Police Services Surge and SEM I Renovation Project
By Hero Winsor
On March 8th, 2024, the Evergreen State College Board of Trustees approved the award of a contract of $25.5 million dollars for the renovation of the Seminar I building. The project is currently on the last two steps of the plan for renovation and the next step on the agenda being construction followed by expected completion in 2025. Despite this project being in the works since 2018, community awareness has been extremely minimal. This article is an attempt to catch up on what this project does and doesn’t entail.
The Seminar I building is one of the oldest buildings on campus, completed in 1974 after the construction of Evans Hall, the Constantino Recreation Center, and the Lab I buildings. It was constructed by the same company that built our A, B, C, and D dorm buildings. SEM 1 is listed as a historic site by the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historical Preservation. The renovation seemingly will retain the bones of this structure while making changes to improve building safety and aesthetics. Observing this building, it is evident that the space needs renovation with just a quick survey of the outside by CPJ staff revealing large amounts of concrete efflorescence (salt deposits) and general dankness, more so than other areas on campus. Most every other building on the central part of campus has been renovated in the past 25 years so it is unsurprising that the Seminar I building is next. However, it has been difficult to acquire information on proposed changes to the building. The details of these changes become increasingly important as police services are currently located, and will continue to be located, on the first floor and sublevel 1 of SEM I.
None of the funding for this project is provided by tuition money. Instead, the renovations are being funded by a budget of over $25 million by the Washington state legislature approved for the 2023-2025 fiscal years. The project is expected to be completed by October 2025 by contracted firm Construct Inc. located in Tumwater, WA. The approved design of the building was drafted by Integrus Architecture and this design makes up approximately $1 million of the total budget of the project. There is, once again, limited information about the renovation on the Integrus webpage but its contents include a few photoshopped images of the current building and what the design will supposedly look like once construction is completed. The graphics themselves superimpose slightly uncanny-looking people populating an expanded, glass exterior surrounding where Police Services currently leave their cars, visible from Red Square. There are also two images of what the interior is supposed to look like, including the uncomfortable couches the school has populated the Housing Community Center, and campus Apartments. Of the limited information provided, the Integrus website frequently features and centers the project as providing “an expanded home for the Native Pathways Program,” adding expansions for “counseling, parking, and police services” as a footnote. NPP has previously used SEM 1 as their alternative facility to the House of Welcome for many years. According to the project budget, accessed through the most recent Board of Trustees Meeting agenda on evergreen.edu, there is approximately $160 thousand listed as an “art allotment,” which has been described as for purchasing art for SEM I.
While building details of the new SEM 1 are not listed through Intergrus or Evergreen, floor plans are accessible via the Builders Exchange of Washington website. A large number of the changes will be occurring to the grounds outside the building with proposed plaza-type spaces. There also is a plan to increase the parking lot attached to the sublevel of Seminar I near the Library dumpsters, expanding into the knoll facing the Carving Studio. On the inside of the building, there are updates to the spaces such as classrooms and offices. There also appears to be a large change to the entrance of the building with a windowed multi-level atrium-type space. On the second floor of the building is a room labeled a “culture cave.” This floor also contains a space for parking services as well as offices which will most likely house the Native Pathways Program and potentially the English First (EF) program that has previously used SEM 1, however, there are also office spaces on the third floor of the building where these programs could be located. In addition to a renovation of their offices, Police Services will be upgrading their holding cell facilities. In the final plan for the renovation of SEM I, there are no listed holding cells on the blueprint itself, however upon reviewing the plans for what doors are going to be installed in the building, doors for three holding cells are listed.
Police Services currently occupies the first and sublevel floors of the Seminar I building and will continue to do so post-renovation. As of March 2024, they are the last program or department to occupy SEM 1. While the building is being renovated, all SEM 1 programs are “relocating (surging)” to alternate locations, having previously undergone comprehensive “surge need” review. Native Pathways and Project Search has been relocated to Lab II, Parking Services has been moved to the ticket booth in the COM building, and English First has been moved to the fourth floor of SEM II. Currently, the Police Services Surge project is being prepared on the first floor of Evans Hall in what used to be the IT department, in Computing and Communications.
Construction began in the Computing and Communications wing on February 19th in what appears to be significant remodeling. They will be taking over approximately 19 rooms of the current layout of Evan’s Hall. More than temporary office space for the x communications officers who control dispatch, the five patrol officers, two Kaeka Group private security guards, and chief of police David Brunkhurst, the Surge will construct new infrastructure specific to Police Services. According to the Police Surge plans found through Builders Exchange of Washington State, there will be two holding cells constructed in this formerly IT space. As of now, there are no timelines for when the Surge will be completed
The question now is what will be done with the Surge space after the police return to SEM I. It has not been stated whether this space will return to its original purpose or continue to be used by Police Services in some capacity for years in the future. The Cooper Point Journal will keep reporting on Surge and SEM 1 as updates unfold.
