal and private funding.
The projects identified on the following pages by WSU are in priority order and
will be familiar to legislative leaders, the governor and her staff, and the
Higher Education Coordinating Board as necessary to expand or maintain
instruction and research in areas where WSU can excel.
2009-2011 Projects Summary
These projects, in
priority order, accommodate programs that achieve statewide goals:
·
WSU Vancouver Applied Technology Classroom Building
$38.7 million.
Construction funding is requested for 2009-2011 to build a new Washington State
University engineering teaching and research facility that will meet some of the
most pressing employment needs of southwest Washington and the entire state in
computer science and electrical engineering. The building also provides general
classroom space for the growing campus. The proposal, prepared in cooperation
with the Washington Technology Center (WTC), is the number one capital budget
priority in the WSU system.
Enrollment on the campus is expected to double from 1,488 in the year 2000 to
nearly 3,000 students in 2009. This project is the number one capital
construction priority of the Washington State University system for all
categories and campuses. It was submitted in the growth category because of its
ability to promote enrollment expansion and accommodate approximately 800
students (535 full-time equivalent students.)
·
Veterinary
Medical Research Building $7.4 million.
Design funding is requested in the 2009-2011 budget to prepare for construction
in 2011-2013 to get neuroscience, cardiac muscle, and bioengineering research
and education out of old, crowded antiquated space.
It is the number one capital priority for WSU’s Pullman campus (#2
overall.) The university has identified it as crucial to the success of
innovative biomedical research and high-demand undergraduate, graduate, and
professional education programs of the College of Veterinary Medicine and of
related programs and collaborators in bioengineering and animal science.
There are 35-40 faculty biomedical researchers to be
moved to this building, along with the approximately 200 graduate students,
post-docs, and technicians that participate in the research. The faculty are
among the most successful and productive scientists at WSU.
About 100 undergraduate students per year also have their education
enriched by conducting research in these labs.
·
Minor Works Categories
1.
Minor Works Preservation
$42.5 million Preservation
money extends the life of buildings by replacement or repair of elevators,
roofs, fire alarms, HVAC, pumps, masonry, windows, flooring, painting, and
building network cabling and electronics. The request addresses the most
pressing part of more than $434 million in preservation backlog projects
identified by the state Higher Education Coordinating Board study of WSU in
2008. In addition, the preservation request includes minor infrastructure and
health, safety and code projects.
2.
Minor Works Program
$28.6 million Minor
works program money allows facilities to be modernized or
retrofitted for cutting-edge research and education. It also
includes equipment acquisition funds such as $8 million for student
core computer systems replacement.
·
University-Wide Infrastructure projects
$12.5 million
The
request provides for three planned improvements for the Pullman
campus. The infrastructure
backlog at the Pullman campus alone is estimated at $85 million to
$120 million.
1. Roadway and Traffic Improvements $7.5
million.
(Deteriorating Student
Overpass Project)
This project involves demolition and replacement of a deteriorating pedestrian
bridge at Stadium Way and Nevada Street on the Pullman campus. This overpass
serves a large volume of pedestrian traffic connecting the core of campus with
major dormitories and apartments such as Rogers Hall, Orton Hall, and the
Stephenson complex.
2. Electrical
& Lighting Improvements $2.5 million.
(Stadium Way Lighting Project)
This project completes lighting upgrades along major campus roads. It completes
the new lighting Stadium Way from Beasley Coliseum toward Grand Avenue. The
lighting benefits both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
3. Underground
Utilities $2.5 million.
(Central Core Utilities Upgrade)
This project addresses improvements in the transmission and distribution systems
for chilled water, electrical, gas, and domestic water on the core of the
Pullman campus. The core campus includes an area from Library Road, west to
Stadium Way, south near the Washington building, and toward Spokane Street and
engineering, and north to Campus Drive. This core area is where buildings have
supply deficiencies that require capacity to be increased and some systems are
near failure.
·
Intermediate Aggregated Preservation Projects
$17.3
million
The
Projects include the modernization of heating, ventilation and
cooling systems in three buildings and mid-sized renovations of two
other facilities to make shelled space useable.
1.
HVAC Project.
Three engineering and science buildings (Sloan Hall, Electrical
Engineering/Mechanical Engineering, Abelson Hall.) $9.1 million.
2.
Riverpoint South Campus Facility at WSU Spokane. The project
will finish $4 million in remodeling of an old warehouse building (F.O. Berg) to
allow non-medical programs to move out of the Health Sciences Building. This
will free up space in the Health Science Building for health and biomedical
research.
Without this project, the Riverpoint campus in Spokane may be forced to
lease space to address the demand for more high-technology biomedical programs.
3.
Washington Building Renovation.
This project renovates the third floor
of the Washington Building (formerly the Pullman Memorial Hospital) on the WSU
Pullman Campus. This $4.2 million project will provide space to co-locate
Counseling and Testing Services and the Disability Resource Center. This will
put these centers in the same building as the Student Health Services.
·
The Wastewater Reclamation project for $15.75 million.
$15.75 million is requested for
construction of a wastewater reclamation plant addition to the existing City of
Pullman Waste Treatment facility. The Wastewater Reclamation Project will
provide up to a million gallons per day of treated water
for seasonal irrigation of Washington State University recreational areas,
parks, and agricultural lands. Combined with current and future aggressive
conservation measures, the plant is expected to reduce the stress on a declining
water table in the Pullman area. The City of Pullman and WSU both draw water
from the Grande Rhonde Aquifer. The aquifer water table is dropping at the rate
of between one and two feet per year.
