Richland County Facilities Committee forwards Venture Architects for campus assessment; committee votes to proceed

The Richland County Facilities Committee moved on Thursday to forward Venture Architects as the vendor to perform a comprehensive facilities condition assessment and master planning study for county buildings and the former UW Richland campus. Supervisor Manning made the motion and Supervisor Frank seconded; the committee reported a unanimous voice vote in favor.

The decision followed a round of vendor presentations and a closed‑session review of proposals. Venture Architects and its partners proposed a workflow that includes building inventories, condition scoring, stakeholder interviews, sense‑making workshops, and a digital facility dashboard to prioritize capital investments and forecast multi‑year renewal costs. The committee’s action will be forwarded to the full county board for the next step in contract authorization.

Committee leaders said the selection will let staff begin the detailed assessment and public engagement phases. Chair Marty Brewer said the county needs “hard information to be able to make proper decisions” about repair, reuse, sale or demolition of campus buildings. The motion to advance Venture Architects came after the committee discussed licensing and long‑term access to the dashboard tool, phasing implications for major equipment with long lead times, and the interplay of grant incentives and lifecycle cost analysis.

Next procedural steps include finalizing the vendor contract, defining the core stakeholder committee, and setting a schedule for assessments, community workshops and regular updates to the board. The Facilities Committee scheduled a follow‑up meeting for Feb. 20 to review progress and any board‑level action coming out of the selection.