Photo By Joseph Siemandel | The Richland Readiness Center is set to open this fall and will be the home of Bravo...... read more read more
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Two highly anticipated state of the art facilities will open in eastern Washington this fall, giving citizen-soldiers of the Washington Army National Guard a new place to serve and stay during their training.
This winter soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment will take ownership of a new home in the Tri-Cities area as they move into the recently completed Richland Readiness Center.
“This Readiness Center was a design build project with the team of TVA Architecture and Fowler General Construction,” said Mr. Brad Olson, construction project manager with the Washington National Guard’s Construction Facilities Management Office (CFMO). “Fowler General Construction is a Richland based contractor with their office located two miles from the project sited.”
The 39,706 square foot readiness center project moved at record speed, as the general construction team went from ground-breaking to substantial completion in just 14 months. At a cost of $14.2 million, the new facilities provide ample training, storage, classroom, common areas and office space for a company of soldiers of the 1-161st Infantry. This will also become the first Washington National Guard facility that is on track to meet a LEED Gold rating for environmental considerations and green cost saving measures. LEED certified buildings save money, improve efficiency, lower carbon emissions and create healthier places for people. They are a critical part of addressing climate change and meeting environmental, social and governance goals, enhancing resilience, and supporting more equitable communities.
“From a user standpoint, seeing it in person and how it looks was almost exactly the vision we had when we started designing this,” said Lt. Col. Bill Cooper, commander of the 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment. “To have soldiers see it before opening they could see how it all flowed and how the CFMO delivered us a new quality building to train at.”
The new Readiness Center will house a company from the battalion, but only takes up a small portion of the 40-acre lot. The Washington Military Department has proposed building a second Washington Youth Challenge Academy on the site.
“In my 15+ years on project management this is one of the top two or three projects I have been involved in,” said Olson.
Another project, the long awaited and needed Yakima Training Center Barracks are set for completion by mid-October and are on track to open for use by November. The new barracks will be significant for the service members that attend one of the many courses taught by the 205th Regional Training Institute at Yakima Training Center.
“There was a need for barracks space at the Regional Training Institute, more importantly, since the RTI supports 22 states. This greatly impacts the students attending a variety of military specialty, officer candidate, warrant officer candidate and non-commissioned officer schools through the RTI,” said John Wunsch, facility and designs project manager for CFMO.
The 46,285 square foot barracks facility was originally designed in 2012 by the Seattle District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office with the CFMO and input from Training and Doctorial Command and the 205th. The barracks house up to 128 students and meet the special requirements for student living space authorizations and room setting.
“Each room is single occupancy and in a two room pod with common private bathroom and showers,” said Wunsch. “Each room also has a study area, and allows the soldiers privacy while they stay here.”
The three-floor building has a laundry facility, common area day room and recycling and cleaning area on each floor. It has also been designed to allow for an additional 100 bed expansion in the future. A 200 person per hour dining facility was also included in the original concept and design. The dining facility, which will be located immediately next to the barracks, should begin construction in mid-2024.
“Both of these projects support our 25-year strategic plan to continue modernizing our facilities to further enhance our soldier’s ability to train for their state and federal mission,” said Adam Iwaszuk, director of the Washington National Guard’s CFMO. “The future is bright for modernizing Washington Army National Guard facilities.”
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2022 12:32 |
| Story ID: | 429286 |
| Location: | CAMP MURRAY, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 410 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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