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Masonry Industry Promotion Group
Project Focus Masonry
lays groundwork for INBC’s future Northwest Architectural Company, P.S. The North Bank of Spokane’s downtown core is experiencing a renaissance. New buildings are springing up in previously undeveloped lots. Older neglected structures are being renovated. Many of these buildings relate to one of Spokane’s leading industries, the medical field. In 1999, the Inland Northwest Blood Center (INBC) recognized this part of Spokane as a new growth area and decided to move their regional headquarters to the North Bank. Northwest Architectural Company (NAC) was privileged to be selected as the architect for this important project and was given the challenge of designing a modern new facility to take the INBC into the 21st century.
The INBC selected the North Bank site after an extensive search of property in the downtown area. It was imperative for the INBC to be in the downtown core in proximity to the hospitals it serves. Once the site was chosen, the task of defining the character of the building began. During discussions between the owner and architect, the general consensus confirmed that Spokane is essentially a “bricks-and-mortar” town. Using masonry as an exterior material would help identify the INBC’s new headquarters as a downtown building and ensure the structure’s compatibility with this newly developed medical district on the downtown North Bank. Brick has always been a favorite material at Northwest Architectural Company. It communicates a sense of permanence and timelessness. The material is warm and provides a human scale with its small module. NAC has successfully used brick to convey a message of “institution” and “academia” on many of its award-winning school and university projects. The challenge for the INBC project was for NAC to apply a traditional construction material brick to a modern medical laboratory and headquarters building in order to communicate the blood center’s critically important mission and tradition. For nearly 60 years, the INBC has been saving lives on a daily basis using the latest technology to provide the highest quality blood products to hospitals throughout the Inland Northwest Region. It was essential that the structure’s design reflect the center’s objectives and history. The design solution that evolved clearly conveys the image of a modern, state-of-the-art medical services and laboratory building melded with the characteristics of masonry: warmth, human scale, permanence, quality and timelessness. The exterior design of the four-story building is a brick mass with voids to help establish the character of permanence. The substantial quality of the brick mass serves as an anchor for the lighter, modern glass curtain wall bay windows arrayed around the first two floors. These bay windows symbolize the interior activities of the spaces within where the blood laboratory services are located. The masonry facade is broken down vertically. The first floor masonry is a salt-and-pepper, ground-face concrete masonry unit. A precast concrete belt course then transitions the exterior skin to a 4-by-4-by-12 economy brick laid in a one-third running bond. A precast concrete shape similar to the belt course is used above the bay windows as the building transitions again to the brick. Precast concrete units also reflect the structural bays with vertical elements on the building’s exterior. The building mass is terminated at the top with a precast concrete cornice. All precast concrete elements were designed in a module small enough to be installed by masons as they progressed up the exterior of the building. Long horizontal windows in the brick mass further define the building as contemporary. The windows are topped with a precast concrete eyebrow projecting three feet from the exterior wall plane, adding to the horizontal, modern architectural vocabulary of the building. The design of this building proudly symbolizes the mission of the Inland Northwest Blood Center employing the latest technology, INBC staff will continue to provide the very best life-saving blood products to their clients for years to come. Project
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© 2003 - 2006 Janet Crosby all rights reserved
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