Are some things particularly important for Community Colleges in your region , the PNW ?
The availability of their capital funding is really important . One of the things about the Community and Technical colleges in Washington is that there are , I think , 37 community and technical colleges in the state , and they operate on a biennium . What that means is every two years , the legislature allocates funding for their projects .
Over the years , we ’ ve worked with various campuses , helping them understand the true cost of the projects they ’ re planning . This allows them to use that information to operate within their funding cycles ; sometimes , when they ’ re getting close to the end of a two-year biennium , they may have some funding that they can use for projects that they hadn ’ t planned for . And if they don ’ t use that funding , they ’ ll lose it once the funding cycle ends .
So , we provide them with the tools to make decisions within that two-year cycle and plan for the next Biennium , and we frequently see them during those two years . Our clients ask us to help them develop a project scope of work , the true cost of construction , and a description that can help them justify asking for the funds they need . They only get that opportunity every two years . What we ’ re doing for them is helping them understand the true cost of their projects so they can ask for the funding they need .
Could you name a few projects that you ’ re particularly proud of being a part of and why ?
Two Community College projects come to mind . There ’ s a project at South Seattle College known as the Integrated Education Center , and it ’ s since become Cascade Hall . It ’ s one of the primary classroom buildings in South Seattle College , replacing an older Cascade Hall that has since been demolished . The older building had concrete outdoor walkways and not much circulation space for students . Faculty were spread all over campus , and the new building centralized many functions . It has a couple of floors of classrooms and wonderful interior circulation spaces that the students can use for studying and utilize those common areas between classes . On the third floor , the view for the faculty there is just amazing . It ’ s one of those buildings that is just a beautiful space . I got a two-year degree from a community college in Washington , and then I went to the university and earned my engineering degree . And I thought about how much I would have enjoyed learning and using a building like that .
Department of Commerce signed a lease with the building owners and the college . Seattle Central College moved its dental , nursing program , dental tax surgical tech program , and most of its medical programs into that building . It ’ s another building that has wonderful views . There ’ s also Fair Start , a restaurant that helps people who either have been homeless or have gotten out of the correctional system and teaches them culinary arts . It was a challenging project , and the building exceeded many expectations . Students are very , very happy . It is great to see how much the students in those health education programs love the building .
What challenges are of most concern to Community College administrators and educators ?
As an engineer , one of the challenges I see on campus is that the buildings are getting older . Washington has had some mandates for all buildings over 50,000 square feet . One new law is the Clean Buildings Law , which requires them to meet an energy threshold . They have to meet this performance threshold and keep their energy use intensity below this mandated requirement . They need to find funding to ensure that they make the improvements necessary to have their buildings under that energy use index . Right now , the colleges have been working to put in energy metering , if they didn ’ t have it , so that they could know how their buildings are performing , show compliance with these standards , and plan through that capital planning that I mentioned earlier . They ’ re preparing for those upgrades . If they can ’ t afford them now , they ’ re going to do it in the future . Also , some of those systems , like upgrading the building temperature control system , give them a lot more visibility to meet their energy and comfort requirements . Planning to meet those requirements is the biggest thing they ’ re looking at right now .
Another example was Seattle Central College , which built its Health Education College in an old hospital in Seattle known as Pacific Tower . Pacific Tower was a former Marine Corps Hospital built in 1933 . That building was a hospital , and then it was vacant , and then it was Amazon ’ s headquarters when they started . It was left vacant , and the Washington State