Nursing an Education

By K. Robert Wendel

A new health sciences/nurse's classroom building at the Charleston campus of the Community Colleges of Southern Nevada will help fill the increasing need for nurses and other medical specialists throughout the Southwest.

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The four-story, 79,000-sq-ft. steel-framed building at CCSN will enable the college to increase its nursing enrollment from 150 to 300 students, plus double its other heath-related programs, which range from biotechnology and cardiorespiratory to sonography and ophthalmology.

The $35 million project will be completed in time for the fall semester. It comes at a time when the Nevada Hospital Association expects the need for registered nurses to grow by 3,324, or 41 percent, through 2010 in southern Nevada. The need for nursing assistants is also growing, with an estimated 2,000 new positions during the same time frame.

More than 16,000 students attend CCSN.

"Many of our nursing students are currently being housed in portable trailers and temporary or converted facilities," said Bob Gilbert, CCSN's director of site planning and construction management. "This new building will help us to both meet the community's need as well as the state requirement."

Martin-Harris Construction of Las Vegas is the general contractor. Situated on 2.5 acres at the southeastern end of CCSN's Charleston campus, the 68-ft.-tall structure is clad in a combination of sandstone, EIFS, glazing and painted metal paneling. The project also features mechanically fastened sandstone and a two-story entry lobby.

Designed by JMA Architecture Studios, Las Vegas, the building is colored in a palette of subdued desert hues.

"It reflects the native desert environment," said Thomas Schoeman, president of JMA.

"The building's two wings form an arroyo with a student assembly space on the plaza side. We added stone along the building's base to accent the canyon feel while using a stream bed down the center to emphasize the students' connection to the surrounding outdoors."

Before construction could start, roughly 1,500 cu. yards of caliche had to be removed and 40,000 cu. yards of dirt imported. Bulldog Equipment Co. of North Las Vegas was the earthwork subcontractor and Las Vegas-based Lochsa Engineering the civil engineer.

Set atop a concrete slab foundation with spread footings, the new building contains a 150-seat auditorium, classroom/lab areas, four simulation rooms, six conference rooms and 35 faculty offices.

The urgent need for the building prompted the college to accelerate its construction schedule by six months. Martin-Harris accepted the challenge, tackling a daunting timeline that has entailed >> careful coordination with subcontractors and suppliers, said Don LaRue, the firm's project manager.

The contractor also accelerated the project's critical path components, including ordering the structural steel before the contract award. Phoenix-based Schuff Steel Co. is the steel erector.

Using steel-frame construction enables the building to have fewer sheer walls, which gives it more flexibility to subdivide and/or expand interior spaces as needed. Las Vegas-based Bennett & Jimenez Inc. is the structural engineer.

"At the time, before the steel price increases, we thought it would be cheaper to use steel," said JMA architect Michael Crowe. "We felt that a steel frame would give us a quicker construction time and more versatility."

The facility will have fiber optics as well as wireless Internet access. There will be purified water, gas and air in all the classroom/lab areas.

Energy-efficient boilers and chillers from a nearby central plant that was expanded by 5,000 sq. ft. to accommodate future growth serve the building. Locally based Pahor Mechanical Contractors Inc. is the HVAC contractor and JBA Consulting Engineers of Las Vegas is electrical/mechanical engineer.

Once complete, the new Health Sciences and Nursing Building will house $4.5 million worth of state-of-the-art equipment including CAT scan and digital imagining machinery.

It also has a one-acre plaza consisting of planters, benches and a stamped concrete apron, which will serve as a central gathering point for students and faculty. There is an additional 10,000-sq.-ft. outdoor steel-canopied courtyard to the north of the building for dining and studying.

"With the use of the desert mountain coloring, we are setting the standard for the campus," Crowe said. "The spaces were designed so the exterior of the building relates to the interior, and toward that aim, the future plaza walkway continues through the lobby with a river theme. It's like a river flowing through a gorge."