There’s good news on the renovation of Magnuson Park’s Building 30, owned by the City and managed by the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). Click here and here to read my previous comments on Building 30.
DPR received ten construction bids for this project, rather than the expected five or so. Apparently, the construction market is so competitive, it resulted not only in a lot of bids, but in the winning bid coming in 8% below City estimates for the construction portion of the project – a savings of about $392,000. DPR will parlay those savings into new windows for the West Wing and removing lead paint from the Hanger doors on the North, South and East facades of the building and re-painting them.
The building, located at 7400 Sand Point Way NE, is really three connected structures. The Hangar is one. On either side of the Hanger are two “wings:” the East Wing and the West Wing. The entire project is budgeted at $8,453,000, with $6,762,400 of that going to hard-line construction costs. The rest is for soft costs, such as design fees (architecture and engineering), permit costs, staff time, inspectors time, and contracting fees.
What Building 30 will look like when completed
Once upon a time, Building 30 hosted hundreds of events each year. But, like many of the buildings at Magnuson Park, it had not been maintained since the Navy occupied it prior to deactivating the base in 1970. The Navy transferred the base to the City five years later.
A couple of years ago, Building 30 was declared unsafe for full occupancy, resulting in only a handful of events being allowed each year and throwing a wrench into the plans of regular users, such as Friends of the Library, Rat City Rollergirls, Seattle Tilth and Cascade Bicycle Club.
Library fans will be happy to see a return of Friends of the Library, whose book sales in the Hangar raise much needed funds for our library system. Not only will the completed renovation welcome back Friends of the Library and many other popular community events and activities, it will create over twenty new artist work studios. These studios mark another milestone in Magnuson’s plan to locate arts in the park, as described by the 1999 Sand Point Blue Ribbon Committee and advocated by the Sand Point Arts and Cultural Exchange (SPACE). Artists who had worked in Building 11 at Magnuson Park for up to nine years moved out of those studios when a private developer took control a couple of years ago. I hope to see these newly constructed artist studios welcome some of them back.
Kelly Goode, with DPR, added a small caveat. Having had to wade through all those bids, the process did take longer than expected and so DPR is now left with a very tight, yet he believes manageable, construction schedule.
Goode anticipates a slightly accelerated schedule for the East Wing so that it’s ready to re-occupy by June 28th. The Hanger would be completed by August 5th and the West Wing by mid-September. Their original schedule anticipated a July opening.
Also, the City is pursuing a LEED Gold for Commercial Interiors for the West Wing. The green systems and renovation work being incorporated into this historic building will have long term sustainability benefits to the tenants and to the community.
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