After months of working and learning from home, it won’t take long for students, faculty and staff returning to TCC Northwest this fall to see a marked change. The administrative building that normally is the first structure encountered, WADM, now is gone and represents the first part of the original campus core to be demolished as part of the $311 million redevelopment project.
In time, it will be joined by WSTU (Student Center, Media Services), WTLO (Walsh Library, theater), WFAB (fine arts) and WCTS (counseling/testing, math, science).
But that won’t be for a while, according to the latest schedule posted in April by Skanska, lead contractor of the project. That timetable calls for demolition of WTLO, WSTU and WFAB to be between April and October 2023. WCTS is to come down between July and October 2025, two months shy of the redevelopment’s projected completion.
Northwest old-timers may lament the passing of the buildings in which they spent so much of their careers, but there is a bright side. The scaffolding that has swathed most of the original structure will disappear along with them.
But, as some things come down, others will go up. The major part of the plan consists of four new buildings, now known only by their numbers 1-4 (see accompanying campus rendering). Construction on Buildings 1 and 2 is scheduled to begin in July 2021, with completions in January 2023 (Building 1) and March 2023 (Building 2).
Buildings 3 and 4 construction is to start in October 2023, with completions in March and May 2025, respectively.
Two other original Northwest buildings, WSBA (maintenance, physical plant) and WHPE (physical education) will be “reskinned,” acquiring a new outer coat to replace the original bricks. Work is to begin in July 2021 and wind up in May 2022 and July 2022, respectively. Also getting a new exterior will be WACB, the academic classroom building facing Marine Creek Lake. Work is scheduled from May 2025 to January 2026.
Other campus buildings such as those now housing Marine Creek Collegiate High School, the Criminal Justice Training Center, the Police Academy firing range and the Fire Service Training Center are outside the scope of the redevelopment.
Here’s a timeline of major portions of construction and demolition arranged by the years in which they begin:
— 2021 –
October – Completion of site utilities
July 26 to May 2022 – Reskinning of WBSA
July 26 to July 2022 – Reskinning of WHPE
July to January 2023 – Construction of Building 1
July to March 2023 – Construction of Building 2
— 2023 –
April to August – Demolition of WTLO, WSTU, WFAB
October to March 2025 – Construction of Building 3
October to May 2025 – Construction of Building 4
May to January 2026 – Reskinning of WACB
July to October 2025 – Demolition of WCTS
All this, as one might think, will make parking and walking to the campus an ever-shifting picture.
This map shows the current campus access and below is a rendering of what the campus layout will be in 2025.
