Built for
Bellingham.

This summer, Instinct Builders partnered with Northwest TuneUp, Bradley Engineering, and Bellingham Millwork Supply to build something permanent on Bellingham's waterfront — a timber frame launch structure for the tile tank jump line.

Red Bull is sponsoring a major trick competition at the site, and the structure is built to handle it. But the real motivation behind this project runs deeper than any single event.

More Than a Jump Line

The tile tank jump line is no joke — if you're dropping in, you'd better know what you're doing. But the open platform at the top of the structure tells a different story.

Designed to be open year-round, it's a place to catch a sunset, hang a hammock under the trees, or let the kids play on the swing set tucked underneath. A spot where people can just show up and be present in Bellingham — no bikes required.

That's the version of community infrastructure Instinct Builders cares about. Not just the feature that draws a crowd for one weekend, but the thing that earns its place on the waterfront every single day of the year.

Built Together

Projects like this don't happen without the right collaborators. Northwest TuneUp brought the vision. Bradley Engineering brought the structural expertise. Bellingham Millwork Supply sourced the timber. Instinct Builders tied it all together — framing it out the way it deserved to be built.

Paper Whale is one of those organizations that makes Bellingham what it is. Created with a single purpose: bring art and creativity to the waterfront. The idea landed right at the start of Covid — when the question wasn't just what to build, but what was even possible.

Out of that moment, a few things were born: the Noisy Waters Mural Festival, the Story speaker series, and other community-driven events — all under the Paper Whale umbrella. And Instinct Builders was there from day one.

As one of Paper Whale's founding members, we helped make the first Story event possible, helped bring Noisy Waters to life, and built the murals that went up across the waterfront.

Work You Get to Keep

Most of what Instinct Builders creates belongs to someone else. Custom homes built for clients, spaces handed off and walked away from — that's the nature of the trade, and we take real pride in it. But most of the time, we're building something for somebody else that we don't get to then experience as our own.

Paper Whale flips that. We get to be inside the work. We bring our coworkers, our families, and we stand in something we helped create and feel it the way everyone else does. That's a different kind of reward — and it's one that keeps us coming back.

Watching Bellingham Become More Itself

Beyond the personal, being part of Paper Whale means being part of watching Bellingham grow into something more creative, more alive, and more worth living in. That's the version of community involvement that goes deeper than a logo on a banner — it's showing up, building the thing, and staying to enjoy it alongside everyone else.