<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2AYamT_0vkKsdKX00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2AYamT_0vkKsdKX00" width="1800" height="1200" >A ballyhooed Bronx debut earlier this year marked a major milestone for healthcare education in the NYC area. Marking the completion of Lehman College’s most significant capital project in its history, the new Nursing Education, Research and Practice Center (NERPC) officially opened its doors in February with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. The Lehman College leadership and students, elected officials, representatives of the owner City College of New York (CUNY), project manager the Dormitory Authority of New York (DASNY), Urbahn Architects, and contractor Citnalta Construction led the ceremonies.“The $95 million, 52,000-square foot NERPC houses classrooms, teaching and research laboratories, faculty offices, and support spaces for both undergraduate and graduate programs of the Department of Nursing. Urbahn and the engineering team designed the building and roofing to meet the sustainability and energy efficiency requirements of the New York City Climate Mobilization Act and New York City Local Laws 92 and 94,” remarked Urbahn Architects Principal-in-Charge Natale V. Barranco, AIA, LEED AP. The new facility creates additional instruction and hands-on lab space to meet the growing need for healthcare workers. The Nursing Center will be the foundation for a rapid rise in enrollment to meet that need, especially for underserved communities in The Bronx and Westchester. The new center offers a simulated clinical environment for training students, equipped with:<ul><li>Maternity, Pediatrics, ICU, and Medical Surgery Wards with 22 simulators</li><li>Wet and Dry Research Labs </li><li>Twenty-bed Nursing Skills Lab</li><li>Computer Labs</li><li>HyFlex Classrooms</li><li>Activities of Daily Living Apartment</li><li>Student Lounges and Social Spaces </li></ul>NERPC’s construction and design project team also included healthcare and laboratory design consultant HKS Architects, construction manager TDX Construction Corp., structural engineer LERA Consulting Structural Engineers, and civil engineer Langan Engineering.Structure Design and ExteriorUrbahn Architects developed the facade design and vocabulary to visually integrate NERPC with the adjacent Davis and Carman Halls. Davis Hall is clad in stone, while Carman Hall is composed primarily of exposed concrete with sections of aluminum storefront on the ground level. The NERPC façade incorporates concrete panels, stone, brick, and storefront. The exterior of the basement and the two stair towers is clad in brick to ground the building. On the first floor, a curtain wall storefront system echoes that of Carman Hall. Fiber-reinforced cement panels with punched windows create a rainscreen to enclose the 2nd and 3rd floors, referencing both the stone and concrete of the adjacent buildings. The building is designed to meet New York City Climate Mobilization Act and Local Laws 92 and 94, which require components of buildings’ exterior envelopes and roofs to contribute to overall energy efficiency. All windows have double insulated glazing. A solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation system has been installed on the reflective SBS membrane system roof. Approximately 22% of the roof’s area is covered by PV panels that generate a total of 43.2 kW of power for the building, a tenfold increase of the law’s requirement of 4kW.The site, formerly home to a one-story bookstore and a parking lot, presented significant design challenges. This portion of the Lehman campus was originally a part of the adjacent Jerome Park reservoir that was filled in with shot rock from the NYC subway construction in the early 1900s. The bearing strength of the soil is poor, and the depth of the bedrock varies between 20 to 60 feet over the site. During the initial phase of construction work, Citnalta’s construction crews installed over one hundred caissons with pile caps to support the foundation grade beams. The caissons are 10-inch reinforced steel cement with steel casing. The first-floor elevation of Carman Hall is seven feet above grade, surrounded by a sunken plaza. The design team thoughtfully coordinated the elevation of NERPC with the surrounding elements to form a cohesive plan. The basement level matches the elevation of Carman Hall’s sunken plaza. A monumental entry plaza facing Campus Walk incorporates stairs and a ramp leading to both the first floor of NERPC and to the adjacent sunken plaza below. The designers worked linear lights into the undersides of stair handrails to add a striking lighting effect to the plaza; the entrance/Landscape architect Edgewater Designs, meanwhile, has created a buffer of landscape material, including flowering trees and ground covers to soften the perimeter of the pavers and poured concrete surfaces of the access corridor and the sunken plaza. InteriorsThe cellar level is totally below grade and hosts mechanical spaces housing air handling and heat recovery units, plumbing infrastructure, and telecommunications equipment. The basement level is dedicated to hands-on nursing simulation (SIM), physical assessment, and nursing skills labs. HKS, a global leader in healthcare design, with a growing focus on interprofessional education and health sciences, designed the high-fidelity