Sta Center Taking Shape, Looking Good

The new transit center nearing completion in the middle of downtown Spokane doesn’t in the least resemble what I had in mind.

For me, the original description of an open, airy, atrium evoked images of an intricate, almost delicate, gridwork of geometric shapes crafted from metal and glass.

In effect, I had anticipated a razzledazzle, glittery, bird-cage of a building sort of hovering over the site.

Not at all the squat, rounded, two-story, brick structure that we see crouching there now.

As a practical matter, my vision would, of course, have been impossible to execute on a site covering half a block with a structure just two stories high.

But, unexpectedly, the more it becomes visible, the more I appreciate how this building is turning out.

The way in which the design configuration of the building fits this key intersection and its role as the hub of an evolving trolley system is simply superb. Sitting far back as it does from the corner, the structure’s placement adds to the expanse and enhances the effect of a broad, cobbled, plaza in the heart of the core. A sort of village square.

The effect is very attractive, and a huge surprise. At least, this is how it strikes me, as the project’s wraps begin to come off.

Over the past several months, watching the rough contours of the architecture take shape, I was struck by the new bus depot’s resemblance to the recently abandoned old Greyhound bus depot a few blocks down the street.

Some readers will remember that horrible blonde furniture with blunt, rounded corners, that Montgomery Ward and Sears and Woolworth used to sell in the 1940s and ‘50s. It was called Danish modern.

Time has made it chic as a collectible, I understand. As a furniture style, I wonder if it wasn’t a takeoff from the art deco architecture of that period.

But anyway, the new transit center and the old bus depot both put me in mind of that furniture. Like Danish modern, they both have those rounded corners and are blonde.

How unfortunate, I used to think. But lately, I’ve started to like it. And admire the courage of the architects to design a new bus depot in the heart of the core that is just two stories tall, costs a whopping $20.7 million to complete, and looks like a 40-year-old abandoned bus depot down the block. That took guts.

We’ll know more later, as the completed project comes together inside and out and is fully unveiled, whether in fact the architects have managed to pull it off.

But so far, my hat’s off to the designers, Tan Boyle Heyamoto.

Inside the atrium, a skylight 60 feet square is truly spectacular.

Broad, sweeping stairways and extrawide escalators in the central rotunda are grand in scope. The expensive imported Italian floor tile on the floor is luxurious.

The concept of a waterfall-artwork featuring a couple of bronze cougar sculptures - none of this in place yet - is creative.

What more is there to say?

W-e-l-l-l-l, maybe there is something more to be said. About the cost.

Lynda V. Mapes of The Spokesman-Review recently reported from Olympia that the Legislative Budget Committee is “investigating the cost of two new state office buildings.”

The new buildings, both in Olympia, “came in at $226 and $164 per square foot respectively,” according to the State Department of General Administration.

“That,” said Mapes, “compares with costs of $66 to $86 per square foot for large offices in the private sector built the same year, the budget committee said.”

Now, the new downtown Spokane bus depot is not in Olympia. And it is not an office building. It’s a public building.

But its cost is staggering.

At $20.7 million, the building is running taxpayers and bus riders $210 per square foot.

Developers, government building officials, and property owners and managers all have told me that’s shocking. Especially for a building that is more than one-third basement parking area.

Architectural errors, project management blunders, endless change orders, and a nightmare succession of cost overruns all added to the expense.

But maybe the end product will justify the price. We shall soon see.

xxxx