Property on the month: Urbahn Architects, CUNY and DASNY complete $95m, 52,000 s/f Nursing Education, Research and Practice Center

Bronx, NY The Lehman College, elected officials, the City College of New York (CUNY), the Dormitory Authority of New York (DASNY), Urbahn Architects and Citnalta Construction celebrated the opening of the new Nursing Education, Research and Practice Center (NERPC). 

“The $95 million, 52,000 s/f NERPC houses classrooms, teaching and research laboratories, faculty offices, and support spaces for both undergraduate and graduate programs of the Department of Nursing. The building meets very high sustainability and energy efficiency standards,” said Urbahn principal-in-charge Natale Barranco, AIA, LEED AP. 

“The five-story building is located on the campus mall, between Davis Hall and Carman Hall. Urbahn referenced design elements of both adjacent buildings, while creating a new, contemporary architectural identity for the NERPC’s structure,” said Urbahn associate Bridgette van Sloun, RA, CPHC, WELL AP.

The new facility offers a simulated clinical environment for training students, including:

• Maternity, pediatrics, icu, and medical surgery wards with 22 simulators

• Wet and dry research labs 

• Twenty-bed nursing skills lab

• Computer labs

• Hyflex classrooms

• Activities of daily living apartment

• Student lounges and social spaces 

Urbahn’s in-house design team also included principal architect Martin Stein, AIA, LEED AP; associate and project manager Joseph Zappulla, CPHC and associate and designer Jonathan Ruiz. The project team included healthcare design consultant HKS Architects, construction manager TDX Construction, structural engineer LERA, civil engineer Langan Engineering, MEP Engineer R.G. Vanderweil Engineers, landscape architect Edgewater Design, lighting designer Domingo Gonzalez Associates, and audio-visual engineer Cerami Associates.

Architecture and Construction

The NERPC façade incorporates concrete panels, stone, brick, and storefront. On the first floor, a curtain wall storefront system echoes that of Carman Hall. Fiber-reinforced cement panels with punched windows create a rainscreen to enclose the 2^nd and 3^rd floors, referencing both the stone and concrete of the adjacent buildings. All windows have double insulated glazing. A solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation system has been installed on the roof. Approximately 22% of the roof’s area is covered by PV panels that generate a total of 43.2 kW of power for the building, a tenfold increase of New York City’s requirement of 4kW.

The bearing strength of the soil is poor and the depth of the bedrock varies between 20 to 60 ft. over the site. Citnalta’s crews installed over one hundred caissons with pile caps to support the foundation grade beams. 

A monumental entry plaza facing the Campus Walk incorporates stairs and a ramp leading to both the first floor of NERPC and to the adjacent sunken plaza below. The undersides of stair handrails feature linear lights adding a dramatic lighting effect to the plaza and the entrance. 

Interiors

“The five-story building houses integrated educational and public spaces. It is designed to promote collaboration, with casual gathering areas to support learning beyond the classroom,” said Urbahn’s associate Joseph Zappulla, CPHC. 

The cellar level contains mechanical and telecommunications equipment. The basement level is dedicated to hands-on nursing simulation (SIM), physical assessment, and nursing skills labs. HKS designed the high-fidelity simulation suite, skills training labs, and graduate research labs. 

“The simulation suite offers clinical scenario training in a variety of immersive environments, utilizing a simulation system and manikins,” said HKS vice president and senior designer Jennifer McKeel, AIA, LEED AP, LSSYB.

On the first floor, full-height glass along the north wall creates a welcoming entry into the building. The interior design concept employs biophilic ideas and materials to create a psychologically nurturing environment. This floor also contains two classrooms and a computer lab/learning and testing center. The second floor contains six classrooms, a faculty office suite, and wet and dry research labs. Faculty spaces, including offices, a work room, a large conference room, a lounge and small meeting areas occupy the third floor.  

NERPC has two stair towers. One, located in the southeast corner, extends from the basement to the roof. The second, intended to make an architectural statement and extending from the cellar to the third floor, protrudes out from the north façade and is encased in full glass between the first and third floors, offering a full view of Davis Hall from within the stairwell. 

Urbahn Architects

Since its founding in 1945, Urbahn has designed projects for organizations and institutions that operate in the education, commercial real estate, public and governmental services, transportation, residential, healthcare, justice, science, hospitality, multi-family residential, and infrastructure sectors. The total value of Urbahn’s current domestic and international projects exceeds $1 billion. 

Headquartered in New York City, Urbahn operates a regional office in Jakarta, Indonesia focused on serving international clients. Building Design & Construction magazine ranks Urbahn as the 83^rd largest architecture and planning firm overall, 36^th largest government building designer, 21^st largest designer of justice facilities, 48^th largest hospitality designer, 99^th largest designer of healthcare projects, and 104^th largest university architect in the United States. Engineering News-Record New York magazine recognized the firm as the 2019 Design Firm of the Year. 

Urbahn designed the Stony Brook Medical Center Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program in Stony Brook, NY; Woodhull Medical Center Outposted Therapeutic Housing Units in Brooklyn, NY; Harborview Ambulatory Center Brooklyn Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY; and Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. Urbahn also led planning and design work for Somalia’s Lower and Middle Juba Regions’ Healthcare Delivery Planning Studies; Uganda Healthcare Delivery Planning Study; and Nigeria Primary Healthcare Delivery Study. www.urbahn.com 

Photos by Edward Caruso Photography