Facing escalating costs for construction materials, WSU has received $2.2 million in requested funding announced this week by the state’s budget office to mitigate this unanticipated increase associated with the construction of the Life Sciences Building on the WSU Vancouver campus.
The building will house labs and lecture spaces primarily for STEM-disciplines and was first approved for design and costing in 2018, prior to the current inflationary period. Since then, structural steel and drywall have seen a 30 percent increase with some materials seeing even greater increases. The total value of these escalated costs has reached approximately $10 million and in response the project team has implemented several cost-mitigating strategies such as reducing the building height and overall square footage as well as combining utility and foundation excavations.
The funding provided by the Office of Financial Management was allocated from the Capital Community Assistance Account, an account established to help address inflationary costs associated with state construction projects. This necessary support will help furnish 12,000 square feet that would otherwise be left unfinished.
The 60,000 square foot Sciences Building on the WSU Vancouver campus is set to open in Spring 2024.