Everett Community College’s $38M Baker Hall Replacement Just Got Smaller — Here’s What Got Cut and Why It Still Opens in 2028

Q: What happened to Everett Community College’s Baker Hall replacement project?

A: EvCC paused the long-planned $37.9 million Baker Hall rebuild and trimmed roughly 10,000 square feet from the original 32,000-square-foot design after construction-cost increases pushed the project over budget. The new building still includes a cosmetology wing with a working salon and a 250-seat theater, with McGranahan PBK as architect, Cornerstone Construction as contractor, and a target opening of winter quarter 2028.

We’re going to write about a building that didn’t break ground this spring — because the story of why it didn’t, and what got changed before the next attempt, is more useful than we’d usually expect from a delayed campus project.

Everett Community College’s Baker Hall replacement has been on the drawing board for years. It’s the building that’s supposed to give the cosmetology program a real home, fold the school’s theater program into a properly sized stage, and finally pull a building from 1962 — one that hasn’t seen students in roughly two years — out of EvCC’s footprint. The $37.9 million capital allocation has been on the books since the 2023–25 state budget cycle. The architect, McGranahan PBK, was selected back in February 2025. Cornerstone Construction came on as contractor in May 2025.

And then construction-cost reality showed up.

What Just Changed

EvCC pushed back the Baker Hall rebuild and shrank the planned new building by about 10,000 square feet, citing rising construction costs. The original design was 32,000 square feet. Roughly a third of that is gone in the revised version.

What didn’t get cut: the core program elements. The new Baker Hall still has the dedicated cosmetology wing — including a working salon, classrooms, meeting spaces, and offices for the cosmetology department — and it still includes a 250-seat theater with dressing rooms, a set-construction shop, costume storage, and additional classroom space. The bones of the program survive.

What got cut, in plain terms, is the slack. The square footage that allowed flex space, larger circulation, room to grow programs into the building — that’s the part that gave way to the budget math.

The 2028 Target Is Still On

Even with the redesign, EvCC is aiming for a winter quarter 2028 opening. That’s the operational target the school is working toward right now. Demolition of the existing 1962 Baker Hall has been delayed to align with the revised construction window, but the timeline to having students in the new space hasn’t slipped beyond winter 2028.

A 2028 opening from a 2026 redesign is a real schedule. Construction documents have to be revised, permits have to refresh, and Cornerstone has to rebid the trade packages with the new scope. Every one of those steps takes weeks or months. The fact that the target hasn’t moved suggests EvCC and the design-build team are treating the cuts as additive — make the building smaller, keep everything else moving — rather than reopening the design from zero.

Why This Matters Beyond EvCC

Three reasons this story matters even if you’re not enrolled in cosmetology or trying out for a play.

First, it’s the construction-cost story you can actually see. Everett has a lot of large public projects in motion right now — the Edgewater Bridge ($34M, just opened), the West Marine View Drive pipeline ($113M, approved April 2), the Broadway pedestrian bridge ($3.1M for design, future construction vote separate), the downtown stadium ($10.6M for design, $120M total). Most of those projects’ cost numbers have only one direction they’re moving. Baker Hall is the same pressure showing up at a single, well-defined building you can drive past.

Second, the cosmetology program is one of EvCC’s most direct workforce connections. The school’s cosmetology students earn the cosmetology, esthetics, and barbering hours required for state licensure. Snohomish County’s salon and beauty industry hires from those programs directly. A delayed building doesn’t pause licensure — students continue in the existing program space — but it does delay the full-scale, properly equipped salon environment the program has been planning for.

Third, the 250-seat theater fills a gap downtown can feel. The Historic Everett Theatre, the Schack Art Center’s gallery space, and Tony V’s Garage all carry different parts of Everett’s performance ecosystem. A 250-seat campus theater isn’t a competitor to any of them — it’s a teaching venue with sufficient capacity to host community-facing student productions and small touring acts. EvCC’s theater program has been working in compromised spaces for years.

The Architect and the Contractor

McGranahan PBK was selected as the project architect in February 2025. The firm — known for educational and civic work across the Pacific Northwest — has experience designing buildings that combine vocational program space with performance venues, which is exactly what Baker Hall asks for.

Cornerstone Construction joined as contractor in May 2025. Cornerstone has done multiple state-funded community college projects in Washington and is comfortable working under the procurement and reporting requirements that come with state capital dollars.

Both firms are still on the project under the revised scope. EvCC didn’t restart the procurement; it asked the existing team to revise the design to fit the budget envelope.

