A $34.6 million nursing college building planned at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park is back on the drawing boards for redesign after construction cost estimates came in $4 million over budget.


Consequently, the construction schedule for the structure, which will house the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing, has been pushed back about six months, says Susan Nielsen, the colleges spokeswoman.


As currently scheduled, the redesign work is to be completed by the end of this year, and the construction documents likely will be ready next summer, Nielsen says. Construction is expected to start early next fall, and the building would be completed in the fall of 2008.


Integrus Architecture PS, of Spokane, is designing the building, and Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, will build it.


Nielsen says its unclear at this stage what alterations will be made to the design of the building, which is slated to be built along the north side of Spokane Falls Boulevard, just south of the WSU Health Sciences Building. She says, though, that it likely will include a reduction in the size of the building footprint and a reconfiguration of floor plans.


At this stage of the redesign, it appears as though the building will include five floors, including a daylight basement, with a total of 81,000 square feet of floor space. Initially, plans had called for a five-story building with more than 100,000 square feet of floor space.


The overruns are due to increased costs for concrete, steel, and other building materials, Nielsen says. Other large projects have run into similar project overruns that have been attributed largely to rising construction costs, most notably the $80 million Spokane Convention Center expansion, which earlier this year solved an $8.7 million shortfall.


The nursing school currently is located at 2917 W. Fort George Wright Drive, in northwest Spokane, and has about 400 nursing students in Spokane.