Walker Construction Inc., of Spokane, has won a $3.5 million contract to build an expansion of Whitworth University's dining hall, inside the Hixson Union Building.

The construction is scheduled to start this week to add nearly 14,000 square feet of floor space, including a basement, to the HUB's dining area on the northeast side of the building. Tom Hansen, Walker Construction co-owner and project manager, says Walker expects to complete the expansion by next April.

Whitworth has estimated the total cost of the HUB addition project at $6.5 million, including design work, furnishings, landscaping, and other costs.

The private Christian school, located at 300 W. Hawthorne on Spokane's North Side, has said the additional HUB space will accommodate its increased student population.

The expansion includes space for additional seating and themed dining areas, and the basement will provide storage and access for the dining contractor, Sodexo Inc.

Spokane-based Integrus Architecture PS designed the addition. Craig Caron, an Integrus associate architect, says the new space will include two new food service areas, one for serving an Italian menu and another section offering an Asian menu.

As part of the project, a mezzanine level will be added that overlooks the first floor and provides an additional dining area, Caron says. Whitworth will have the ability to partition the mezzanine so it can be used as meeting space as well.

He adds that the exterior for the addition is designed to blend into the existing building with the same brickwork and window patterns. In addition to a dining hall, the HUB also houses a campus bookstore, coffee house, a cafe, a multipurpose room, student newspaper, lounge areas, and offices for various students' services.

This past academic year, Whitworth had a full-time undergraduate student population of 2,200, up from 2,000 in 2009. The school expects to have about 2,300 undergrads by 2014.