MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – Cornell College in Mount Vernon has selected Kahler Slater of Milwaukee as the design architect for a major expansion and renovation of its Small Sport Center—the competition venue for its basketball, volleyball and wrestling teams.

Kahler Slater joins Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis, Minn. on the design-build team. A dollar figure and completion date for the project have not yet been released.

The team has been tasked with master planning for multi-phase improvements to the existing 105,000 gross square-foot facility, which opened in 1953 and was significantly expanded in 1986.

The project’s first phase will likely include the renovation and expansion of team locker rooms, the strength and conditioning center, athletic training areas, exercise studios, classrooms/meeting rooms, athletic department offices and competition venues.

A private liberal arts college, Cornell College was originally the Iowa Conference Seminary. The school was founded in 1853 by George Bryant Bowman. Four years later, in 1857, the name was changed to Cornell College, in honor of iron tycoon William Wesley Cornell, who was a distant relative of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

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DALLAS—The Texas A&M University College of Dentistry recently dedicated its new Clinic and Education Building in Dallas.

The 160,000-square-foot, nine-story building will provide underserved patients with greater access to dental care. It will also enable the college to shift its curriculum from a traditional discipline-based approach to a team-based “whole health” model.

Vaughan Construction was the construction manager on this $127 million project. Kahler Slater of Milwaukee led the programming, planning and design for the new facility, partnering with architect of record BRW Architects of Dallas.

This is the first stand-alone building built for the college since 1950. The new Clinic and Education Building features nearly 300 dental-chair stations ranging from general practice to prosthodontics and implant surgery, each equipped with the latest technology. It also includes specialized clinics, clinical support spaces, faculty areas, classrooms and study spaces. Dedicated patient parking is available on the building’s first three floors.

The new building will also allow the college to increase patient visits—currently numbering approximately 100,000 per year—by as much as 40 percent. There will also be the capacity to expand enrollment to meet the demand for dental care providers in underserved parts of the state.

“No longer will students and patients be going to different areas of the school or clinic to seek information about treatment and care,” said Dr. Lawrence E. Wolinsky, dean of the College of Dentistry.

“The patient will actually be the center of the treatment and treatment will come to them. Our students, faculty and staff will flourish in this incredible environment.

This project has also facilitated an overhaul of the college’s curriculum to a team-based approach that is patient-centered and reflects the more collaborative learning style of today’s students. This group practice model exposes students to numerous specialists and fosters students’ engagement in their work helping prepare them to work in whichever practice model they ultimately choose.

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MIAMI—Miami Dade College (MDC) recently unveiled its new Center for Learning, Innovation and Simulation during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Scheduled to welcome its first students this fall, the technology-rich facility will ensure students are well-prepared to succeed in the rapidly changing health care industry, enable MDC to expand its health sciences offerings, and open the door to new partnerships with Miami-area health care providers.

Located on the MDC Medical Campus in the heart of Miami’s Health District, the new five-story, 135,000-square-foot facility will accommodate the continued growth of some of the college’s most in-demand programs – including emergency medical services, nuclear medicine technology, nursing and physician assistant – and allow for the addition of new programs such as central sterile processing and surgical technology.

Harvard Jolly was the architect of record. Kahler Slater was the design and health sciences education architect, providing programming, planning and design expertise.

An advanced medical simulation center occupies the building’s entire third floor, enabling students to gain essential hands-on experience working in a variety of clinical environments, including emergency, surgery, labor and delivery, primary care and home health care. It features 15 hospital/patient rooms with high-fidelity mannequins, a simulated ambulance, a simulated one-bedroom apartment, 10 exam rooms where students will interact with actors specially trained to portray patients, a 5-sided CAVE virtual reality space, debrief rooms where students and faculty gather to review just-completed exercises, and a partner/sponsor space.

In addition to the simulation center, the Center for Learning, Innovation and Simulation includes a variety of classroom, collaboration and gathering spaces. Among them are active learning classrooms; a 300-person multi-purpose conference center; a 150-person tiered lecture facility with technology at each seat; smaller lecture classrooms; wet labs; physical therapy, occupational therapy and physician assistant labs; a radiology suite and student break-out spaces.

While the Center will primarily be used by MBC students and faculty, it will also be available to local health care organizations for staff training and research.

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