Sundial, Interpretive Center Planned For Riverbank Site

A Spokane law firm will spend about $15,000 on a sundial and interpretive center next year along the downtown portion of the Centennial Trail.

Preston, Gates and Ellis, celebrating its 15th year in business, donated the money to install the sundial near the Don Kardong Bridge

The sundial designer, Spokane inventor Timothy Cunninghamm, said it will be built as a reference point for river-watchers and those using the nearby higher education center.

“This design has the person at the dial becoming the gnomon - the post - that casts the shadow,” Cunninghamm said.

Near the sundial will be an interpretive center that will explain the geological history of the area, the Spokane aquifer and American Indian cultures.

The project is supported by the Spokane Joint Center for Higher Education, which manages the 48 acres at the edge of the proposed center. The land houses the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute and a new building for Washington State University and Eastern Washington University.

The state Department of Ecology has agreed to plant native grasses and wildflowers over a broad area near the sundial and the center.

Integrus Architecture, Friends of the Centennial Trail and the Spokane County Water Quality Management Program are also helping the project.

Ground-breaking is expected in the spring.

“We wanted something that people would come to and enjoy,” said Cunninghamm. He modeled the sundial after one in Seattle.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of area