PORT TOWNSEND — The Chandler Maritime Education Building — which represents about half of the future Northwest Maritime Center — is expected to be 90 percent complete by July 13, clearing the way to begin the city permitting process.
A 60-day contractor “punch list” period following that date will allow maritime center representatives and the contractor to repair imperfections or complete other detail work required in the contract.
The $12.5 million project to build a 27,000-square-foot waterfront maritime heritage and educational facility at the east end of Water Street and adjacent to Point Hudson Marina is contracted to Primo Construction of Carlsborg.
Primo workers were laying concrete for a new boat ramp Thursday afternoon.
The launch connects to stairs leading up to an outdoor shower and boat washdown facility adjacent to the entrance into the expansive Helen Keeley Boathouse.
Rat Island Rowing and Skulling Club, which has for years launched its crafts from the boat ramp, is the boathouse’s anchor tenant. It is anticipated that the boathouse will be at least 50 percent filled with boats at the 33rd annual Wooden Boat Festival scheduled Sept. 11-13.
Open at festival
“We’re still on track to open the Chandler Education Building and boathouse at the festival,” said Stan Cummings, Northwest Maritime Center executive director, as he toured the building, which is now totally glassed in with most of the interior fine woodwork done.
Workers were busy Thursday in every corner of the facility overlooking Port Townsend Bay, the maritime center pier and the mouth of the Port of Port Townsend’s Point Hudson Marina.
Cummings said a formal dedication ceremony for the 11,000-square-foot Chandler Education Building is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sept. 10.
Local to federal dignitaries will be invited, he said.
The Compass Rose public space courtyard, with a stairway embedded with boulders and leading down to the shore, is being laid with paver bricks engraved with project donors’ names.
“I think it will be a very welcoming beach,” Cummings said, sitting on one of the boulders and enjoying the view on a warm, clear day.
The wide stairs also improve public access at what was once an empty lot, he said.
The Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation is building the center with the future in mind. Already, the center is creating more marine trades and educational programs.
Formal ground-breaking for the project took place in July 2008.
Second building
The other half of the project — the Maritime Heritage and Resource Center building, which of the two will be closest to Point Hudson Marina — will be open after Jan. 1, Cummings said.
As a result of a cooperative agreement with the city of Port Townsend, more than 60 percent of the waterfront location will be available for public use 24 hours, seven days a week.
That includes the courtyard and second-story decks from which all commercial vessel traffic crossing Admiralty Inlet will be visible.
Cummings calls the view the newest wonder of the world.
It will be the first non-governmental building on the North Olympic Peninsula to have a “gold” certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.
Port Townsend City Hall’s annex has a “silver” LEED certification. LEED is a voluntary, national rating system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
The goal of the Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation is to engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life, Cummings said.
“The working waterfront is fundamental to Port Townsend’s heritage. There are a number of people here who make a living through their association with the sea,” he said, standing in front of the future heritage building’s boat shop.
The shop’s tall folding doors will open one day for boat work that the public can watch from the second-floor mezzanine walkway or through open doors at ground level.
The 30-year-old Wooden Boat Foundation is the maritime center’s key collaborator and partner for on-the-water programs, school field trips, demonstrations of boat building and other traditional hand crafts, maritime skills classes and youth mentorships.
The Chandler Education Building will allow many of the popular features of the 33-year-old annual Wooden Boat Festival, such as boatwork and instructional presentations, to take place year-round.
The maritime center has hired Kees Prins, boat shop educator, to work with the local marine trades businesses to showcase their work to the public.
The festival typically attracts an international audience of about 25,000 and brings more than $2 million into the community.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
