The WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus, (formerly the Riverpoint Campus, and originally, the Riverpoint Higher Education Park) is an urban , multi-institutional higher education campus in Spokane, Washington. The campus was established in 1990 by the Joint Center for Higher Education (JCHE) and has been owned and operated by Washington State University since 1998. It is located within Spokane's University District just east of Downtown Spokane, along the southern bank of the Spokane River across from Gonzaga University.
Through intensive growth over the last 20 years, Washington State University Spokane has become the primary occupant of the now-eponymously named campus. However, the campus, which was originally developed as the Riverpoint Higher Education Park in the early 1990s by the state-created Joint Center for Higher Education (JCHE), has been shared between a number of institutions over the years, primarily, Washington State University Spokane and Eastern Washington University Spokane.
History
The site of the campus is a former brownfield site that was once occupied by rail lines and a waste incubator.
On April 23, 1988, Washington State Governor Booth Gardner signed an appropriation that allocated $800,000 for purchasing land east of Downtown Spokane for the eventual development of a higher education campus. That land would be acquired two years in 1990, officially establishing the campus. Its first building, for the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI), would open on October 21, 1994.
In 1998, the Washington State Legislature passed a bill, signed into law by then-Washington State Governor Gary Locke on April 3, 1998, that transferred full management responsibilities of the Riverpoint Higher Education Park to Washington State University.
In 2015, in an effort to improve the branding of the WSU Spokane campus and its designation as that university's health sciences campus, the decision was made to phase out the Riverpoint Campus name. Other institutions that share the campus with WSU Spokane, including Eastern Washington University and Whitworth University, also followed suit. Moving forward, all the institutions who call the campus home would be referred to by their institutional and program names only.
Location
The WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus sits within Spokane's University District between Gonzaga University and the South University District. The campus is generally bounded by the Spokane River to the north and east, Martin Luther King Jr Way and the BNSF Railway tracks to the south, and Pine Street to the west. Privately owned development dots the perimeter of the campus, as well as exists within the campus, making these boundaries approximate. Major roadways that run through the campus include Spokane Falls Boulevard and Riverpoint Boulevard.
Gonzaga University is located across the Spokane River and is connected to the campus by two bridges. The pedestrian and bicycle-only Don Kardong Bridge, which is located toward the WSU Health Science campus' northeastern corner carries Spokane River Centennial Trail over the river toward Gonzaga, entering that campus next to the building that houses that university's law school. The Centennial Trail also runs along and can be accessed by points along the WSU Health Sciences campus' northern border. A second bridge along the Health Sciences campus' eastern border carries pedestrian and automobile traffic along Spokane Falls Boulevard to the southern border of Gonzaga, near its baseball stadium, the Washington Trust Field and Patterson Baseball Complex.
The South University District area can be accessed by the University District Gateway Bridge, which carries pedestrians and bicyclists across Martin Luther King Jr Way and the BNSF railway tracks along the south edge of the campus.
Buildings
Buildings on the WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus. Many were newly constructed for educational purposes, but several other buildings were acquired or leased over the years. They include: