WSU selects design-build team for $60M new building on Spokane campus

(As reported in the Journal of Business by Karin a Elias)

Washington State University Spokane has selected Spokane-based companies Bouten Construction Co. and NAC Architecture as the design-build team for the school’s $60 million Team Health Education building envisioned in the University District, says Eric Smith, director of facilities and capital projects for WSU Spokane. 

The programming and design of the building has commenced, with a construction tentatively scheduled to start in July 2025, Smith says. 

A specific site for the Team Health Education building hasn't been determined yet, although two locations are being considered. According to the university's original call for design-build team qualifications, one option is to build the structure on a portion of a parking lot on the southeast corner of Spokane Falls Boulevard and Sherman Avenue. The other is at the site of a facility-operations building on North Pine Street, next to the Jensen Byrd building.

So far, the state has committed $7 million to the project to help cover the design of the building. The remaining funds for construction will be raised from state and philanthropic sources, Smith says. 

Preliminary plans call for a two- to four-story building with a footprint of 60,000 square feet that will serve as a dedicated health care simulation facility, Smith says. 

As previously reported by the Journal of Business, the university’s Team Health Education building is envisioned as an education and simulation training facility for undergraduate, graduate, and professional health programs in all three of WSU’s colleges on the Spokane health sciences campus: the College of Nursing; the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; and the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. 

The WSU Spokane campus is located in the University District along Spokane Falls Boulevard.