At roughly 36,000 gsf (4,026 m2), the Rix Centre is a “boutique” building designed with three key guiding characteristics: reflecting and respecting its setting in the northern environment; providing social space to foster a sense of community, with special sensitivity to student needs; and using leading-edge technology to distribute high-caliber medical training in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC).

“Urban-based medical schools have not done very well at developing rural physicians,” observes David Snadden, M.D., vice provost of medicine at UNBC and associate dean of the Northern Medical Program at UBC.

Public clamor to reverse this trend generated a fresh approach to the challenges of recruitment and retention: bringing education to the doorstep of candidates already familiar with the special setting.

“This is the first initiative in North America to distribute the whole four years of medical training,” Snadden continues. “We are very much at the forefront of educating medical professionals in a different way.”

Atrium Equals Interaction

Groundbreaking for the $15-million (Canadian) Rix Centre occurred in July 2003, and the first class of 24 students arrived in January 2005. Entering the building’s soaring, light-filled atrium quickly takes the chill off the harsh outdoors, where winter temperatures can plummet to minus 30 degrees F.

Two wings, one clad in stone and the other in wood, flank the central gathering space, their natural materials echoing the outside environment.

“Glass and wood and light are such important parts of the structure,” Snadden emphasizes, adding, “the atrium is the heart and soul of our building. We use it for scientific meetings, fundraising, ceremonies, and other special events, and relaxing in the midst of a very intense professional program.”

Drawn by comfortable furnishings, an abundance of data ports, and south-facing windows that catch the winter sun, students regularly congregate in the area, interacting among themselves and with researchers and other occupants passing by. Snadden, who himself arrived on campus just before construction, is grateful the space was retained during the early design cost-cutting.

“It is one of these interesting areas that could have been eliminated, but it is a key feature in making our building work,” he says.

High-Tech Distributed Education

Several different kinds of learning spaces accommodate the medical school’s formal program. Two large classrooms, with seating for 50 and 75 people respectively, are equipped with state-of-the-art video technology for lectures distributed (either sent or received) among UBC, UNBC, and the University of Victoria campuses.

Push-to-talk microphones make the classrooms interactive across all three sites. When a student in the Rix Centre presses a button, the mic goes live and a camera zooms in on that area, signaling the instructor that there is a question. Installed on the desktop at the rate of one for every two students, the mics give small groups the opportunity to discuss and pinpoint exactly what they don’t understand, producing sharply focused, better questions.

This configuration is far more convenient than the sprinkling of standing floor mics typical in larger lecture halls, where students have to leave their seats in order to ask a question, Snadden points out. The drawback is that it is significantly more costly.

“It is the connecting bit that makes it so expensive, but in our smaller classrooms the scheme is more feasible—and it is fabulous,” he remarks.

A full-time staff of four technicians ensures system reliability (the school has logged only three minutes of downtime in two years), but the real secret behind its success lies in the initial collaborative effort. Many institutions have experienced problems with their video technology, Snadden notes, often because the systems were designed and deployed individually and thus do not readily communicate with each other. In contrast, an independent coordinator designed and integrated the entire medical school network to make sure it would function across all three campuses.

Despite the system’s excellent performance record, Snadden voices some concern about the lecture format as an ideal learning environment.

“Although it is an efficient method of delivering education, it may not be a very effective method. The fixed furnishings make these spaces constraining rather than creative. Is there a different flexible model we haven’t invented yet that will help people learn better?” he wonders.

One possible solution he proposes may be the academic space in the nearby hospital, which has video conferencing for approximately 20 people.

“Instead of fixed benches, we have tables and chairs on wheels, so the room can easily be reconfigured. Our faculty really like teaching there because they have flexibility in the way they work with students. As we design buildings for the next 20 to 25 years, we need to think about having the right classrooms for the future,” he relates.

Small Group Training

A more “hands-on” type of teaching takes place at the small group level. Eight problem-based learning (PBL) rooms, also on the first floor, accommodate groups of eight students and a facilitator in pleasant, light-filled spaces equipped with a computer workstation, whiteboards, and other classroom tools. One of the rooms includes an array of clinical skills instruments; all are flexible enough to be used for patient care demonstrations or meetings.

“This is the core of our learning, so the PBLs are the most important rooms that we have,” Snadden comments. “Students can access them 24 hours a day all through the week.”

Another room with round-the-clock access is the multipurpose lab right off the atrium. Its popularity among students is testimony to its true multifunctional capability. Housing histology and neuro-anatomy classes, it also doubles as a computer lab, where students go to conduct Internet research and answer their email. Because of its multiple uses, it is constantly occupied, Snadden observes.

A Cascade of Inconveniences

One area that is not nearly as successful is the basement anatomy lab. Fully equipped for video-conference sessions from any of the three anatomy labs in the province, the room has a major shortcoming: a building mistake left one wall four inches narrower than specified. The decision not to remedy the error because of cost considerations (piping had already been installed in the wall) triggered a cascade of inconveniences.

The original design allowed just one person to remove cadavers from the dissection table, put them on a trolley, and roll them into the refrigeration unit, Snadden explains. The narrower wall wasn’t big enough for the refrigerator, forcing it to be moved perpendicular to its intended location. Unfortunately, that’s a very awkward fit for the trolley.

Further cost-cutting led to additional size incompatibilities between the tables and  trolleys and the refrigeration, all purchased from different manufacturers in the search for economy. In addition, when the dissection tables were delivered they didn’t align with the downdraft vents.

“This one very small decision has had major ramifications,” Snadden counsels. “This lab doesn’t work as well as it could. One person cannot move a cadaver around; instead it takes three. That has caused us grief and pain and will do so forevermore. Be very wary with anatomy labs. They are really difficult to get right.”

Two other mishaps in the course of construction serve as cautionary tales. First, the University decided to scale down the quality of the ventilation fans specified by the architect for summer cooling in the atrium. The much less expensive units were far too noisy for comfort. The solution entailed building boxes around the fans in the rafters, basically muffling the sound.

Also unanticipated was the plumbing malfunction that occurred after all the high-tech video screens were mounted. The first time a toilet was flushed upstairs, water leaked down through the pot lights and landed on the plasma screens.

“Here’s another lesson: test the plumbing first to make sure everything works properly,” Snadden warns.

Other Spaces

Also in the basement are a small vivarium and a computer lab. The animal facility, while small and basic, is “very advanced” in terms of accommodation and husbandry. With an air lock at its entrance, the suite includes a holding room, procedure room, and feed storage, along with a waste baler and space for technicians.

Initially, the computer lab was furnished with “puddle tables,” round tables with inset edges and seating for four, but students didn’t use them. Instead, students redesigned the lab as a series of booths, and then they engaged in fund-raising to provide some comfortable leather arm chairs.

“The original university design didn’t have a place where the students could stow their books and papers,” he points out. “This is another lesson—they need space where they can spread out.”

The second floor of the building houses an eight-bench, open research lab with hotel-style occupancy, dry labs and offices, and a series of project rooms for graduate students.

Also noteworthy is the loft-like flying bridge just outside the research lab. In addition to serving as another chance meeting area, the space showcases medical artifacts donated by the family of the first surgeon in Prince George, after whom the meeting area is named, underlining the connection to the region’s physician community.

It is also very inviting to students and scientists alike.

“This is where they hang out and talk and generate their ideas. The lab isn’t where the researchers do their most creative work. That happens in places like this, which is why they have become so critical in the effectiveness of a building,” Snadden says.

By Nicole Zaro Stahl