Nursing's $20 Million Addition Features 'Green' Design

Posted on May 2, 2005

Carolina recently dedicated its new $20 million School of Nursing building addition, which doubles the school’s previous space.

The addition is the first building in the 16-campus UNC System with a pending Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Certification is voluntary and based on design and construction practices promoting buildings that are environmentally responsible and healthy places to work.

The new 69,350-square-foot facility doubles the school’s previous space and is home to a 163-seat auditorium, 83 new faculty and staff offices, 23 new funded project spaces and 15 new conference room-meeting areas. Other features include technology-enhanced classrooms, a patient simulator laboratory for critical-care skill development and a landscaped rooftop to manage storm water sustainability.

“We are proud to expand the school’s capacity to educate high-achieving students who will meet the escalating health-care needs of our state, nation and world,” said Linda Cronenwett, the school’s dean. “We are proud to expand the space for faculty and student scholars who seek to discover improved ways to ameliorate illness and promote health.”

Funding was provided through $10 million from the N.C. higher education bond referendum of 2000; $3.4 million from University overhead receipts, which are generated through faculty research; $1.1 million in additional University funding; almost $3 million in private gifts raised as part of UNC’s Carolina First fundraising campaign; and $2.7 million in School of Nursing debt financing.

UNC’s School of Nursing was established in 1950 in response to the need for nurses in North Carolina and was the first nursing school in the state to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree (in 1950), a master’s degree in nursing (1955), a doctorate in nursing (1989) and an accelerated bachelor’s degree option for second degree students (2001). The school also was the first to initiate continuing education for nurses (1964).

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