This new construction project included the removal of an aged building, in a very tightly sited campus, to make way for a multi-phase 5+ story College Research Facility.
Phase I included the removals of the existing building, and the design of the structure and shell of the Basement, First and Second Floor.
Phase II was the design of a 14,000 sf Simulation Center. This new simulation center provides medical students and staff an opportunity to interact with actors posing as patients in simulated exam rooms, to perform surgery on anatomically accurate robotics in simulated procedure rooms, and the use of training laboratories. The faculty can observe, interact, record and review all that occurs through one way glass into adjacent control rooms or remotely from other control facilities and faculty workrooms through video and audio monitoring. This ‘real world’ simulation serves as a vital teaching tool for the medical students as they prepare to face their professional careers. This Simulation Center provides for unlimited teaching and training scenarios to be played out under the careful eye of college faculty ranging from typical examinations to large scale disaster simulation.
After working with the college through careful programming and future development strategies, we were tasked to create a multi-purpose facility that could be built as a single project or be phased into multiple projects by floor or function with the potential to expand vertically as required. The final recommendation was to undertake each project separately so they could be released as funding became available. This was determined to be in the college’s best interest and the college accepted the recommendation and authorized ENVISION to proceed with the set of projects.
The project phasing and scheduling represented a unique and complex challenge, requiring close co-ordination and understanding of the work, the existing facilities, and the future expansion requirements of the project. See also: NIH-Grant Research Laboratories for the subsequent phase.
Photographed by Liz Lajeunesse Photography