LYNNWOOD — A new $13.4 million student union, bookstore and cafeteria building at Edmonds Community College campus, set to open in January, is being built without taxpayer money.
Instead, student fees are paying for the new two-story building that connects to the northeast corner of Brier Hall.
Student government leaders in May 2005 decided that once bonds for the existing Triton Union Building are paid off by 2012, they will continue to collect $132,000 a year in student fees to pay for the new building.
They also will collect another $110,000 a year in student fees over the next 20 years to pay off construction bonds and will levy a 25 cent per credit fee to pay for maintenance on the building.
“It’s really the students’ building,” said Wayne Anthony, EdCC’s director of student programs. “They have put a lot of work into it. The credit really goes them. They have funded the project.”
The new building will be called the Triton Student Center, meaning, at least for the time being, there will be two Triton buildings on campus. The existing Triton Union Building, which opened in the 1991, will be turned over to the college for other uses.
“Since students assessed themselves a fee to build it, the natural question would be: Why wouldn’t students want to retain the use of it for other purposes?” Anthony said. “They felt that it was in the best interest of the college.”
Lynnwood resident Dulcie Chase, an EdCC student body officer, has toured the new building and believes students will be impressed by the study space, lighting and the architecture’s general openness.
“It is just a great space for students,” she said.
The new building does raise a question: Does the campus need two buildings named Triton?
Probably not. The EdCC Board of Trustees already has approved Triton Student Center as the name of the new building. Anthony said he can imagine the old Triton Union Building being renamed to prevent confusion.
The new 22,000-square-foot center’s first floow will include a game and video room, lounge with gas fireplace and a small stage for performances.
On the second floor will be two conference rooms, including one that can be divided into two rooms, along with four rooms for study groups. There also will be club and student government offices as well as a publications office for the college’s literary journal and the student newspaper, and a center for service learning.
The new bookstore will cover 4,900 square feet. The existing bookstore has occupied temporary space in Brier Hall since it moved from Mountlake Terrace Hall in 2004 during the renovation of that building.
Anthony expects the new Triton building to be a busy place, particularly after the four-story Rainier Place, the college’s first on-campus apartment complex, opens next fall.
Rainier Place will have room for 181 American and international students who will live in furnished four-bedroom, two-bedroom and studio units.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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