Opened for the 2015-16 academic year, the University of Washington-Tacoma (UW Tacoma) completed its reconstruction and renovation of the 120-year-old McDonald-Smith Building located in the Union Station Historic District. Meeting the historic aesthetic and modern performance needs, Mission Glass installed more than 116 of Wausau Window and Wall Systems’ 4250i-XLT Invent Retro Series simulated double-hung, arched top, fixed windows.
Established in 1990, UW Tacoma provides an 18:1 faculty-student ratio for a total enrollment of 4,629 first-year to graduate students. The 46-acre campus consists of 21 buildings with a total of 627,664 square feet of active space. Much of the space is nestled in converted landmark structures built in the late 1880s through the early 1930s at the western terminus for the transcontinental railroad system. Today, many of these structures are overseen by the Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission to ensure renovations meet with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings.
The historic, four-story McDonald Smith building was built in 1892 for E.A. McDonald and F.C. Smith who were in the wholesale hay, grain and feed business that flourished along Pacific Avenue at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th centuries. Like several of its neighbors in Tacoma’s Union Station Historic District, the Younglove Grocery Company later acquired the building for its operations. Most recently, the building had been converted into mixed-use artists’ housing and retail spaces.
In 2006, UW Tacoma purchased the McDonald-Smith property. In 2014, it was one of two remaining landmark buildings on the campus awaiting renovation. As part of an $11 million renovation project the university has modified the existing historic building for additional office and meeting spaces to support the continued campus growth. Connection to the adjacent, renovated Cherry Parkes building integrates the space within the Tacoma campus.