Constructed in the 1940’s, Skinner Hall was a sturdy building that, while structurally sound, no longer adequately supported today’s nursing curriculum and ancillary uses. This $19 million project adaptively reused the facility. The new building for the School of Nursing includes classrooms, breakout rooms, and a clinical lab that simulates a hospital environment, pictured above. A two-story addition was built on the east side of the existing building. The new structure suits the School’s program requirements and includes new mechanical and electrical systems, wireless Ethernet, and fully-functional patient bed teaching labs.

Acentech’s acousticians consulted on room acoustics; sound isolation; mechanical system noise and vibration control for classrooms; distance-learning classroom; conference room; control room; computer room; and the simulation exam room. Of particular importance, we provided recommendations to reduce the noise transmission from the main mechanical room to a horizontally adjacent classroom.

Our audiovisual system designers focused on the simulation room, where student nurses practice medical examinations as part of their instruction. The simulation room has video and audio connections to the central AV room, so information can be sent to any of the classrooms for student observation and audio interaction in real time between the students working in the simulation room and students in the classrooms. The video link also carries vital signs information from the teaching instruments in the simulation room. We also designed wireless network access points and infrastructure.

The renovated Skinner Hall opened in the summer of 2009.