Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

LSU Vet School Debuts Pet Clinic with “Ribbon-Biting” Ceremony

  • By Matt Jones
  • 05/19/22

Officials from the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine in Baton Rouge, La., gathered on Monday, May 9, to celebrate the opening of the new Stephenson Pet Clinic. The facility measures in at 40,000 square feet and will serve as a home to companion animal wellness efforts as well as clinical services like community practice / primary care, integrative medicine, dermatology and ophthalmology, according to a press release.

Guests included Oliver Garden, LSU Vet Med dean; LSU President William Tate; and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. And the honors of the actual ribbon-cutting were given to Mac, a Belgian Malinois owned by a staff veterinary technician, who retrieved a toy attached to the ribbon.

The building was named after Emmet and Toni Stephenson, who pledged $25 million to LSU in 2007. The new pet clinic was constructed through a combination of state funds and $4 million from more than 300 individual donors, including the Stephensons. The existing Veterinary Medicine Building was built in 1978, and the new space will accommodate the school’s growth in enrollment, labs and reach of services since then.

“The generosity of Emmet and Toni Stephenson, and all the other donors who made this dream possible, will be memorialized in the rich legacy this wonderful facility will leave for generations to come," said Dean Garden. "The School of Veterinary Medicine is on a firm trajectory of growth in its missions of teaching, healing, discovering, and protecting – nobly serving Louisiana, the nation, and indeed the world. It is the honor of a lifetime to be at the helm of this outstanding veterinary school at this exciting time in our history.”

The facility was designed by Tipton Associates and BDA Architecture and also includes a 6,000-square-foot green roof terrace. The Stephenson Pet Clinic will open to the public in July.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Texas A&M Opens First Building at Fort Worth Campus, Breaks Ground on Research Facility

    The Texas A&M University System marked a major milestone in the development of its Fort Worth campus by opening its first completed academic building and breaking ground on a second facility designed to expand research and industry collaboration.

  • Minnesota District Converts Middle School into Community Hub

    White Bear Lake Area Schools in White Bear Lake, Minn., recently announced the end of a major renovation project that converted a former middle school into a new centralized district and community hub, according to a news release.