If you’ve recently been around Shoreline Community College for any duration of time, you have likely noticed that a new building is under construction. It’s been designated building 6400 and named “Bracken” — but why is it called Bracken, and what purpose will it serve?

Let’s start from the beginning. Bracken 6400 only recently underwent the beginning of construction and is planned to finish around a year and a half from now. The primary reason for its construction is to host a variety of nursing, music, and general math classes within its facilities. The old buildings can’t host enough classes for students, and their equipment is, let’s face it, outdated.

As for its unique name, Bracken 6400 isn’t the only building named after a plant, as seen with Cedar 6000 (which opened just last May). There are plans to rename every building to a local flora: the PUB will become Maple Student Union 9000, the dorms will become Alder Residence Hall 7000, and the gym will become Ironwood Gymnasium 3000 to name a few.

According to President Jack Kahn, when he first became president, some of the older buildings had odd names; “Health Science Advanced Manufacturing” was in fact a STEM building while there was another building simply named STEM.

“It was a little bit confusing for me as a new president, and I was worried about the community and the confusion that may come from these odd names,” said Kahn.

Around the same time, Kahn and other SCC representatives were starting to develop a relationship with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. This growing relationship led to a discussion about honoring and valuing the tribe in the college’s building names without confusing the general public, resulting in the decision to name them after local flora. Cedar 6000 is the first of many to be graced by this change in names.