DeSales University officials broke ground today for the Gambet Center for Business and Health Care Education.
The 77,000-square -foot building, which will be located along Station Avenue between Landis Mill Road and the Priscilla Payne Hurd Science Center, will cost an estimated $27 million to complete. With construction beginning, the Gambet Center will be ready for occupancy in May 2013.
“Currently the University has the facilities, the amenities, and the infrastructure for a student body of approximately 1,600 full time undergraduate students,” said Father Bernard F. O’Connor, OSFS, president of DeSales University. “The Gambet Center will allow us to increase this number and to provide learning spaces for our business and health care majors, which are also growing.”
The Gambet Center for Business and Healthcare will become the home for the business department, the nursing department, and the physician assistant program.
The building will be equipped with essential IT and telecommunication infrastructure to support classroom teaching, distance learning, and appropriate connections with the various locations of the University’s global sites, including Romania, Peru, and Italy. The Gambet Center will have 4 smart classrooms with all the latest technology for 30 to 35 students. There will be a seminar classroom for 20 to 25 students and a specialized business classroom that will include an electronic ticker tape and simulated trader stations.
Along with classrooms for nursing and physician assistant students, the Gambet Center will house simulation laboratories for adults, children, and birthing shared by both programs. To accommodate fundamental nursing and physician assistant courses, a 2,000 square foot shared lab will include 12 beds/examination stations, complete with privacy curtains, examination tables, and a teaching area. Included in the plans is a standardized patient simulation lab, complete with a waiting room, examination areas, and a dressing/lounge space.
In addition to the technological advances in the learning spaces, the Gambet Center will be an environmentally aware building. The University will seek Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) certification at the silver level. LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability and is a nationally recognized benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. The Gambet Center will be energy and water efficient, use recycled and rapidly renewable materials in construction, and have superior indoor environmental air and temperature quality.
The cost of the building will be partly funded by a $7 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The RACP grant is a commonwealth grant program administered by the Pennsylvania Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic and historical improvement projects that generate increases in employment, tax revenues or other measures of economic activity.
Press Release: DeSales University Breaks Ground For Gambet Center | Posted on: 6/10/2011
For more info:
Tom McNamara, Executive Director of Communications
DeSales University | 2255 Station Avenue | Center Valley, PA 18034
610.282.1100 x1219 | Tom.McNamara@desales.edu |
Apply Today
