This new 119,000 SF facility for a Trident Technical College’s nursing education program provided expanded space for a rapidly growing field of study. From the earliest programming meetings, the faculty reminded the design team that the nursing profession is a combination of art and science, so the program spaces, massing, and materials celebrate the best of each perspective.

The massing of the building unites a rectilinear brick form with an animated curved façade through the use of a three-story element slicing between them. This interceding element also allows a shift in geometry, so that the curved form angles towards the main vehicular approach to the building. A central circular open stair ascending vertically through the building connects all three floors with a vortex of form, color, and light.

The college’s leading-edge curriculum for nursing students includes hands-on training with high fidelity patient simulators. These life-like simulators, which instructors can program to mimic a wide variety of symptoms and responses, offer students the opportunity to experience real-world medical situations in a safe, controlled environment. The new facility included specialized program spaces for this new paradigm of learning, in which the educational areas mirror actual clinical environments. These mock clinical spaces often use full-scale hospital beds, headwalls with patient monitors and medical gases, and integrated technology for observation and feedback; therefore, the design of these spaces required as much expertise in health care as in higher education.

The design also incorporates many strategies for sustainability. Sustainable features include rain water/condensate capture in a 30,000 gallon underground cistern for use in toilet/urinal flushing and irrigation; green roof; solar hot water preheat panels; high efficiency HVAC system; pervious paving; and use of recycled content and regional materials in the construction. The facility is on track to receive LEED® Silver certification from the USGBC.

 

SF: 114,000

RECOGNITIONS: LEED Silver; ASID 1st Place LEED – Chapter Design Excellence Award; AIA South Carolina COTE Merit Award