FORKS — The roof is sealed, most of the interior is framed, and installation of the brickwork has begun on the new Rainforest Arts Center in Forks.
The finishing elements for the exterior walls are still being installed, but autumn’s rains can begin without damaging the interior structures, said Rod Fleck, city attorney/planner.
“Everything is sealed in. We’re weather-tight,” Fleck said of the $2.64 million community center at 35 N. Forks Ave.
The foyer is carved out with a small storefront on one side and the entry to the main hall on the other.
Fleck said the foyer was designed so it can be used independently as a small meeting room.
It includes such details as carved wooden “brick” walls that will remind users the building is indeed made of wood, in keeping with the city’s timber town history.
Gracefully curved walls partially enclose the main hall, which will eventually be sided in cement shingles made to look like aged wood and which will seat about 140 people.
“It feels like a building,” Fleck said.
This week, the building buzzed with activity, from carpenters working on the interior walls to masons from B&G Masons of Chehalis, who have begun the brickwork on the exterior.
Fleck said construction has run into some delays, but the grand opening remains on schedule for April 19, exactly one year after the groundbreaking ceremony held during the 2014 RainFest.
Construction crews have been able to take advantage of an unusually dry summer to get the work done, Fleck said.
“We were fortunate there,” he said.
The Rainforest Arts Center in the old International Order of Odd Fellows hall and the adjacent Olympic Pharmacy building, which had most recently been occupied by the Dazzled by Twilight souvenir store, burned to the ground in an early morning fire Oct. 29, 2012.
The 1925 IOOF hall and property were insured by the city for $3.7 million, and a settlement for $2.64 million is being used to rebuild.
The site of the former Olympic Pharmacy, then owned by Alaska Financial Co. of Anchorage, Alaska, was purchased in September for $60,000 by the West Olympic Council of the Arts and donated to the city to increase the amount of space that could be used for the new community performing arts center.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
