John W. Walstrum Center for Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Photo Credit: Lara Swimmer Photography

The John W. Walstrum Center for Advanced Manufacturing Technology (CAMT) is the first major design-build project for the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC). The 63,000 gross square foot, $33 million, LEED Silver facility supports workforce and management skills training for high demand occupations in Puget Sound’s innovative aerospace, aviation and manufacturing industries. CAMT creates a new main entry to Clover Park Technical College, putting the college’s mission and programs on display for all who visit. It contains labs for mechatronics, CNC, manual manufacturing, CNC, mechatronics, non-destructive testing (NDT) and composites. It also contains active-learning classrooms, informal student study spaces and faculty offices. CAMT emulates real-life industry environments that bring research and application together to promote Lean principles and a continuous improvement cycle. Spaces are organized around a top-lit central atrium, called the “5th Lab,” which provides for interdisciplinary collaboration, demonstrations, displays and industry events. Views into the labs and their machines engage students, opening doors to career opportunities and the value of life-long learning.

Adding Value, In Spite of Challenges

Knowing the budget and schedule were aggressive, the Owner chose the design-build delivery method. After the state reduced the available budget by $1,300,000, the design-build team quickly went to work to preserve the existing programs and innovative design concepts in the project. Items that were engineered out of the project were kept as possible future betterments. The value engineering and redesign work did not impact schedule and ultimately some items were added back into the project. The redesign, plus unforeseen soil conditions and adding other enhancements, did not impact the original substantial completion date. In fact, substantial completion was three weeks early. The John W. Walstrum Center for Advanced Manufacturing Technology building is an open display of advance manufacturing and is a model of a modern instructional building for advance manufacturing and technology.

Design-Build Team

Photos