The following is a condensed transcript of a panel discussion that took place at Tradeline’s Academic Medical and Health Science Centers 2013 Conference. The panelists are Ian McDermott, senior director of MedRIST, University Health Network, and Scott Kelsey, managing principal at CO Architects. The moderator is Derek Westfall, president of Tradeline.
Community colleges are fulfilling an increasingly important roll in higher education, particularly in allied health fields, and as a result are focusing on modern facilities and equipment to provide hands-on training. Elgin Community College (ECC) in Illinois recently opened a new, state-of-the-art Health & Life Sciences building, which is helping the college achieve its goals of remaining competitive and expanding program offerings.
Panola College is planning to build a 64,000-sf facility to house the departments of Science and Health Science in Carthage, Texas. Designed by Corgan Associates, the $35 million facility will provide teaching labs for biology, chemistry, microbiology, physical science, anatomy, physiology, nursing, and occupational therapy. The Science-Health Science Building will also house classrooms, lecture halls, offices, computer labs, an instrumentation room, and study suites. The project contractor is HUNT Construction.
Trident Technical College will open a 90,000-sf science and nursing building in January of 2014 in North Charleston, S.C. The $30 million facility will feature a 291-seat tiered lecture hall that can be divided into smaller instructional spaces, as well as teaching labs, classrooms, a clinical simulation suite, and a nursing resource center. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the building. The project team included design architect LS3P Associates and general contractor China Construction America.
University Hospital of Northern B.C. broke ground in December of 2013 on the Northern Health Learning and Development Centre in Prince George. Developed in partnership with the Province of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of British Columbia, the $10 million project will provide a clinical simulation center, seminar rooms, a library, and video conferencing suites for advanced medical instruction and training.
Dalhousie University will begin building a $35 million collaborative health education building in Halifax in March of 2014. The five-story, 106,000-sf facility will provide active-learning classrooms, a clinical skills simulation suite, seminar rooms, and a learning commons. The project team includes Barrie & Langille Architects of Halifax, Moriyama & Teshima Architects of Toronto, and MHPM Project Managers. The flexible facility was designed to accommodate multiple uses and encourage interaction and collaboration.
