By Collin Atwood
@collinatwood17
When driving down Alden Street, after one cruises under the “Welcome to Springfield College” arch, one of the first buildings on the right side of the road is the Health Sciences Center. Now, thanks to the Campus Master Plan, there will be a new and improved building for the Health Sciences Center coming in 2023.
Springfield College partnered with Centerbrook to help the college enhance the education and facilities for the students and staff. Centerbrook is an architecture firm based in Connecticut. They were founded in 1975 with a goal to make unique advancements to buildings and communities.
The new Health Sciences Center will be located next to the Facilities Management building and will be four stories high. The center will be a part of the new Academic Green which will be replacing Lot 4.
“It’s going to be a new opening to the campus,” said Brooke Hallowell, Dean of the School of Health Sciences.
The west end of campus isn’t nearly as scenic as the Naismith Green. Part of the Campus Master Plan is to give the west end a makeover which includes the Health Sciences Center.
Not only will this building give the campus a more attractive look, but it will also make learning and teaching more beneficial and impactful. “We’ll have upgraded, state of the art facilities,” said Hallowell.
One of those upgrades will be the new simulation suite which will be used to simulate actual scenarios where a health professional will be needed. Human actors will also come in and portray someone with a health condition so the students can have something close to the real experience.
Another enhancement coming with the new building is a telehealth resource which is already in the works. Thanks to COVID-19, telehealth is becoming more necessary than ever. “We will have telehealth facilities and many more opportunities for students and faculty to engage in telehealth work,” said Hallowell.
Other features of the new building include a human anatomy laboratory, a living suite for rehabilitation practices, a maker space for designing new health technologies and space for students to lounge, study and keep personal items.
The new facilities will ensure that students of the future will have the best learning experience possible.
Benefiting the students and faculty is definitely a top priority when it comes to the new Health Sciences Center, but it wouldn’t be done the Springfield College way if it wasn’t also helping the surrounding community.
The new center will have services available to people in the local community who might not have access to these services otherwise. “We really hope that it benefits the community as well,” said Hallowell.
The whole project is projected to cost 46 million dollars. This includes the building itself, the new equipment and the professionals hired to design the new look.
The design process is still in the early stages, but the plan is to have students in the building come fall 2023.
Photo Courtesy of Broke Hallowell