Walls Stand Up to Demands of Nursing Education

Acrovyn

Acrovyn by Design partition walls stood up to the rigorous demands of a nursing lab environment, while also fitting in well with the lab’s “healthcare aesthetic.”

A reflection of the growing healthcare occupational trend is apparent in Pellissippi State Community College’s Nursing Program, where enrollment at the Knoxville, TN, campus continues to increase. The college’s administrators wanted to transform a single, open lab space and a classroom into three protected, unique spaces. The solution included Acrovyn by Design on partition walls to artfully designate separate areas.

The learning environment in the Jenny & Randy Boyd Building at the Strawberry Plains campus required renovations of the 24,250 available-square-feet to meet the needs of both students and faculty.

The addition of an operable wall was necessary to better accommodate multiple teaching scenarios, such as learning how to perform and master skills prior to entering the obstetric and pediatric clinical sites.

It was essential that the walls in the nursing skills lab could contend with a busy, educational atmosphere. This required the walls to be durable and easy to clean. The design team focused on delivering a look that exceeded all the project’s requirements for durability, professionalism and cleanliness.

“Our solution to put Acrovyn by Design on the partition walls makes them as beautiful as they are easy to clean. We are also pleased with the durability Acrovyn by Design brings to Pellissippi’s nursing skills lab. In a dynamic learning space with moving nursing beds and carts, protection for the operable walls was imperative,” says Bill Vinson of Community Tectonics Architects. “Acrovyn by Design’s Organic Collection fit beautifully into the lab’s healthcare aesthetic.”

Pleased with the beautiful modification of its nursing skills lab, Pellissippi administrators requested that Acrovyn by Design be placed on additional partition walls in the pediatric skills lab, the obstetrics lab and another classroom at the Strawberry Plains campus as well.

www.acrovynbydesign.com

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Wenger Names New Vice President of Sales for Performing Arts, Controls

    Wenger Corporation, which provides products and solutions for music and theater education, performing arts and athletic storage, recently announced the hiring of a new Vice President of Sales for Performing Arts and Controls.

  • Q&A: How to Prevent Kitchen Grease Fires in Commercial Kitchens

    School cafeterias and university dining halls serve thousands of meals daily, relying on high-heat equipment like fryers, grills, and ovens. While these operations keep students fed, they also generate significant grease-laden vapors. Without proper controls, this grease becomes a silent fire threat. As a certified exhaust cleaning specialist and business coach who has helped hundreds of institutional facilities achieve NFPA 96 compliance, I emphasize that proactive grease management isn’t optional; it’s a core fire/life safety practice.

  • 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.

  • Barbara Vick Western Branch

    Barbara Vick Western Branch

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Barbara Vick Western Branch has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of Renovation.