simulation suite, skills training labs, and graduate research labs.SIM is the centerpiece of the lab space and emulates a clinical environment where students will train for real-life situations running the gamut from labor and delivery, pediatrics and trauma treatment to adult intensive care and emergencies such as heart attacks. High-tech mannequins are used to simulate relevant symptoms, with faculty able to remotely monitor each student’s interaction with the simulated patients. Other labs comprise clinic-like settings for skills instruction, and a model apartment for home health care instruction. Mock patient beds are outfitted precisely as in a clinical setting, including the use of compressed air to simulate oxygen and other medical gasses. This level is open to the sunken plaza along the south façade, while being fully below grade to the north, along the access corridor.On the first floor, full-height glass along the north wall creates a welcoming entry into the building. According to Van Sloun, “The interior design employs biophilic concepts and materials to create a psychologically nurturing environment.” Interior finishes utilize natural materials and tones to create an earthy, soothing atmosphere, and this concept is most prevalent in the public spaces near the entry. A wood panel feature wall faces the entrance. In an adjacent space, the student lounge is enclosed in a “glass box” that provides unobstructed views of the campus walk and athletic field. In the lounge, recessed seating nooks with upholstered benches is framed with wood paneling that matches that of the entry. Wood ceiling panels, some perforated for acoustical properties, extend through the lobby and lounge. An architectural stair, with wood treads, glass rails, and wood handrail, connects the lobby and the nursing suite in the lower level. A second student lounge with banquet seating and vending machines is also located on this level.This floor also contains two 35-seat classrooms and a computer lab/learning and testing center, with a movable partition that can be opened to create one large room, if required during testing for a contiguous space for proctoring. Terrazzo flooring provides a durable decorative element in the main circulation spaces, while vinyl composition tile (VCT) is used in the instructional spaces. The second floor contains six 25-seat classrooms and a faculty suite with private offices, desks for adjunct professors, and doctoral student workstations. Wet and dry research labs for use by the faculty are integrated into the area. All classrooms feature either smartboards or interactive projection screens, depending on the classrooms’ sizes. All classrooms are set up for HyFlex learning to allow for virtual and hybrid education. Faculty spaces, including offices, a work room, a lounge and small conference areas for meetings with students occupy the third floor. The Department Chair’s office suite, including a large, 750-square foot conference room large enough to accommodate the entire staff, sits located directly above the building entrance at the northeast corner. Interior glazing throughout the suite allows for natural light to permeate into the corridor. NERPC has two stair towers. One, located in the southeast corner, extends from the basement to the roof. The second, intended to make an architectural statement and extending from the cellar to the third floor, protrudes out from the north façade and is encased in full glass between the first and third floors, offering a full view of Davis Hall from within the stairwell. The elevator bank is located in the center of the building. Building InfrastructureAn existing utility tunnel spans the Davis and Carman Halls, at the level of NERPC’s cellar. The new building foundation bridges over the tunnel, so that no new loads are applied to its structure. Some of NERPC’s utilities, including heating and cooling, fire alarm, and fiber optics for both IT and building automation systems, tie into the central utilities in the tunnel. MEP systems were designed with sustainability goals in mind. The HVAC system for the NERCP is a variable air volume (VAV) with hot water reheat. Energy efficient LED lighting fixtures are specified for all spaces. Recessed fixtures are used in the suspended ceilings in both classrooms and offices and architectural pendent fixtures in the entrance lobby and student lounge. Cove fixtures wash the walls of the circulation spaces with light.New York State funded the project through the City University of New York (CUNY) Capital Improvement Program, with additional funding from the New York City Council and the Bronx Borough President’s Office. </div></body>

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New Nursing Research-Education Debuts in the Bronx

A ballyhooed Bronx debut earlier this year marked a major milestone for healthcare education in the NYC area. Marking the completion of Lehman College’s most significant capital project in its history, the new Nursing Education, Research and Practice Center (NERPC) officially opened its doors in February with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. The Lehman College leadership and students, elected officials, representatives of the owner City College of New York (CUNY), project manager the Dormitory Authority of New York (DASNY), Urbahn Architects, and contractor Citnalta Construction led the ceremonies.