Previously: Funding was authorized in March to renovate the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center.
What’s new: The National Park Service has awarded the $1.7 million contract to DSL Builders of Salem, Ore.
What’s next: Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St., Vancouver, will be the temporary visitor center during the renovation.
With the awarding of a contract, the long-sought rehabilitation of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center is slated to be finished in the summer of 2015.
Previously: Funding was authorized in March to renovate the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center.
What's new: The National Park Service has awarded the $1.7 million contract to DSL Builders of Salem, Ore.
What's next: Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St., Vancouver, will be the temporary visitor center during the renovation.
The National Park Service announced Thursday that it has awarded the $1.7 million contract to DSL Builders of Salem, Ore.
Work is expected to begin this fall and take about nine months.
The 5,650-square-foot facility, opposite Officers Row near the intersection of East Reserve Street and Evergreen Boulevard in Vancouver, was built in 1961. The project will reconfigure the interior space, including reorienting the entry to the visitor restrooms through the front door, Alex Patterson, Fort Vancouver facility manager, said.
The existing theater will be relocated as part of the restroom improvements; a larger, multi-function theater space will be created. The facility will be brought into compliance with modern accessibility standards.
Other aspects of the project will involve removing lead-based paint and materials containing asbestos; replacing mechanical, electrical and lighting systems to save energy; and installing a fire suppression system.
During construction, the lobby area of Pearson Air Museum, 1115 East Fifth St., Vancouver, will serve as the temporary visitor center. Park rangers and volunteers will show introductory films, distribute information and help visitors plan their trip through the site. They also will provide a wider range of maps, guides and brochures through a new partnership with Visit Vancouver USA, the regional tourism office.
The visitor center was built in 1961 as part of the Mission 66 Initiative, looking ahead to the National Park Service’s 50th anniversary in 1966. The rehabilitation project is timed for completion before the agency celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2016.
In addition to catching up on some maintenance, the goal of the project “is to create a visitor center which is the gathering place for the public, and a starting point where visitors can gain a sense of the opportunities that await them at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and the Vancouver National Historic Reserve,” Fort Vancouver Superintendent Tracy Fortmann said in a news release.
Fort officials have been working to get the renovation project underway since 2002, Fortmann said.
DSL Builders also did an NPS project last fall at Vancouver Barracks, renovating the historic post headquarters building just south of Officers Row and providing a protective exterior makeover.
Although not part of the DSL Builders contract, the Park Service also will be developing new exhibits for the visitor center, in an expanded space for hands-on education and exhibits that will be created.
Additional funds will be provided for exhibit work through a separate process, Fortmann said.
Meagan Huff, the historic site’s museum technician, will be working with community partners, including the Confluence Project, which recently moved its office to a building just west of Pearson Air Museum.
