Education

What's Happening in Higher Education

by Ben Niebauer

LEED AP BD + C

Associate Principal, Education Market Leader

I spend a lot of time on college campuses...

Or, at least, I did up until mid-March when colleges and universities closed campus during this global pandemic. As someone who works with dozens of universities across the country, I have been asked and been asking 2 primary questions in the past month and a half:

“What’s happening in higher education?”
“How will education change?”

The answer is and will continue to be wildly-specific depending on the institution, as there are about a million micro-to-macro variables that might determine how a university could be feeling the impact right now. There are, however, some commonalities between what all colleges and universities are experiencing. Here’s what is happening everywhere right now:

Students Sent Home

Different states had different deadlines for “shutting down”, so some institutions had more time than others to create a plan for students to collect their belongings from their dorm rooms before heading home to mom & dad’s house. Most colleges we able to provide students a “move-out” date and resources/timeslots to be able to effectively pack up shop. Some, however, had no time at all. Students at Swarthmore College in Eastern Pennsylvania, for example, left for Spring Break only to be told: “You are not allowed to come back.” Facilities staff at Swarthmore then had to “scrub” the buildings for perishable food left in refrigerators and necessary medications that students needed.

Not everyone elected to grab their belongings, however. Some students and their parents contacted the respective housing departments and said “Just throw it all out, we’ll replace it all.” This caused yet another logistical issue for facilities and residence life staff.

Some Students Remain on Campus

Most residence halls – big money makers for institutions – are now sitting vacant. I say most because some students can’t go home. Many international students cannot leave the country due to travel restrictions in their countries of origin. Others still do not have homes elsewhere. The result? Every university had to develop policies/criteria for certain students to be allowed to remain on campus. At The Ohio State University, for example, the total number of students remaining on campus is around 1,000 (more than can fit in any one building, especially considering that these students are all in private rooms to limit personal contact). 50 short miles away at Cedarville University – with about 4,000 total students – the number remaining on campus is closer to 40, with about half of those being nursing students who are wrapping up clinical rotations.

Food is Essential

Students remaining in residence halls means students who need dining options. Therefore, every institution has modified at least one dining operation to provide a grab-n-go / carryout option for their students and staff. This pandemic also has many institutions rethinking how they might permanently modify dining options to serve food once the students come back to school. Think about it: how important is that sneeze guard now at the food court?

At School, At Home

Students still have to finish out the semester, and most faculty have adapted to teaching online. While you’d be hard-pressed to find a college that didn’t offer online content before the pandemic, I.T. staff at institutions are feeling the burden of bringing everyone up to speed to minimize downtime and maximize 1-on-1 virtual contact hours with students. While Millennials might be fine with the shift, not every faculty member was ready to switch to a digital platform. This change, while good, has been more painful for some than others.

One program that has weathered the online learning particularly well is Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (HCOM). HCOM has 3 campuses in Athens, Cleveland, and Dublin, Ohio. Faculty in Athens routinely teach students in Cleveland, and so on. What has been a key factor to their success? A robust, integrated I.T. department WITHIN THE COLLEGE that has a seat and a voice at the head table, and whose budget for installation and maintenance of audio/visual resources is protected in capital projects. We will likely see more of this model in academic departments moving forward.

"Graduating" Early

Health-science related programs like Ohio State University’s College of Medicine have been offering students early diplomas (provided they had already completed the requirements of their degree) to allow them to enter the work force to help fight the pandemic. Students are “graduating” from their living rooms; not getting closure on an academic career and that last tie to bind them to their alma-mater.

Heroes

Healthcare professionals and staff have become celebrated as heroes, and rightfully so. There is another set of heroes on college campuses these days, and they’re the ones in charge of keeping facilities, operations, and technology up and running. Who do you think is doing the “deep cleaning” in all of the buildings on campuses across the country? Custodial staff are THE essential front-line staff on campus today. Hybrid solutions to maintenance tickets and work orders have been implemented across the country. Personal and/or university vehicles have become make-shift private offices for staff. Maintenance staff can access work orders over phones or tablets and execute those orders in surgical in-and-out procedures in buildings.

Losing Money

As mentioned above: students aren’t paying rent at residence halls. At yet other institutions, tuitions are being refunded. At others, parents who have lost their jobs during this pandemic have been asking for more financial aid to be able to send their son or daughter to school. The exact economic impact at every school varies wildly, but they are all feeling a significant reduction in income.

