Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

City Colleges of Chicago: Malcolm X College and School of Health Sciences

  • 06/01/18
City Colleges of Chicago

PHOTO © JASON KEEN

The new Malcolm X College and School of Health Sciences, located in Chicago’s Medical District, provides 545,000 square feet of state-of-the-art learning and support spaces for hands-on training of allied health professionals. The campus is comprised of a series of interconnected buildings designed to interact with the surrounding neighborhood. The facility design leverages transparency to provides a variety of touch-down spaces for idea sharing, collaboration, group study, and model academic behavior.

The classrooms, teaching labs, recreation facilities, conference center, and support spaces are all organized around a student union, library, and roof garden. The facility is crowned by an eight-story tower, which represents a virtual hospital and includes classrooms, skill, and high-fidelity simulation labs; all spaces are designed with advanced technology and equipment to emulate modern healthcare facilities. The simulation spaces support multi-step scenarios that prepare learners for real-life events.

The college-to-careers educational model links highly specialized curriculums with the needs of local employers to create a direct bridge between students and jobs in fields such as nursing, radiology, paramedics, pharmacy, dentistry, and more. The facility also operates a dental clinic to outreach to the community.

Moody Nolan served as architect-of-record for the building and 1,200-car parking structure. HERA laboratory planners provided medical and simulation equipment and AV/Data capture programming, planning, and implementation for 67 allied health spaces housing 125 different simulation event spaces. Additionally, HERA provided full design and equipment planning services for the core laboratory spaces.

The building is surrounded by a high-performance envelope to reduce its carbon footprint. An intensive green roof and patio space, which utilizes solar reflecting permeable pavers, reduces the overall heating and cooling load of the building. A water reclamation irrigation system harvests and stores rain water for watering site plantings while also mitigating storm water run-off. The project has achieved LEED Gold certification.

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management June 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • R.I. District Holds Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for New Elementary School

    Cranston Public Schools in Cranston, R.I., recently announced the completion of Gladstone Elementary School, according to a news release. The 100,000-square-foot facility serves as a replacement for the 1950s-era former building, and it consolidates the student, faculty, and staff populations of Gladstone and Arlington Elementary Schools.

  • Missouri K–12 District Cuts Ribbons on Two New Middle Schools

    Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, Mo., recently celebrated the completion of two new middle school facilities with ribbon-cutting ceremonies, according to a district news release. The district officially opened the new Pipkin Middle School and Reed Academy on Sept. 3, both of which were funded through the $220-million Proposition S bond program approved by voters in 2023.

  • URI Cuts Underwater Ribbon on New Ocean Robotics Laboratory

    The University of Rhode Island recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Ocean Robotics Laboratory at its Narragansett Bay Campus, according to a news release. Two students used a remotely operated vehicle to cut an underwater ribbon in a 30-by-20-foot test tank.

  • Embry-Riddle Completes Construction on Research, Lab Facility

    Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Daytona Beach, Fla., recently announced the end of construction on a new research and lab facility on campus. The Center for Aerospace Engineering II (CAT II) will support aerospace research and technology development and broke ground last summer.