University district rounds into shape

You can walk the entire Riverpoint campus in less than 10 minutes, but the quick jaunt allows enough time to see that this core part of the University District is really coming into its own.

Riverpoint is located between Spokane Falls Boulevard and the Spokane River and across the river from Gonzaga University. Riverpoint is starting to look like a real campus and not just a random assortment of big buildings.

You know you are driving into a campus, because the stone entrances – featuring EWU’s eagle icon and WSU’s cougar icon – welcome you in. And the speed-limit sign reads: “College campus 25.”

There are bus stops and students waiting at those bus stops and a building under construction that will boast a five-story library. Libraries are keystone buildings on any campus, the sign that serious learning and research are taking place there.

Some experts predict that Spokane is on the verge of a major job-and-economic growth spurt. To attract and retain the companies that offer the best-paying jobs, Spokane will need to provide an even better-educated and work-ready labor force.

Riverpoint is a collaborative venture. So the eagle and the cougar share stone space at the entrances. The Community Colleges of Spokane have offices in the district, and Gonzaga is a stone’s throw away. And now EWU is contemplating a move that would increase the number of students on the Riverpoint campus from about 1,500 to about 2,500.

EWU’s board of trustees gave the go-ahead to administration officials to explore the selling of the university’s downtown Spokane building, at Howard Street and First Avenue, and move its students and classes to the Riverpoint campus.

In the upcoming legislative session, EWU officials will ask permission of the Legislature to sell the downtown Spokane building and use the proceeds for the move.

This is a no-brainer and should be expedited. The timing is excellent, because the vision of a well-integrated, bustling University District is on its way to reality.

For instance, bids are being accepted for development of five acres near the Riverpoint campus. It is considered prime property for restaurants, coffee shops, housing, fitness centers and business incubators, because of its proximity to a potentially large student-faculty base.

In 1982, former EWU president George Frederickson announced the university’s plans to buy the downtown Spokane building. The university could no longer accommodate its Spokane students in leased space on the seventh floor of The Bon Building.

The decision was controversial, though the protests came mostly from the presidents of other universities, worried about turf protection.

But EWU leaders knew then that 21st-century students would need institutions open to risk-taking, expediency and collaboration. The building was purchased. The students filled it. And now, it’s time once again for a move – into the future at Riverpoint.