Huskies Have a Hole to Fill

The new UW Educational Outreach building was supposed to be a glass palace, but instead the prime real estate at the southeast corner of University Way Northeast and Northeast Campus Parkway has, for the past year and a half, been the fenced-off site of a 20-foot hole with the buried beginnings of a concrete foundation covered in white plastic.

Construction on the building was stopped in October 2006 due to the high cost of concrete and other delays. "In re-evaluating the project, we thought for the stage it was at and the pressures it was undergoing, it was best to terminate the project and save [the space] for another day," explains Richard Chapman, associate vice president of the university's Capital Projects Office. He says ceasing construction on a building once ground has been broken is "extremely unusual," and adds that this is the first stoppage he's witnessed in his seven years at UW.

Since construction came to a halt, the site has sat latent, awaiting the resolution of litigation between the university and its contractor, Ledcor, on how to terminate the work. Court documents show that the parties agreed to end legal proceedings in September 2007 (which generally indicates a settlement), but Chapman wouldn't provide details, saying only that "we're still working our way through that."

For the College Inn Pub, located in the basement of the building next door, it's been a long time to look at a hole. "The whole project has been bungled from the word go," says co-owner Shea Wilson. "I'm tired of living in a construction zone."

Yet the end may be near. Chapman says they've started to fill the hole—which according to him will cost some $300,000—but have been delayed by this winter's heavy rains (you can't use wet sediment for backfill). Once it's filled, UW plans to plant grass, but the fence will stay up for safety reasons; the university doesn't want to turn the space into a park or parking lot because that would require obtaining a new permit.

"We'll pour sidewalks to make it aesthetically pleasing, but that's the limit of it. We don't want to spend more," says Chapman. The long-term future of the site remains unknown. "We may use it in two or 10 years," Chapman says. "I don't know."