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The University District, also referred as the U-District or Spokane University District, is a area,
tax increment financing Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in many countries, including the United States. The original intent of a TIF program i ...
, and innovation
district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
in
Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...
,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
. It is located just east of its
Downtown Spokane Downtown Spokane or Riverside is the central business district of Spokane, Washington. The Riverside neighborhood is roughly bounded by I-90 to the south, Division Street to the east, Monroe Street to the west and Boone Avenue to the north. The ...
in the East Central and
Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gove ...
neighborhoods, and is home to a number of
higher education institution Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational school ...
s and their surrounding neighborhoods. The district is approximately bounded by Sharp Avenue to the north, the
Spokane River The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city o ...
and the SR-290 spur to the east,
Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...
to the south, and the Division Street and Ruby/Browne Street couplet to the west. The district is primarily home to
Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...
, Washington State University's Health Sciences Spokane campus, and the Spokane campus of
Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington, United States. It shares its satellite campus in Spokane, Washington with Washington State University. Founded in 1882, the university is academically divided in ...
. Other institutions, such as the Community Colleges of Spokane,
Whitworth University Whitworth University is a private Christian university that is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located in Spokane, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, Whitworth enrolls nearly 2,600 students and offers more than 100 gradua ...
, and the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
also have branch operations in the University District.


History

What is now the southern half of the University District, south of the river, was initially developed in the 1890s and 1910s as a commercial district and rail yard. The area was home to numerous warehouses for department and grocery stores such as Sears and Roebuck and Safeway. The historic Schade Brewery was constructed in the area in 1903 and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. The Great Northern,
Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States from 1847 ...
and Great Northern railroads passed through the area until the 1970s, when most of the railroads in the city center were torn out ahead of Expo 74. Higher education came to the area in the early 1990s, after a mandate from the state that Washington State University establish a branch campus in Spokane. In 1992, a blueprint for what would be known as the Riverpoint Campus was published, with plans for five to seven buildings that would house the Spokane campuses of Eastern Washington University and Washington State University. The first building to open was the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) at 665 N. Riverpoint Blvd in 1994. Starting in the 1990s and continuing into the first decades of the 21st century, the campus expanded with new construction and the renovation of old buildings. This growth took place around the Riverpoint area, roughly between the Spokane River to the north and east and the
BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...
railroad about three blocks to the south. Expansion south of the railroad tracks was planned starting in early 2014, when the city established the University District Redevelopment Implementation Strategy. A pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the railroad tracks was completed in 2019, connecting the WSU and EWU campuses with the intersection of Sherman Street and Sprague Avenue. Development around the southern landing of the bridge has taken place in the years since the bridge was opened. North of the river, the University District has been home to higher education since the 1880s. Gonzaga University was established as Gonzaga College in 1887. The St. Aloysius church was dedicated in 1911, and Gonzaga's law school was opened a year later in 1912. That same year, the Washington state legislature granted Gonzaga official "university" status. The school began allowing women in 1948. The university has undergone significant expansion and growth since 1999, when the men's basketball team broke onto the national scene with a run to the Elite Eight of the 1999 NCAA tournament. Though now also referred to as a local area in Spokane, the University District was created as a 770-acre tax-increment financing district to promote and support land, economic, and educational development at the universities that lie within the district and the areas that surround them.


Areas

The University District spans across parts of four Spokane neighborhoods Riverside, East Central,
Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gove ...
, and Emerson/Garfield and comprises three main areas.


Gonzaga University

The northern portion of the University District is home to
Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...
. Gonzaga is a private,
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
institution with a 152-acre campus and 7,295 students (4,852 underclassmen) as of 2021. Gonzaga offers 16 undergraduate degrees across 49 majors, 24 master's degrees and 5 doctoral degrees. Its athletic teams compete at the
NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...
level in the
West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
. The Desmet Avenue Warehouse Historic District, a U.S. historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located on the western edge of Gonzaga's campus.
University of Washington School of Medicine The University of Washington School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Washington, a public research university in Seattle, Washington. According to ''U.S. News & World Report''s 2022 Best Graduate School rankings, University ...
has a branch with Gonzaga just south of the main campus in the University District.


WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus, formerly Riverpoint Campus

The middle portions of the University District are home to
Washington State University Spokane Washington State University Spokane (WSU Spokane), branded as WSU Health Sciences Spokane, is a campus of Washington State University located in Spokane, Washington. It was established in 1989 and, as of 2010, is designated as the university's ...
,
Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington, United States. It shares its satellite campus in Spokane, Washington with Washington State University. Founded in 1882, the university is academically divided in ...
Spokane, and various other academic institutions. The campus was originally established in 1990 as the Riverpoint Higher Education Park, later renamed the Riverpoint Campus.


South University District

The south portion of the University District is a target development area for academic expansion, housing, and other business incubators. The South University District is situated along Sprague Avenue and is connected to the WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus via the University District Gateway Bridge, a pedestrian and bicycle-only
cable-stayed A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern o ...
suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
that opened in December 2018. The bridge was named through a public contest with 281 submissions, including rejected monikers like "Bridgey McBridgeface" and "Bridge to Hookerville", the latter of which had been banned from city council meetings.


Initiatives


Smart city

The University District is home to a
smart city A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...
initiative named Urbanova, which is the first smart city project of its kind in the State of Washington. The project was launched in 2016 by founding partners
Avista Utilities Avista Corporation is an American energy company which generates and transmits electricity and distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Approximately 1,550 employees provide electricity, natural gas, and othe ...
,
Itron The ITRON project was the first sub-project of the TRON project. It has formulated and defined Industrial TRON (ITRON) specification for an embedded real-time OS (RTOS) kernel. Originally undertaken in 1984, ITRON is a Japanese open standard for ...
,
Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...
, McKinstry, the University District Development Association, and the City of Spokane. Additional partners include
Gallup Gallup may refer to: * Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll * Gallup (surname), a surname *Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States ** Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New ...
and
Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...
. Current projects include smart and connected street lights and a shared energy economy model. The project also has support from Washington State University's Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, based at WSU's main Pullman campus, to develop a framework that can monitor, predict, and control energy usage and air quality, and also record the resulting health impacts, in the University District. The shared energy economy model pilot received a $7 million grant from the Washington Department of Commerce's Clean Energy Fund to study also distributed energy by creating a
microgrid A microgrid is a local electrical grid with defined electrical boundaries, acting as a single and controllable entity. It is able to operate in grid-connected and off-grid modes.
of solar arrays, battery storage, and building energy management systems.


Public Transit

The
Spokane Transit Authority Spokane Transit Authority, more commonly Spokane Transit or STA, is the public transport authority of central Spokane County, Washington, Spokane County, Washington (state), Washington, United States, serving Spokane, Washington, and its surrou ...
, the region's public transportation provider, serves the University District with eight fixed schedule bus lines including the City Line, a bus rapid transit line. Table updated for STA September 2023 service change.


References

{{reflist


External links


University District
Neighborhoods in Spokane, Washington