UWT Jefferson Building Gets Approval
UWT Chancellor Pat Spakes sent an email yesterday announcing the approval of the funding package for the Jefferson Building – a new building that will be in the parking lot that sits across the street from The Rock / Swiss. The email:
Colleagues,
I am pleased to report that this morning, we presented our funding package for the construction of the Jefferson St. building (that includes the library surge space) to the Finance, Audit and Facilities Committee. It was unanimously approved, which means we can go ahead with that project.
I want to thank our Administration and Finance folks here at UWT and our colleagues in Capital Projects and the Treasury Office for their work putting this all together. It has been challenging to plan this project and also respond to the changing circumstances caused by fluctuating funding and economic uncertainties. I also want to remind the campus once again that the funding sources include capital funding from the state and money we will borrow and pay back using student building fees and real estate revenues (from leased office space and retail space.) These are funds that we are NOT legally permitted to use for support of our instructional mission. They can ONLY be used for construction projects and therefore will not take away from the funding available for general operating.
As currently designed, the project does include the bridge across the BNSF property, which will provide accessibility for library purposes and office space.
Pat Spakes
Chancellor
The campus is growing. And if you want to remind yourself of the Master Plan, here’s the entire campus:
The building’s progress will be documented on the Tim Bostelle’s Blog.
Filed under: General
11 comments
R RR Anderson May 14, 2010
Sweet Rhubarb Cobbler! Scratch one parking lot off the ‘hit list’
B Brent May 14, 2010
Just fantastic. Keep it growing. The city is getting better everyday. Now for the Winthrop renovation…
C CA May 14, 2010
Very excited to hear this. UWT is gonna save this downtown.
“As currently designed, the project does include the bridge across the BNSF property, which will provide accessibility for library purposes and office space.”
Help me out urban planning buffs, but aren’t sky bridges generally frowned upon in urban environments?
C CA May 14, 2010
“They would simply be removing life from their own plaza.”
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. One of the best things about the UWT campus is the main staircase/plaza. When it’s full of people walking out of buildings its full of activity and you really feel as though you’re in an urban environment.
T Tim May 14, 2010
Thanks for the link Derek! Now I really do have to document the changes.
J Jesse May 15, 2010
Message to UWT: If you build it, they will come.
Ahhh, if only money were endless…
K K. Malone May 15, 2010
Jesse,
Money actually is endless… its all in your perspective.
Money is an idea and ideas are infinite.
We determine its value and therefore we determine its existence.
Pat Spakes is all about it.
To your endless supply!
Kimberly
D debivans May 15, 2010
The part of the campus the skybridge would be crossing is just an alleyway behind the library. I rent a space in the Jet/Tioga building across from the Swiss and look directly into this alley. Besides the occasional dogwalker and blackberry bushes the alley seems deserted.
J Jake May 15, 2010
That “alley” is supposed to become the Prairie Line Trail. BNSF is only giving the city 20’ of the approx 75’ width. Kind of a bummer that BNSF is keeping that land for no apparent reason and causing the UWT to build a skybridge.
J Jesse May 15, 2010
So there’s 55 feet of width left for BNSF? Hmmm… let them build a DMU commuter train on thier side from South Tacoma to Point Defiance on that old Prairie Line trail once Point Ruston is done ——> like 15 years from now??? That seems like it’d be a good transit route.
J joe-nate May 19, 2010
BNSF should donate an easement use of the entire Prairie Line lands through the UW-T with the proviso in the agreement that the soils along the track corridor cannot be disturbed, which would prohibit the planting of trees. Yet visualze mounds of fresh soil on top dotted with hardy exotic grasses and wildflowers and strategically placed boulders along a path, a la Chambers Bay Golf Course. Significant environmental liability could be lurking under the dirt of that 140-year old train corridor, as has been a problem in the BNSF’s Livingston, Montana railyards polluted by the activities of one of its predecessors: the Northern Pacific, which also built the Prairie Line. Thus, the Prairie Line’s existing soils should be capped and protected by a membrane. The Prairie Line Trail could be a very unique tourist attraction with wonderful commercial benefits—the Burke-Gilman Trail runs on an old NP Track though the UW’s main campus in Seattle.