The National Park Service has awarded an $11.28 million contract to rehabilitate four Vancouver Barracks buildings, including two that will be the new home of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
The work will be done by Pacific Tech Construction of Kelso, said Tracy Fortmann, superintendent of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
The most visible portion of the project will involve three historic East Barracks buildings facing Officers Row, defining the south edge of the Parade Ground. The 33,000-square-foot structure on the west end, along Fort Vancouver Way, will become Gifford Pinchot headquarters.
Catalogued as Building 987, it was the headquarters of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 104th Division until 2010. The Army transferred the East Barracks and South Barracks to the National Park Service in May 2012.
Interior work will include removing walls that were added after the building was constructed, achieving a more open environment and restoring historical authenticity to the floor plan.
The Gifford Pinchot National Forest also will lease a modern brick building on the south side of Fifth Street. Now a shop building, it will become a regional radio dispatch center.
The other two buildings slated for rehabilitation also are century-old structures in the same row of double infantry barracks that is anchored by the future headquarters of the national forest.
Building 989, just east of the Gifford Pinchot’s future HQ, and Building 993, at the east end of the series, will get protective exterior upgrades. The work will include new roofs, paint, and repairs to gutters, decks and exterior walls. Another structure in that row — a smaller building known as the Post Headquarters — underwent an exterior upgrade in 2013.
“We’re hopeful we’ll see some mobilization and visible action no later than, say, mid-June,” said Ray Cozby, project manager at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
Keeping eye on time
Utility work will include improvements to power, water, sewer and storm sewer systems. The combined building renovation and utility project is scheduled to be completed in late 2016.
In addition to this project, the city of Vancouver is leading efforts to restore several buildings in the nearby West Barracks, including the historic Artillery Barracks structure. Those projects will be partly funded with a bond sale.
There is a specific timetable linked to the 5,000-square-foot South Barracks brick maintenance building, since it will be a regional Forest Service dispatch center. “Gifford Pinchot would like to have that move done in advance of the 2016 fire season,” Cozby said.
Distinctive pieces of that project include a radio tower and a radio antenna.
The national forest currently is headquartered at 10600 N.E. 51st Circle in Orchards, in the shadow of the Interstate 205-state Highway 500 interchange.