The Money Trail

The $37.9 million construction allocation comes from the state’s 2023–25 capital budget cycle, channeled through the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. That’s the standard funding path for community college capital projects in Washington — the legislature appropriates the money, the SBCTC tracks the spend, and the individual college runs the project.

The fact that the cost increases pushed the project to a redesign rather than a request for additional state funding tells you something about where the legislature is on supplementary capital appropriations right now. EvCC made the call to descope rather than ask for more — at least for this round.

If construction costs continue to climb between now and the next bid window, that math may revisit itself. For now, the project is sized to fit what’s actually in the bank.

What Happens Between Now and 2028

Here’s the practical sequence to watch.

Mid-to-late 2026: Revised construction documents wrap, with the smaller building footprint and the locked-in program elements. Cornerstone re-engages the trade subcontractors to rebid the work at the new scope. Permitting through the City of Everett refreshes for the revised plans.

Late 2026 or early 2027: Demolition of the existing 1962 Baker Hall, which has been sitting unused for about two years already. This is the most visible moment of the project — the old building comes down, the site clears, foundations start.

2027: Active construction on the new building. This is the stretch where the cost-control discipline applied in the redesign either holds or doesn’t. Watch for change orders.

Winter quarter 2028 (early January through mid-March 2028): Target opening to students. Cosmetology classes move into the new salon space. The theater program books its first student production in the new house.

That’s the plan as it stands today.

What This Doesn’t Solve

Two things the redesign doesn’t fix.

It doesn’t add classroom capacity to the broader campus. The original 32,000 square feet would have given EvCC a meaningful chunk of net new instructional space across multiple programs. The trimmed version brings the cosmetology program and the theater program into modern facilities but doesn’t relieve the pressure on the rest of the campus the way the original scope would have. EvCC’s enrollment recovery from the pandemic has been steady — students need space.

It doesn’t accelerate the 1962 building’s demolition. Old Baker Hall sits, empty, on prime east-of-Broadway campus real estate. Until demolition starts, that footprint is just waiting. The redesign keeps demolition on the same general timeline rather than pulling it forward.

Both of those are conversations for the next state capital budget cycle, when EvCC will have data from the revised build to inform the next ask.

The Bigger Everett Picture

The Baker Hall delay is a single project on a single campus, but it lands in a pattern. Across Everett, large public projects are running into the same pressure: design starts at one number, construction comes in higher, the response is either find more money or descope. The Edgewater Bridge held its number through completion. The downtown stadium has been wrestling with its $120M total versus the available funding. The Broadway pedestrian bridge hasn’t gotten to construction bidding yet but the design contract alone is $3.1M.

What EvCC chose to do with Baker Hall — pause, descope, keep the team, hold the timeline — is one of the more disciplined responses to construction-cost pressure we’ve watched a public project in Snohomish County execute. It’s worth noting because the temptation when a budget breaks is to either ask for more or kill the project. EvCC did neither. The smaller Baker Hall still gets built. The cosmetology students still get a salon. The theater program still gets a 250-seat house.

That’s not nothing. It’s a building, smaller than originally planned, on its original timeline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When will Everett Community College’s new Baker Hall open?

A: EvCC is targeting winter quarter 2028 — early January through mid-March 2028 — for the new Baker Hall to open to students.

Q: How much was cut from the Baker Hall replacement design?

A: Approximately 10,000 square feet was removed from the original 32,000-square-foot design after construction costs rose, leaving a smaller building that still contains the planned cosmetology wing and 250-seat theater.

Q: How much does the EvCC Baker Hall replacement cost?

A: The project carries about $37.9 million in construction funding from Washington’s 2023–25 state capital budget, channeled through the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

Q: Who is the architect for EvCC’s Baker Hall?

A: McGranahan PBK was selected as the project architect in February 2025 and remains on the project under the revised scope.

Q: Who is the contractor for the Baker Hall replacement?

A: Cornerstone Construction was selected as the contractor in May 2025 and continues with the project after the redesign.

Q: What programs will the new Baker Hall house?

A: A dedicated cosmetology wing — including a working salon, classrooms, meeting spaces, and offices — plus a 250-seat theater with dressing rooms, a set-construction shop, costume storage, and additional classroom space.

Q: Why did EvCC delay the Baker Hall project?

A: Rising construction costs across the Pacific Northwest pushed the project over its $37.9 million budget. EvCC chose to pause and redesign rather than request additional state funding, descoping the building by about 10,000 square feet to fit the existing allocation.

Q: When will the existing 1962 Baker Hall be demolished?

A: Demolition has been delayed to align with the revised construction window. Current sequencing puts demolition in late 2026 or early 2027, ahead of new construction running through 2027 and into early 2028.