11Contractor Primo Construction of Carlsborg is fast at work installing windows and putting up siding outside and drywall inside the $12.5 million campus’s two structures that the Maritime Center Executive Director Stan Cummings said will serve as the Northwest’s models in the fields of maritime trades, education, economic development and environmental stewardship.
The project recently passed the halfway mark in construction.
The Heritage Building, which is slated to be open in January 2010, is completely sided at the shoreline corner of Water and Monroe streets.
The structure’s disabled-access elevator is now being installed, and three stairways are in.
Other half
The Maritime Center’s other half closest to Point Hudson Marina, the 11,000-square-foot Chandler Maritime Education Building, will be completed in time for the 33rd annual Wooden Boat Festival Sept. 11 to 13, which has grown to be the largest event in Port Townsend.
There students will learn everything from the fine craft of building wooden boats to learning about shipping and military ship traffic upstairs in the Pilot House, where radio equipment allows them to hail a captain on a big vessel at sea.
“It’s the most contemporary feature in the entire facility,” Cummings said.
“The Pilot House will be finished with metal walls and equipped like a contemporary ship’s bridge. It will enable the visiting public and students to interpret what’s passing by on the straits.
“It’s going to be a fun place.”
Classrooms below connect to the Pilot House.
“Our role with kids is to give them an opportunity to be exposed to the [marine] trades,” Cummings said, adding that those opportunities could lead to formal training at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, new jobs in the Port of Port Townsend’s shipyards or beyond.
Both buildings will be accessible from several points.
“We designed it so people can approach and enter from many angles,” Cummings said during a lunchtime lull tour that soon erupted into a cacophony of power tools squealing and buzzing.
While both buildings will be finished and ready for occupancy, the Education Building will require less furnishing, and exhibits and will open first. A dedication ceremony for that building is set for May, Cummings said.
He points out that all the wood in the finely crafted building comes from sustainable forests.
Center’s goal
The maritime center’s goal is to become the North Olympic Peninsula’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold-certified building.
LEED is a voluntary, national rating system for developing high-performance, energy-efficient and sustainable buildings.
The Heritage Building will beckon visitors off Water Street into a reception area with a gift shop, exhibits and a coffee shop with a picture window for a counter. On the buildings southeastern corner is a boathouse, which houses the many watercrafts the center’s members frequently set on the water, including long, skinny rowing shells.
“Port Townsend has a very active rowing community that goes unseen because they row at 6 a.m.,” Cummings said. “This should be a very conducive place for rowing activity.”
Adjacent to the boathouse will be a bath and shower area that will be open to the public during business hours and around the clock for Maritime Center members.
Those coming in from an early morning row or a long day at sea will be able use the facility, which Cummings acknowledged would be ideal during the Wooden Boat Festival, when visiting tall ships and other wooden vessels voyage in for the maritime party at Point Hudson Marina.
Upstairs, both structures are liberally designed with energy-efficient windows that allow ample, clear and natural lighting, part of the LEED concept.
Developed by U.S. Green Building Council, LEED emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials and resources selection, indoor environmental quality and innovation and design.
The upper-floor office space at the 16,000-square-foot Heritage Building will have “clear light,” so little or no artificial lighting will be required, saving energy, according to Cummings.
The space will also house the Horace W. McCurdy Library, which will exhibit books on all things marine.
A deck connecting the two buildings is another showcase feature at the future Maritime Center.
“I think this will be one of the seven wonders of Port Townsend,” Cummings said, gesturing out to the panoramic view overlooking the entrance to Point Hudson Marina and deep into Admiralty Inlet and Whidbey Island.
“The views out here are stupendous and unobstructed.”
The deck leads into a section of the Heritage Building that will house a conference room complete with a wet bar.
Two 20-foot-high vertical large-paned windows will not only provide bay views from the conference room, but also are designed to look like two lanterns at sea for those approaching at night from the water.
The conference room is designed to be split in two to handle between 100 and 200 people for conferences.
In the Education Building, two waterfront boat shops will be leading to the marina in space designed with large sliding doors that can be opened or closed, depending on the weather. The shop will have ample storage for materials used by master boat builders and students.
The contractor is expected to finish work on the Heritage Building in June, Cummings said, but the big job of finishing that building will just be starting.
“We will then bring in local craftsmen,” he said, who will focus on different finish work from exhibit cases to benches.
Dave Robison, the Maritime Center’s project manager, will oversee that work.
The Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation is a regional institution working to build a higher national profile with programs and offerings of the highest quality, Cummings said.
The center’s formal ground-breaking took place in July 2008, and its staff, led by Cummings, continues to raise funds, just last week announcing a $300,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Wash.
The grant is in the form of a challenge. The Maritime Center will receive $150,000 now, and the remaining amount will have to be matched — $2 for every $1 of grant money.
The grant means that the foundation has raised about 90 percent of the money needed for the buildings, Cummings said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
