Embedded in the center of the nation’s most comprehensive health science centers, the University of Minnesota School of Medicine Health Sciences Education & Learning Center (HSEC) stitches together a complex infrastructure of existing tunnels and skybridges to adjacent medical and academic buildings, as well as creates a new front door to the Medical Center campus. SLAM led the programming and planning and design of the academic spaces of the new HSEC. As a leader in interprofessional education, the new facility prepares students in allied health, dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and other related programs, such as social work, to develop the skills needed for success in interprofessional collaborative practice. The new building strives to mitigate the monumental scale and static quality of the existing Medical Center providing warm and welcoming student focused facility that presents a vibrant and transparent image to the community.
The University of Minnesota needed a facility to serve as a student hub for the Health Science schools that would foster interaction, collaboration, and creativity.
This new facility will help Minnesota develop the next generation of world-class medical professionals, to meet our future health care challenges and improve the well-being of all our communities.
The primary program and design driver at HSEC was the strength and value of CONNECTION – across disciplines but also in relation to physical space. Below are a few solutions that distinguish UMN and will impact the future of health science education in Minnesota and beyond.
As SLAM’s project manager and architect on this project, I noticed our team building a legacy of excellence through the design process that will come to fruition with the future success of students, educators, and community partners and the work they will accomplish at HSEC.