A New ‘Front Door’ Opens at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park
Date Posted: August 22, 2019
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Students, professors and drivers on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) will get a new first impression of St. Louis Community College at Forest Park as the Center for Nursing and Health Sciences building opens Friday.
Chancellor Jeff Pittman has said the $39 million project is more than a new building, but a modern entry way and “front door” to the campus that opened in 1966 on Oakland Avenue. It also addresses the urgent needs of the community, with a burgeoning demand for health care professionals as the population ages.
The four-story, 96,000-square-foot building was intended to modernize the school’s medical training facilities and attract more students to health care professions, college officials said. The project was funded primarily with money from a bond issue, with KAI Design & Build and Tarlton Corporation handling design and construction.
About 900 students are enrolled in the school’s health sciences programs, including about 400 studying for associate’s degrees in nursing.
The new building replaces two towers, labeled A and B, built in the 1960s. New construction was less expensive than updating those buildings and removing asbestos, school officials said. Towers A and B will be torn down in 2020 to add green space to the campus.
Inside the building, multi-colored lockers line the hallways. Large windows allow for abundant natural light and sweeping views of Forest Park and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Some areas mimic a hospital — with MRI machines, an intensive care unit and operating rooms. Everything is designed to simulate what students will encounter in their careers. One group of rooms is set up to look like an apartment, complete with a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. The pseudo apartment will be used by paramedics-in-training to simulate rescue scenarios. Future medics also have use of a mock ambulance to practice transporting patients.