Central Washington University North Academic Complex — Ellensburg

Central Washington University’s newest building runs on the ground beneath it. The North Academic Complex, an $80 million, four-story structure in Ellensburg, is topping out on schedule for a fall 2026 opening, and it does two notable things at once: it’s built largely from mass timber, and it’s heated and cooled by an aquifer-fed geothermal plant rather than fossil fuel.

Project Scope

Garco Construction is delivering the 104,262-square-foot complex, which centers on a four-story atrium wrapped in floor-to-ceiling cross-laminated timber wall panels, with glulam beams and a CLT roof deck overhead. The building holds a 245-seat lecture hall, classrooms and administrative offices. The CLT comes from local tribal nations through Yakama Forest Products, keeping the supply chain regional. Across the street sits GeoEco, a single-story geothermal utility plant that runs an open-loop, ground-source heat pump system drawing from the Ellensburg Aquifer, extracting and reinjecting groundwater to move heat in and out of the building.

Why It Matters

Universities have become the proving ground for mass timber in the U.S., and CWU’s project shows why: exposed CLT and glulam give an academic building warmth and a lower embodied-carbon profile than concrete or steel, while the structural system goes up fast. Pairing that with aquifer geothermal instead of a gas plant pushes the building toward all-electric operation without leaning on combustion. The regional CLT sourcing matters too, tying a public building to Washington’s own forest-products economy. For campus planners weighing decarbonization mandates, this is a working example rather than a rendering.

Project Team & Details