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October 17, 2016
For years the University of Washington Police Department was housed off campus in the Bryants Building, along Northeast Boat Street near Portage Bay.
Now the school has moved the police into a new $19.5 million building at 3939 15th Ave. N.E., just south of Gould Hall.
“On Boat Street, no one knew where the station was,” said Ken Kubota, senior project manager in the UW's Major Capital Projects office. “This is near one of the entrances to campus and is more visible.”
The new station is also more substantial: the exterior is clad in bullet-resistant metal panels, some curtainwall sections are made with bullet-resistant glass and most of the windows have a special coating to control flying glass in case of an explosion. Even the fence around the adjacent motor court is bullet resistant.
Post-tensioned concrete construction gives the 29,000-square-foot building sturdy bones. It houses offices, dispatch operations, a community meeting/training room, locker rooms, holding rooms, K-9 and bike patrol, and storage space on two upper levels and a basement.
Kubota said the site had two houses on it when the UW bought it. Crews found contaminated soils from an old leaking oil tank and asbestos in the houses that were demolished. Cleanup added $186,000 to the overall cost, he said.
Kubota said police started moving in over the summer, and the only remaining task is to hook up a few computer servers, which should happen soon. The servers will use new dispatch software and connect to the campus-wide fire alarm system.
The Washington State Department of Transportation bought the Bryants Building to give to Seattle for a neighborhood park, Kubota said. The UW is leasing the building from the city until the end of the year, after which it will likely be demolished.
The Miller Hull Partnership led the station design team. BNBuilders was the general contractor/construction manager.
Other team members were: GGN, landscape architect; Coughlin Porter Lundeen, civil engineer; McClaren, Wilson & Lawrie, design programming; PCS Structural Solutions, structural engineer; Notkin, mechanical engineer; Travis, Fitzmaurice & Associates, electrical engineer; JMB Consulting Group, cost estimator; PBS Engineering and Environmental, hazardous materials consultant; Bush, Roed & Hitchings, surveyor; GeoDesign, geotechnical engineer; HCES, commissioning agent; EA, SEPA consultant; and Permit Consultants NW, permits specialist.
Benjamin Minnick can be
reached by email or by phone
at (206) 622-8272.