Giant letters raised at new visitor center

PULLMAN, Wash. – Three 15-foot-high cast concrete letters – W, S and U – were raised on the site of the new Washington State University visitor center July 24.

Amid a throng of construction workers and media onlookers, the letters were erected as part of a new “front door” to the university. The visitor center, located on the west-central edge of the Pullman campus at Main and NE Spring streets, will function as an interpretive center for WSU, highlighting teaching, research, athletics, student and faculty contributions in a unique visual setting. 

Jeff Lannigan, project manager with WSU Facilities Services, said the building is on schedule for a September opening, though the giant letters posed a unique challenge to workers. 

“That W that’s going up weighs 40,000 pounds, so it takes a little bit of extra thought and effort to do this kind of work,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun to do these kinds of special projects.”

The team of Sellen Construction and Olson Kundig Architects was selected as design-builder via a request for quotation/request for proposal process.  

For more information about the project, see http://www.cpd.wsu.edu/CapitalProjects/Projects/project.aspx?Value=88

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Editors note: Video from the construction site and SOTs can be found at http://www.mediatransfer.wsu.edu. Log in using “wsunews” as the login and password.  Files are available in multiple formats. Simply click the gray download button to the right of the file you want, and the file will download automatically to your computer. Please credit Washington State University.