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Buildings

Winter 2003

A magnet for entertainment: Beasley celebrates 30th anniversary

As Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum marks its 30th anniversary this year, there’s been much to appreciate about the multi-purpose building. It has a great sound system and sightlines. The entertainment is big time and varied—Broadway shows (Jesus Christ Superstar, 1988) to Cougar basketball games and crafts and job fairs. One wonders how the University managed before the $8 million facility opened for commencement in 1973.

Capacity is 12,000, or 4,700 in a mini-arena configuration, and 2,500 in the theatre at the coliseum’s west end. Basketball made its debut in Beasley in 1973, and George Raveling’s 1982-83 Cougars (23-7) went undefeated in the coliseum.

Comedians, including … » More …

Fall 2006

A home for music

You don’t always need an address to find the Friel House. Just follow the music.

A short walk from campus, a group of music-minded students have found a home on C Street. The house looks small from the curb, but its three stories shelter seven students, and still have room for a formal dining room, a large kitchen with a breakfast nook, a living room, and a library.

The house is named for the Friel family, and for 54 years was home to Washington State University basketball coach Jack Friel and his wife, Catherine.

Catherine Friel died in 2003. Last year, her family agreed to … » More …

Better living…through solar

For more than two years, a group of Washington State University students in architecture, construction management, interior design, and engineering designed and built a solar house, including all of its systems, from the ground up. In September 2005, they transported the house to Washington, D.C., to take part in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition on the National Mall. WSU was one of only 18 schools from around the world-and the only school from the Northwest-to participate. Sponsored by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab, the competition required students to plan and build a 650-square-foot home and provide it with all the modern conveniences, including … » More …

Winter 2001

Regents authorize new indoor practice facility

At its August 31 meeting, the Washington State University Board of Regents approved plans to move ahead on construction of a new indoor practice facility for varsity sports on the Pullman campus. Phase I construction on the $9.7 million project began in early October, and completion is expected by summer 2002. Site preparation and infrastructure were completed last spring between Bailey-Brayton Field and Ferdinand’s Creamery.

The facility will consist of an air-inflated fabric structure over playing surfaces to support practice for 14 of the 17 Cougar varsity sports. The primary surface will be a Mondo Track for track and field practice. A roll-out Magic … » More …

Fall 2002

Spokane Health Sciences Building enhances research, medical partnerships

Linda Massey swings open the doors of large kitchen cabinets that store portions of the $10,000 worth of groceries needed over eight weeks for people in a kidney-stone- and low-salt-diet study. Nearby are industrial-sized freezers to keep perishables. The Washington State University Spokane professor of human nutrition is studying the role salt plays in the formation of calcium kidney stones under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Next door in another lab is a white contraption that might have come straight out of NASA, a six-foot long container with a window. Large enough to hold one person, the “Bod Pod” has instruments to … » More …