Washington State University has selected Seattle architectural firm NBBJ to design a $45 million medical-sciences building that's to be constructed at the Riverpoint Campus east of downtown. A general contractor and construction manager will be selected later to build the structure.

The multistory building, tentatively called Riverpoint Biomedical and Health Sciences Building-Phase 1, is anticipated to be have 55,000 to 70,000 square feet of floor space, WSU says. The structure would be located north of Spokane Falls Boulevard, just east of the recently completed 87,000-square-foot building that houses the WSU College of Nursing.

"The project has received accelerated funding of two phases in one approval," says Barb Chamberlain, spokeswoman for Washington State University Spokane. "Hopefully, it will stay on an accelerated schedule."

Earlier this year, the state allocated $4.3 million for pre-design and design phases of the project—two phases that usually are funded in separate two-year budget cycles. In the pre-design phase the design firm will analyze space requirements, attributes and constraints of the proposed site, and the budget requirements. During the formal design phase, the project design is to be prepared.

If the state authorizes funding in the next biennium, construction could start in the spring of 2011 and be completed in 2013, Chamberlain says, adding, "It would be built in four years (from now), rather than six years."

The building is to include space for a clinical research laboratory, core research and teaching facilities, a gross anatomy lab, allied health programs, pharmaceutical sciences, and medical education classrooms. It also would house offices and conference rooms.

The university says the building will promote and expand current collaboration by WSU, University of Washington, and Eastern Washington University health-sciences programs with the Spokane-area health-care sector.

Chamberlain says the building will be designed to be one phase in a complex of several buildings to be built on the campus. WSU-Spokane is updating a master plan that estimates the campus here will need at least 370,000 square feet of additional space by 2015 to meet growing demands. The various buildings currently located on the campus have a total of about 500,000 square feet of floor space.

NBBJ was selected from among four design firms or teams that submitted qualifications. Two proposals were submitted as joint efforts between West Side and Spokane-based firms. One of those was submitted by ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, and Davis Brody Bond Aedas LLP, of Seattle. Spokane-based NAC/Architecture Inc. and Bohlin Cywiniski Jackson, of Bainbridge Island, Wash., submitted the other one.