By Hailey Palmer, Puyallup Tribal News
With the glass windows now in place and significant work being done on the inside, the new Puyallup Tribal Administration building is starting to take its final form.
Puyallup Tribe Finance & Business Director Kyle Eley said the building will be finished by fall.
“In the next few months, they’re really going to start hitting on the sitework – the paving of the plaza, the sidewalks, the roads,” Eley said. “It’s really going to start looking like a completed project soon.”
Also announced with the new Tribal Admin building was a retail, sports and entertainment district, which Eley says is still part of the plan.
“That’s the goal – to bring in retail and entertainment spaces for the site,” Eley said.
The modern design from the outside has certainly caught people’s attention, but there will be even more details to look forward to on the inside once it’s complete.
Pieces from Tribal artists will be displayed in a variety of ways throughout the building.
“We have a few things we’re calling artist-made building parts that are going in the actual structure of the building,” Eley said. “The story of the fish will be presented all along the length of the garage, and there’s some metal artwork that’s going to be really cool. The main elevator doors are going to have some etchings that were done by Tribal artists.”
Another Tribal member created art that will help light up walkways and sidewalks, Eley added.
With a scheduled completion on track for September, Eley said he expects employees to be able to begin moving over shortly after.
Having room to grow was a consideration in the building’s design. Initially, 25 to 30 departments will make the move to the new building.
At the moment, 25 to 30 departments will make the move.
“We don’t want to get in there and be bursting at the seams, so we built it for growth and to handle expansion,” Eley said. “We planned for 3 to 4 percent of employee growth a year. We wanted to make sure this building had enough space that we weren’t, at least 20 to 30 years later, be growing out of it already.”
The parking garage, which will feature electrical vehicle charging, is scheduled to finish a little bit before the Admin building. By the time fall rolls around, everything will be just about done if construction stays on its current schedule.
“It’s really going to start coming together this summer and take final form in the fall,” Eley said.
