CITC

The Construction Industry Training Council of Washington (CITC) is a non-profit, state-licensed, vocational trade school for the construction industry offering training throughout Washington State.

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The Marysville campus was designed to thoughtfully surround students in hands-on training while invoking a tactile interest in building technologies. This led to an approach that sought to deliver a clean, modern facility with an abundance of light and interconnected classrooms, administration facilities, and hands-on laboratories while exposing and expressing the building’s many parts and details. The building itself is a celebration of building and the building trades, connections, and materials being taught within.

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The 26,080-square foot facility that CITC leased was an antiquated tilt-up concrete and heavy timber manufacturing building that did not meet the City of Marysville land use, building, energy, life-safety, fire, plumbing or mechanical codes required for a vocational school. Design work required completely re-planning the facility for new parking, landscaping, exterior student lounges, administrative offices, classrooms and board room, four large high-bay training laboratories, toilets and bathrooms, and included new structural, envelope, storefront, interior spaces + finishes, and mechanical, electrical, low-voltage, fire sprinkler + alarm, and lighting systems. A new layout, circulation, and egress was required.

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The overall construction budget for the CITC Marysville campus was very frugal and the project planning, engineering, design and the permitting had to be completed in about four months. Rhodes Architecture + Light rose to the challenge and created a new home for CITC while and branding its non-profit campuses at the same time.

The use of the building in the branding of CITC was emphasized by CITC’s program. Entry steel canopies, the terrazzo tile entry foyer floor, signage, and a punched steel counter at reception all feature and celebrate CITC in their colors and design while drawing attention to the simple materials out of which they are built. Construction details are emphasized and connections, fasteners, and expressed building materials expose apprentices to the beauty of the building and its detail and joints.

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Storefront glass, skylights, and glass overhead “garage” doors introduce natural light into building spaces. Lighting was critical and was developed to accent the building, entries, and the circulation path.