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Community colleges across the northwest are receiving major upgrades courtesy of their state legislators. Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash., is no exception.

The community college plans to build a 72,000-square-foot health and science building designed by Seattle-based . will serve as general contractor.

School administrators see the building as a stepping stone, according to David Leavengood, owner of Leavengood Architects.

鈥淭he intent is to build elected community colleges into four-year colleges,鈥� Leavengood said. 鈥�(Lower Columbia College officials) are building that infrastructure to accommodate that kind of program.鈥�

鈥�(This is) just going to give them a building of major quality,鈥� he added. 鈥淩ight now, the school’s campus doesn’t have a building of this size and complexity.鈥�

The three-story, $22 million building will contain 24 state-of-the-art science laboratories and classrooms. The new spaces will be a step up from the school’s current outdated and overcrowded buildings, most of which were construction in the early 1960s.

The new building also will feature a large auditorium area, which will be used for school lectures and other community events. Nolan Wheeler, the community college’s vice president, said the hope is that the benefit of the building will extend beyond students and the local community to people living in the lower central Washington area.

It also could potentially benefit the building industry. The building will have three photovoltaic solar panels on its roof. As part of their curriculum, students will monitor the panels to determine which offers the best performance at the most reasonable initial cost.

Leavengood Architects has designed multiple health and science buildings across Washington in the past few years. Similarly, Emerick has taken on 15 community college projects in the past four years, according to company officials.

鈥淚t’s a deliberate intent by the Legislature to build infrastructure on these campuses that exist rather than start new campuses,鈥� Leavengood said. 鈥淚t’s easier to raise the quality of existing campuses than build new ones.鈥�

Construction on the project is set to begin by the end of July and finish by January 2014.