Grays Harbor College going vertical

By The Daily World • October 29, 2022 1:30 am

With plans of opening in fall of 2023, the new Student Services & Instructional Building (SSIB) at Grays Harbor College construction is now underway.

The SSIB will provide a welcoming gateway to the college’s campus and will serve as a connecting point between the college and the community.

The new SSIB will house the college’s Student Services departments. The SSIB will also include a coffee bar, dining area for students and space for student life. The top floor of the SSIB will feature a conference center with space to seat up to 550 people, meeting rooms and instructional spaces, according to a news release.

Accessibility on campus will improve with the addition of the universally accessible building, pedestrian paths, and ADA parking spaces in close proximity to the center of campus. The SSIB construction has been funded by the State Legislature at $52 million. Of that, $48 million is state capital funded by bond sales; $3.7 million is funded by students through a fee voted on and approved by the student body.

This week, the building’s “brace frames” started to be placed. Brace frames are the structural steel supports of the building and have been under construction for the past eight months. The steel was fabricated in Canada, shipped here, and the welders are connecting the various structural steel elements into brace frames (and columns, and beams).