Three generations of Raechel Dawson's family have walked the same 100-acre campus on Landerholm Circle.
Her late great-grandfather, Willard Geer, was Bellevue College's first physics teacher. Both her parents and her sister enrolled there. Dawson herself started her career at the school as a reporter before becoming its associate director of communications.
"You can have a strong connection to your institution (when you're a student), but I think when you're an adult, you often look back and realize what a special time you had," Dawson told 425 Magazine in a feature published Tuesday, July 22.
That kind of multi-generational pull is what Bellevue College is celebrating as it turns 60 this year.
For Eastside families weighing a lower-cost start to a degree, the college charged $4,436 in annual in-state tuition and fees for the 2023-24 school year, according to U.S. News data. Its undergraduate enrollment stood at 11,472 that year.
Council creates new zoning district
On Friday, July 17, the Bellevue City Council voted unanimously to create a new "institutional" land use district for the college.
The zoning change aligns the campus with the city's Comprehensive Plan and sets rules requiring future development to transition appropriately to nearby neighborhoods, according to the city's council roundup.
Community members can track the land use code amendment process and provide input online.
A $54 million arts hub
The biggest physical change ahead is the W Building, a 56,618-square-foot arts hub that broke ground in spring 2025.
The $54 million project, designed by Seattle firm Mithun and built by Comer General Contractors, will house workshops for woodworking, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics plus a makerspace. The college targets a winter 2027 opening, according to its capital projects page. The project is pursuing LEED Silver certification.
How it started
The college opened in January 1966 inside Newport High School with about 500 students attending night classes while a permanent campus was built. Legislation signed by Gov. Dan Evans in spring 1965 authorized only one community college for the Eastside, and Bellevue secured the site after local reporters Chuck Morgan and Neil McReynolds helped broker the arrangement, according to the 425 Magazine feature.
The first $6 million construction phase began in December 1967. By fall 1969, students moved into the permanent building. By 1975, the campus had added the Carlson Theatre, the Willard Geer Planetarium, a gymnasium, a welding classroom, and an athletic track.
A family tradition
Thomas Lee, an instructor and senior operations specialist at BC, is a second-generation student whose family attended before him. He told 425 Magazine the college was founded as "an educational and workforce opportunity for the immediate Eastside" and that the mission still holds.
The Willard Geer Planetarium, named after Dawson's great-grandfather following his death in August 1975, has been upgraded with a 4K projector as part of the anniversary year.
Lee said BC continues to adapt: "We listen pretty well to what our community needs, and we try to anticipate (where) our community is going."
