03

Bellingham, Washington


Viking Circle Apartments (Lark Bellingham)

Residential Project

Viking Circle Apartments, or Lark Bellingham, is a student housing development on a fully fenced, access controlled 15.25-acre site. The $32 million project features 13 buildings: 12 walk-up style, four-story wood framed apartment buildings totaling 249 two and three-bedroom units, and one, three-story clubhouse with amenity spaces. Each of the 649 bedrooms has its own private bathroom. Amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, meditation room, outdoor lounge with fire pits, sand volleyball courts, ping pong tables, club rooms with gaming tables, study lounge, business center, and café. Surrounding the site is a wetland and creek buffer, which required that all work within the buffer was completed within the Department of Fisheries “fish buffer.”

During preconstruction, Dawson collaborated with the owner and architect to find $4 million of savings through value engineering which was reinvested into the project by reviewing material selection and constructability to more economical options, adding an additional building, and changing the building’s footprint to better fit existing site conditions. The results were the facility being completed and opened to students an entire school season earlier than expected.

client: CAV-CORE Bellingham, LLC

architect: GC&A Coursey Architects