The 140,100-square-foot building underwent a $26 million overhaul, adding a state-of-the-art simulation suite and laboratories, technology-rich classrooms and lecture halls, welcoming gathering spaces and an updated faculty office building. The upgrades were the first significant improvements made to the building since its construction in 1966.

Kahler Slater, with offices in Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., was the architecture firm of record, providing planning, architecture and interior design services. The general contractor was Miron Construction Co. Inc., with a head office in Neenah, Wis.

Among the facility’s notable space, the 3,260-square-foot simulation suite will allow nursing students to gain hands-on experience working in environments that closely mimic those in which they will ultimately practice. Replica hospital spaces — including an inpatient room and a large space that can serve as a single trauma room or two exam rooms — are outfitted with equipment, furnishings and other features similar to those found in area hospitals. A simulation apartment will allow students to practice providing in-home and hospice care. Across the hall are two debriefing rooms where students and faculty can review their performance and progress.

Additionally, a new psychology lab will provide expanded research opportunities, while a foreign language instructional drop-in lab will enable students to study at their convenience. New active learning classrooms will facilitate collaboration among students and faculty, while numerous gathering spaces — from the atrium furnished with tables and comfortable seating to a window bench looking into the simulation center — will encourage interaction and spontaneous meetings.

All classrooms are equipped with modern technology such as touchpad controls for lighting and audio-visual equipment and electrical outlets at each seat in the lecture halls to accommodate student laptops. The original steeply raked lecture “pits” have been replaced by wheelchair-accessible spaces. The center’s faculty office building has also been updated with remodeled conference spaces and new lighting, plumbing fixtures, flooring, paint and ceilings.

Clow Social Science Center is located in a busy part of the campus, along a pedestrian mall that leads to two neighboring buildings. As such, the building’s main entrance was reconfigured to offer better circulation around and into the building and to provide a dynamic connection between the interior and exterior.

The building has been designed to USGBC LEED Silver standards.
 

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The new $96.5 million facility will include 400 new dental chairs, radiology facilities, simulation labs and expanded research space. The design is meant to enhance patient comfort and convenience, while also providing a clinical space that closely resembles the environments students will practice in after graduation.

Adjacent to the Medical Arts and Research Center, home to the university’s School of Medicine’s faculty practice, the center’s location facilitates collaboration between the two disciplines and allows patients to access a range of dental and medical care in one location.

The first two floors of the 198,000-square-foot facility are dedicated to faculty practice in various specialties including endodontic, oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontics, pediatric dentistry, geriatric dentistry, orthodontics and prosthodontics. Third- and fourth-year dental and dental hygiene students will have access to the third and fourth floors where a 200-operator general dentistry clinic will be located.

“The new building will enable the school to provide multispecialty care in a modern space that is designed to provide the best possible patient experience,” said Larry Schnuck, AIA, vice president and leader of project architect Kahler Slater’s higher education specialty practice, in a statement. “That will help the school attract additional patients, ensuring that it continues to obtain and conduct important clinical research and helping it sustain its top-tier ranking in education, research and patient care.”

Kahler Slater of Milwaukee and Marmon Mok Architecture of San Antonio, with Houston-based general contractor Vaughn Construction, included the latest technology in the facility’s design. According to a statement from Kahler Slater and Marmon Mok, the center will feature digital lighting and examination equipment, large monitors to facilitate the viewing of dental images by both practitioners and patients, computers used for accessing and maintaining health records and an environmentally friendly, automated system that cleans water lines and treats waste water at the dental chair.

The center will also include a dental surgery operating room and overnight care for those undergoing extensive surgery and a floor plan designed for easy navigating. A small conference room located near the student and resident clinics enhance learning by facilitating interaction between the students and faculty. Large windows will provide natural light, and an open courtyard will create a welcoming environment to the new Center for Oral Health and Research.
 

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Marquette University President Michael Lovell unveiled the facility’s preliminary designs to several hundred members of the Marquette community earlier this month. The design includes space for flexible laboratories, open workstations and staff offices, as well as those geared toward research, collaboration and conferencing. The 8,000-square foot space will occupy the sixth floor of the approximately 105-year-old building.

The Global Water Center is housed in a converted warehouse that offers approximately 98,000 square feet and is certified LEED Silver. Aside from tenant offices, exhibition spaces and a 44-seat lecture hall, it also includes a public café and shared core facilities such as a water flow lab. The university will also be able to take advantage of these common spaces.

The center’s overall goal is to bring university researchers together with industry experts to create synergies and connections, resulting in new business and jobs in the water technology sector, according to Kahler Slater of Milwaukee, the building’s redevelopment architect.

When construction wraps up on the space in late 2015, Marquette University will become one of several higher education tenants, including the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater’s Institute for Water Business and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences. Other founding tenants include the Fund for Lake Michigan, Noah Technologies, Sloan Valve and Veolia Water North America.

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The five-story, state-of-the-art building features an open, airy design that promotes student-faculty interaction and collaboration. Along with a 300-seat auditorium, modern conference rooms, personal health spaces and dozens of project offices, Signe Skott Cooper Hall also includes an innovative active learning complex (ALC). This complex comprises 34 interactive student tables complete with laptop hookups and a flat-screen television for image projection. The ALC “provides the environment and technology for students to develop the skills necessary to work effectively in teams and to quickly analyze, discuss, understand and solve complex, real-life challenges in health care,” according to a statement released by the university.

“High-performance teamwork among nurses, physicians, pharmacists, other health professionals and family members is necessary in this complex health care system, not only to improve outcomes, but also to prevent harm,” said nursing school Dean Katharyn May in a statement.

The Signe Skott Cooper Hall, designed by Kahler Slater of Madison, also includes the Center for Technology-Enhanced Nursing, which further supports the school’s emphasis on engaging, team-based, interactive and problem-focused learning. A simulated four-room hospital suite and five high-fidelity human patient simulators representing various stages of life allow educators to guide students through 80 different health care scenarios. A simulated home environment and an eHealth laboratory also address team-based, patient-centered treatment throughout the continuum of care.

“Our focus here is not so much technology for its own sake but rather tools that make teamwork and collaboration easier,” George Jura, director of academic technology for the school, said in a statement.

In addition to offering top quality health care education, designers also integrated features aimed at improving environmental health. This building expects to improve water efficiency over a comparable baseline building by 30 percent and incorporates low-emitting interior finishes and furnishings. A green roof on the top level and plenty of natural light will help the facility reach its LEED Gold target.
To encourage the future of nursing and the future of the school’s nursing program, the facility was built to accommodate an anticipated 30 percent department growth, while the two-story wing was engineered for vertical expansion.

The forward-thinking building is named for Signe Skott Cooper, a UW-Madison graduate who dedicated more than six decades to the UW nursing program before her death in 2013. Cooper, also a historian and author, was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame and was named a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing in 2003, according to the university.

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