Make-Over Money

Funding for EWU’s Science Building renovation gets a thumbs-up from Olympia.

As the first part of Eastern’s two-phase renovation of its Science Building nears completion, the project’s second phase, scheduled to start next spring, received a welcome appropriations boost from lawmakers in Olympia.

The final 2023-25 biennium budget, signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in April, allocates an additional $58 million to complete the more than $110 million Science Building makeover. The work will add state-of-the-art research and laboratory facilities, modern classrooms for STEM-related learning, and space to enable hiring of new faculty positions to support Eastern’s ever-expanding STEM footprint.

The old Science Building, completed in 1962, had long been due for an overhaul, David Bowman, dean of Eastern’s College of STEM, told Eastern magazine last year. Bowman described the pre-renovation facility as a “Sputnik-era building designed for Sputnik-era science.”

Work on the modernization effort is scheduled for completion in August 2025. “This has been a multi-phased project,” said EWU President Shari McMahan in a statement after the appropriation number was finalized. “We are excited to receive the funding that will allow us to finish the job.”