WSU faculty urges preservation of building

The faculty of the Interdisciplinary Design Institute at Washington State University Spokane is asking the school not to allow an historic building to be demolished when five acres of WSU property is developed. They said in a letter that to do so would contradict what the university teaches its students and would set a bad example.

At issue is the Jensen-Byrd building, constructed in 1909, which sits on five acres of land just east of downtown Spokane that WSU recently offered for lease. Four applicants have submitted proposals to develop the land. Two said they would tear down the building in the process. One submitted three scenarios for development, one of which preserves the building. The fourth makes the Jensen-Byrd building the centerpiece of its project.

“We show students how historic buildings provide valuable links to our past and serve as potent economic engines for urban development,” the design institute faculty wrote in a Jan. 11 letter to the university’s executive director of capital planning. “In the design studio, we explore with students ways in which redeveloped historic buildings, especially when combined with sensitive new construction, can provide uniquely distinctive environments in which to live and work.

“Demolition of the Jensen-Byrd Building would thus send a highly inconsistent message to our students: How could we, as a university, teach one set of practices, while implementing quite another on our own campus?”

However, WSU Spokane Chancellor Brian Pitcher said the option to preserve the building is “still very much in consideration.

“The faculty’s assumption that it isn’t is the basic difference I have with what they’ve suggested,” he said.

Pitcher said the faculty hadn’t conveyed the whole story in the letter. They do teach the value of historic preservation, good design principles and how to meet functional and community needs, he said. But they also teach the business side of architectural development, including meeting a budget and making sure a project is economically viable. The university has a responsibility to evaluate the options for developing the land, then proceed with what makes the most sense, he said.

If preservation of the building is viable, Pitcher said, “then it will be integrated. At this point, we’re trying to keep the options open. We’re looking for the best ideas, and then we will evaluate them.”

In addition to Pitcher, the letter was copied to WSU President V. Lane Rawlins, the Board of Regents and other officials. It comes on the heels of a similar letter from the Spokane Preservation Advocates, an organization to which at least one of the design institute faculty members belongs. The faculty members also offered their expertise in developing a plan that preserves the building. The design institute incorporates a variety of disciplines, including architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and construction management.