FIU College of Nursing & Health Sciences To Break Ground on New $34 Million Building April 10, 2008
State-of-the-Art Teaching And Research Facility Will Be Gateway
to FIU’s Future Academic Health Sciences Complex
MIAMI, FL --- On April 10, 2008, Florida International University (FIU) will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at University Park Campus in Miami for an extraordinary new teaching and research facility for the College of Nursing & Health Sciences (CNHS).
Slated to open in December 2009, the new $34 Million CNHS building will also become the gateway to the University’s highly anticipated Academic Health Sciences Complex on campus. Friends of the University including South Florida health care, social and civic leaders will join President Modesto Maidique, CNHS Dean Divina Grossman and school administrators, faculty and students as they celebrate this landmark moment.
Grossman remarked on the excitement generated by the prospect of the new building, “The technology and resources that will come with the new building will foster cutting-edge health care standards and practices, support important research discoveries, and set the benchmark for advanced academic studies and instruction in nursing and health sciences.”
CNHS administrators are working closely with the globally recognized architectural firm H.O.K. to create one of the most technologically advanced and innovative health care teaching facilities in the region. “We are creating a highly productive and attractive space that provides an exceptional level of interdisciplinary teaching, research and learning opportunities,” explained Yann Weymouth, lead architect on the project for H.O.K. The five-floor structure will encompass just over 100,000 square feet of space housing state-of-the-art interactive skills laboratories, extensive computer suites, specialized training, evaluation and study areas, and ample lecture classrooms. The facility will serve all seven departments of the CNHS: Nursing, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Communication Science & Disorders, Health Information Management, Athletic Training, and Health Sciences.
Grossman continued, “The new building represents this University’s commitment to produce highly skilled, culturally competent health care professionals who will serve our communities. We welcome the continued support from the community, private enterprise and government as we translate this vision into concrete reality.”
Building's Simulation and Rehab Centers At Core of Advanced Education
The educational core of the new CNHS will be the Simulation Center and the Rehabilitation Center. The Centers comprise of special labs, technology, and real-life care settings (e.g. hospital stations, exam rooms, residential venues) that can be used individually or together in a variety of combinations to accommodate instruction. The underlying concept is to create functionally flexible laboratories that promote interdisciplinary collaboration. “The Simulation and Rehabilitation Centers will allow students across the spectrum of health care disciplines to learn under different real-life, real-time scenarios, from emergency/trauma response to at-home rehabilitation care,” explained Grossman.
Other highlights of the new CNHS building include:
- 15 teaching, research and training labs dedicated to a variety of nursing and health sciences curriculum components
- A 300-seat auditorium for large classes and events
- One 90-person and two 60-person distance learning classrooms
- Six conference/seminar rooms
- Dedicated group and individual student study areas
- Modular design features to facilitate flexibility and accommodate user requirements over the full life span of the building
- Wet research space with flexible generic spaces to allow a wide variety of bench research to be performed
- Environmentally sustainable design elements throughout
- Aesthetic elements with a presence and character that promotes a vision of health and wellness
- “Disaster-resistant” design for hurricane and flood mitigation with backup power for critical systems
New Building Serves As Gateway to Impressive On-Campus Health District
The new CNHS building design encompasses two distinct structures (teaching facilities in one structure, administration in the other) connected by upper-level walkways, effectively creating a gateway that will straddle the proposed Avenue of the Sciences. This will lead to the University’s future Academic Health Sciences Complex emerging on the northeast corner of University Park Campus.
On the southwest side will be the existing Chemistry & Physics Building, and Health & Life Sciences Buildings I & II, the current home of CNHS that will eventually house the University’s new Medical School. On the northeast side will be the Academic Health Sciences Complex – which will host the new Miami-Dade headquarters of the Florida Department of Health opening in 2010, featuring a new clinic and labs where FIU faculty and students will work along side Department of Health practitioners, doctors and researchers.
The groundbreaking ceremony will take place at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 10 at University Park Campus (11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL) -- on the northeast corner of the campus, adjacent to Health & Life Sciences Building II.
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