Washington State: Move Out-Move In
Washington State CUB
Chapter Two in the evolving saga of the great Union moves out takes us to Palouse country and Washington State University where the inhabitants of the Compton Union Building are relaxing into their second year of returning from a move out to renovate their Union, adding 40,000 sq-ft of space to the existing 200,000 sq-ft building built in 1952. Our tour guide today is Travis Duncan, Operations Manager for the CUB as it is known on campus, and he said this move was necessitated by a complete gut and renovation of the existing CUB.
The move saw Union staff heading off into six different locations which started out as finding any space on any unused floor on campus and whittling down to the best spaces to co-locate from there. (Sound familiar?) They ended up in an old hospital building, a couple of floors in a residence hall and an academic building among other locations. Their budget included funding for minor cosmetics in most spaces but two projects included the erection of walls, providing for power, installing Steelcase furniture and carpet and paint. Meeting rooms were acquired through WSU classroom scheduling.
They moved over a 5 month period starting after winter break, moving big chunks of staff at a time, so that by June the moves were all done. Student government was moved out last as it was their building.
Direct quotes: No one was happy about the move, but that is life. Everyone was much happier about the move back in. Going back is 100 times easier. The move back in was flawless –everyone was happy!
The extra space provided 50,000 sq-ft for the Bookstore to move into the building on two floors. The Ballroom was punched out to 14,000 sq-ft and programmable ceiling clouds of LED lighting were added. They really kick up a program at night, according to Travis.
The building is still adjusting to the LEED Silver rating that construction adhered to. Several “pilot” (re: experimental) building systems were installed as a beta test and are still in shakedown mode. The low VOC paint took about 6 coats of paint to provide adequate coverage as opposed to two-coat latex. The building has quite a bit of school colors imbedded into it, but is by no means anchored into one color scheme.
Travis said he must have conducted 200 tours through the space, involving everyone in the plan all the time. People moved back in and started over with each other on a fresh slate. Everyone got asked what they wanted and contributed.
The best thing they did was sole source the move to a moving company and ensured that company was certified to install the Steelcase furniture they selected. No one else could have done the job as quickly, with the big trucks providing on time delivery and the crews sized to the number of moves needed on a given day. They moved materials so quickly it was mind-boggling to most of the staff.
The biggest thing Travis suggested we do was to develop a move system that was color-coded and conformed to both the movers and staff expectations. It facilitated the moves happening rapidly and gave the movers time to think about proactive aid such as handing out boxes a month ahead of time.
I could list over two dozen attributes that I gleaned from Eve’s and Travis’ stories that are crucial to the success of a large scale organizational move. I’d be curious to hear what you are seeing through your eyes as it pertains to the stories shared with us by Ohio State and Washington State. We are our own campus and must find our story much as Eve and Travis have found theirs. It could be the next chapter in the history of the MU. Are you prepared to write it? -Sid
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
While I wasn’t employed at WSU during the actual move out, I was there for both a year of working in surge space as well as a year in the new CUB. All in all I think it went as smooth as it could considering the magnitude of the project. The only real complaint I noticed was the shifting of move-in dates, but those were unavoidable due to projects completing past expected dates.
The biggest complaint I saw, however, was more of a cultural one when moving back in. I wasn’t there in the days of the old CUB, but it sounds like people pretty much had free reign to do what they wanted in the building. Upon reopening, the space pretty much went on lock down. It was also reassigned under Business Affairs, which had a very different agenda for the building (mostly push the retail space). The complete shift in culture and mission of the building caught many people by surprise and I think it would be wise to have these kinds of conversations for similar projects.