New engineering building will be a game changer

This legislative session, WSU is asking state lawmakers to support construction of a new engineering student services building on the Pullman campus which touches all three pillars of the university-wide capital budget request:

  • It represents a high university priority found on a streamlined and disciplined list of requests
  • It supports the elimination of deferred maintenance by facilitating the eventual demolition of aging Dana Hall; and
  • It most notably leverages state support with private fundraising

The university is requesting $40 million in the 2023-25 capital budget the Legislature will send to the governor in April. The governor already has proposed funding the project in his budget proposal released in December. If successful, that will leverage another $40 million being raised privately, which includes generous donations from Edmund and Beatriz Schweitzer, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, The Boeing Company, and others. The $80 million investment would provide modern amenities for students in high-demand fields at the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture while also providing core infrastructure replacement in the engineering precinct on the Pullman campus for additional future enhancements.

This modern facility would enable WSU to provide future generations of engineering and computer science students with functional meeting and collaboration space along with advising and tutoring in a single location. This project will also allow WSU to vacate and eventually demolish Dana Hall, which was constructed in 1949. This 90,000 square foot, 73-year-old hall has never been renovated and it lacks appropriate restroom facilities, fundamental ADA access for entering the building or moving between floors, amongst many other structural issues. It has an $18 million deferred maintenance backlog and is one of the highest energy consumers on the Pullman campus.

Conceptual renderings of the proposed building are above and below. New renderings will be generated during the design phase of the project. The facility is expected to be built at the intersection of SE Spokane Street and NE College Avenue.