Fred Hutch Cancer Center Account

This month, we’re wrapping up a key phase of Fred Hutch Cancer Center’s Building G renovation.

Designed by NBBJ, this 9,600-square-foot phase includes the installation of SPECT and PET-CT imaging systems, an important step in consolidating the nuclear medicine department and enhancing both operational efficiency and the patient experience.

The scope also includes building out nine PET uptake rooms, restrooms, support spaces, and staff workstations.

One of the biggest technical challenges involved integrating a complex MEP system into tight overhead spaces. This effort required close collaboration between Affiliated Engineers, the MEP designer, and UMC, which led BIM coordination.

Crews worked nights and weekends to minimize disruptions to patient care.

In 1989, Lewis senior superintendent Shane Weller’s grandfather Bill brought him to the Boeing Red Barn at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

The structure, the country’s oldest surviving aircraft factory, held special meaning for the Weller family. It was there that Bill closed out his carpentry career in 1983, working on the barn’s restoration before retiring. And the project’s superintendent was none other than Shane’s father and Bill’s son.

As they walked the two-story structure and its exhibits that day, Bill would stop to show his 18-year-old grandson a detail here and a challenge overcome there.

“Well, what’d you think?” he asked Shane when it was time to go. “Want to be a carpenter?”

“Well, sure!” Shane remembers answering.

That same afternoon, they drove to the Carpenters’ Union Building together, where Shane signed up to become a member. In doing so, he set himself on a path to becoming a third-generation builder. (His uncle was also a carpenter.)

“I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life,” Shane recalls. “It felt like a good thing and it’s turned out to be a great career.”

Shane joined Lewis as a carpenter in 1999, first working on the Seaboard Building renovation project in downtown Seattle before being promoted to foreman. In 2002, he took over as superintendent at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He’s been a fixture there ever since.

While most superintendents tend to move on after projects are complete, Shane has chosen to stay on and support Fred Hutch.

The variety of the work and the mission have kept him coming back.

“I really feel strongly about what I do here,” he said on a recent Thursday morning from a rooftop deck that overlooks Lake Union. “Helping cure cancer—it’s pretty awesome. It’s not just building a building and walking away. In this work, we’re helping people live.”