A Spokane architectural firm says it has designed a lighthouse for the Port of Kennewick, and a Spokane metal fabricator has made the light gallery, a housing that tops the 62-foot-tall navigational beacon that the port plans to dedicate sometime next month.

The structure, which the port's Web site says will be the first fully operational lighthouse built in the U.S. in nearly five decades, is the focal point of a $1 million revitalization of Clover Island, a 17-acre island in the Columbia River, north of downtown Kennewick.

Pondera Architecture PC, of Spokane, designed the structure, which has a 20-foot-diameter base, an interior spiral staircase, and 44-foot-high observation deck.

Carlson Sheet Metal Works Inc., of Spokane, fabricated the light gallery, an enclosure in which 6-foot-tall panes of half-inch-thick, tempered glass are held in place by 1-inch-thick stainless-steel frames and topped with a stainless-steel dome, says Brian Fair, Carlson's president.

Carlson also fabricated the 8-foot-tall steel base for the light gallery. The base is a large cylinder with a doorway that provides access onto the observation deck of the lighthouse, Fair says.

The 23,000-pound base and the light gallery together are 18 feet tall and up to 12 feet in diameter, he says.

Fair says the Charleston Lighthouse, on Sullivan's Island, S.C., which was erected in 1962, was the last lighthouse to be built in the U.S. The soon-to-be-operating Clover Island lighthouse will be the only inland lighthouse on the Columbia River, he adds.

The Port of Kennewick had envisioned the Clover Island lighthouse to be a potential beacon for economic revitalization there, as well as a functional navigational aid, Fair says.

Instead of a traditional revolving spotlight, a light-emitting diode provided by the U.S. Coast Guard will provide a powerful flash every four seconds that can be seen from at least three miles away, he says. The light will be powered by solar-charged batteries.

Other parts of the revitalization project include a stone-and-concrete pedestrian plaza at the base of the lighthouse and a 63-foot wide, 26-foot-tall metal archway on stone pillars on the bridge that links Clover Island to downtown Kennewick.

HDJ Design Group PLLC, of Vancouver, Wash., is the project manager for the overall revitalization project, which it designed. Mountain States Const. Co., of Sunnyside, Wash., is the general contractor.