·
Design Disciplines
$17.3 million
This will move academic programs currently housed
in substandard and scattered locations to central campus space.
The academic programs include the Apparel, Merchandising, Design and
Textiles programs, and the Intensive American Language Program.
Plans include housing the campus police in the basement of the
building. The facility became available
following the relocation of the student book store from this central campus
building to the recently renovated Compton Student Union Building (CUB).
·
Life Sciences Renovation $15 million
With the construction of the WSU Life Sciences building
nearing completion on the Pullman campus, WSU requests $15 million to renovate
and reconfigure vacated spaces in four closely-aligned science buildings:
Eastlick, Heald, Fulmer, and Abelson Halls.
This re-use of existing space for programs in the chemical, biological and
environmental sciences (STEM high demand areas) helps the university meet the
long-term facility needs of these growing teaching and research areas.
Use of
the existing Abelson, Eastlick, and Fulmer Halls
have significantly changed from their original intent when constructed in
1936 (Abelson Hall), 1977 (Eastlick Hall), and 1990 (the last of many
renovations to Fulmer Hall).
Regulations now require more sophisticated laboratories, utilities, services,
vibration-resistive and structurally-sound environments.
Information technology infrastructure must accommodate the distance
mentoring of students, virtual communications and data-distribution with
collaborative distant research centers and state-of-the-art multi-media teaching
and core research facilities. Heald Hall and Morrill Hall are no longer
conducive to conducting successful research programs and select activities
currently housed in those buildings are part of the relocation plan
·
Clean Technology
Laboratory $5.8 million
Pre-design
and design funding of $5,800,000 is requested for a major capital construction
project for the College of Engineering and Architecture that will replace
60-year old facilities with high-technology laboratories to address state
research and instruction priorities in renewable energy, biofuels, and the
environment. The research conducted in
the clean technology laboratory will include air quality research; environmental
engineering research; materials engineering research emphasizing renewable
energy; and bio-processing and bio-energy engineering research. Occupants of the
building include atmospheric research (a group from civil engineering);
researchers in the Center for Environmental, Sediment, and Aquatic Research (an
interdisciplinary group that includes faculty members from civil engineering,
chemical engineering, and biological systems engineering); the Water Research
Center (a statewide research center); the Materials Engineering faculty,
including the Center for Materials Research; and researchers for the Center for
Bio-products and Bio-fuels
faculty (an interdisciplinary group that includes faculty from biological
systems engineering and chemical engineering in Tri-Cities and Pullman.)
·
WSU’s Global Animal Health Building, Phase II
$5.3 million
Pre-design and design funds of $5.3 million are requested
for a Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory building (Global Animal
Health, Phase II) for the 2009-2011 biennium. The proposed 42,800-square foot
facility will house the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL)
as well as diagnostics-related research and development laboratories.
WSU’s
WADDL program, created by the Legislature in 1974, is the only veterinary
diagnostic laboratory in Washington State officially accredited and funded to
provide comprehensive animal, food, and environmental surveillance for diseases
such as avian influenza, West Nile encephalitis, BSE (Mad Cow Disease), and foot
and mouth disease. As such, WADDL is a
critical resource for other state and federal agencies, including the Washington
State Departments of Agriculture and Health. Expansion of programs and increased
responsibilities to agriculture stakeholders and consumers have exceeded the
scope and design of current facilities. It has resulted in substandard space
which threatens accreditation requirements.
·
Troy
Hall Renovation
$1.8 million
WSU requests design funds for this project which
will allow the nearby College of Business to maintain its programs, provide room
for growth and expansion of enrollments.
The lack of space for faculty, staff and graduate student offices is one factor
impeding the college’s ability to accept more students into their programs.
Currently, the college cannot accommodate qualified students who would like to
choose business as a major.
Pre-designs
Guidelines from the governor’s budget office
require the university to submit “pre-design requests” six years in advance of
completion for projects. WSU has three projects in this category:
·
Agricultural Animal Research Facility $100,000
Pre-design funds are requested for a building that will house natural animal
disease hosts and test the efficacy of
vaccines under development with the School of Global Animal Health.
The facility will be designed to house agricultural animals for
infectious disease research at a “BSL2 biocontainment level,” and will be
capable of maintaining insects for research on “vector-borne” diseases such as
West Nile Virus (transmitted by mosquitoes) and bovine babesiosis (“tick fever”
transmitted by ticks) at the appropriate containment level.
There are no facilities currently available in Washington State
for this type of research. The building
is integral to achieving the goals of the state of Washington in protecting its
citizens against disease threats and economic impacts of diseases of animals.
The project is required to accommodate rapid program growth associated with
federal and state programs supporting disease surveillance and global health,
and to maintain global agricultural markets.
·
Beasley Coliseum Renovation $100,000
The Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum, constructed as a
major multipurpose events facility in 1973, was designed to present graduations,
convocations, lectures, readings, cultural performance activities, and sporting
events. Due to heavy use and age, the facility and much of its equipment show
extreme signs of deterioration and need to be upgraded. Pre-design funding is
requested to begin evaluating the options.
·
Riverpoint Biomedical & Health Sciences $250,000
Pre-design
funding is requested for this joint Eastern Washington University-WSU facility
to provide appropriately equipped, state-of-the-art biomedical and biotechnology
research space, and education support for related life science teaching and
research programs.
It will facilitate consolidation of core health science professions, and permit
further growth for high-demand WSU and EWU health
professions and interdisciplinary research programs.
For more information, contact
Larry Ganders, Assistant to the WSU President, Olympia,
at 360-534-2333,
gandersl@energy.wsu.edu