Furthermore: there is no guarantee that the students will be back: many institutions are already predicting a 25% enrollment dip this Fall. The uncertainty of the timing, pace, scale, and degree of a “return to normal” has caused universities to create layers upon layers of contingency plans: “What if all the students do come back?”; “What if nobody comes back?”; “What if they all come back, but want private dorm rooms?”. All good questions. All require planning. All will remain to be answered in the months to come. And all institutions are delaying making that decision as long as they can so as to make the most informed decision possible.

university residence hall at dusk — The Ohio State University Newark Campus McConnell Residence Hall

Okay, so I’ve answered the first question....

What about the second? How will education change? What can institutions do to prepare themselves for the future? Here are some thoughts:

Be Ready

While most contractors are still busy now, the current economic climate is creating a small “bubble” in some construction markets. Institutions that have “shovel-ready” projects when the snow melts next year will be better suited to capitalize on a workforce that needs to stay busy.

Technology, Flexibility, and Utilization

I’ve said this for a few years now: If you’re designing a classroom without a camera in it, you’re doing it wrong. And it’s not just about classrooms. Connectivity and 2-way communication must be ubiquitous on campus. In the hallway. Outside. In your bedroom. At the café. Everywhere. Institutions should be looking at ways to study utilization of spaces and provide more quality and less quantity. More technology-rich environments. Fewer walls & doors.

Bowling Green State University set out years ago to actually reduce the amount of academic space on campus, and make the spaces that they had better, more saturated with technology, and more flexible to accommodate different modes of learning. As a result, they are light-years more prepared to adapt in the future than they would have been had this pandemic hit us in 2010.

Document Everything

Record your plans. Many institutions and businesses were caught unprepared for this pandemic. The plans and policies that are being developed at colleges and universities across the country should be documented and codified so that memory of what to do is not lost with personnel changes. These plans should also be updated, reviewed, and assessed periodically to ensure best practices in the future.

Talk to Each Other

Peer-to-peer. Friend-to-friend. College-to-college. You can always learn more. You can always get better. Organizations like the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), Leadership in Educational Facilities (APPA), and the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) are leading the charge in providing content and resources for people “in the trenches” on campus. They offer great resources right now for institutions to share experiences, learn from each other, and hear best practices. Get online. Check them out. Join a town hall meeting. Learn and get better.

Get Ready for Everything

As someone who works all over the country, and who designs everything from medical simulation suites to residence halls, I must be prepared for all manners of how this impacts my clients. I’m optimistic that this pandemic will provide an opportunity for higher education institutions to create better, more flexible, multidisciplinary, technology-rich, and safer environments on campus moving forward.

Ben Niebauer

LEED AP BD + C

Associate Principal, Education Market Leader

Ben leads DesignGroup’s education practice. He has focused his 21 year career on exceptional design and planning for academic facilities. Ben has significant experience designing student centered environments including medical education facilities, laboratories, over 5,500 student housing beds, and has assessed and planned over 30 million square feet of higher education campuses. Ben is an active participant with the Society of College and University Planners.

Healthcare, Commercial

Better Design for the Heroes of Healthcare

by Angela Kolosky, Joe Mayer

When we ask healthcare workers what could make their work environment better, they always start with patient care. While it’s wonderful they’re so dedicated to their jobs, part of our job is to care about them when we consider the design of a great healthcare space. So when we press them a little harder to focus on their own needs, healthcare workers often point to many of the same things preferred by office workers. Different worlds, but common needs.

A huge number of Americans – some estimate 12 percent of all workers [ 1 ] – are employed in healthcare. But even best-practice workplace standards (such as the WELL building standard, which advocates design for the health and wellness of occupants) focus almost exclusively on corporate office space. As planners and designers, we can better meet the needs of healthcare workers by drawing inspiration from best practices in these other markets.

While there have been gradual moves, the COVID-19 pandemic has shined a bright light on what needs to change. It’s time to do something that improves the experience of our healthcare heroes. To follow are five strategies for improving the healthcare workplace. Perhaps a lasting silver lining on the other side of this pandemic will be a lasting realization of how the quality of the healthcare work environment affects the quality of care provided.

1. Ergonomic Control

Thoughtful ergonomics is more than a well-designed desk chair – it’s about supporting workers throughout their day and providing customization of their work spaces in various forms.

Why it matters: 33% of workplace injuries and illnesses stem from musculoskeletal disorders. [ 2 ]

Providing staff comfort and individualized control at both the bedside and workstations reduces discomfort and stressors. All of which helps keep staff healthy — and better focused on patient care.

hospital room with ergonomic nurse workstation

2. Sensory Control

A key indicator in any office or work environment is the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), which is most significantly impacted by lighting, acoustics, and climate. In healthcare environments, these elements are too often designed around the comfort of patients — at the exclusion of staff. It’s critical to consider both populations in the design of good patient care spaces.

Why it matters: Allowing staff individualized control when possible helps maintain circadian rhythms, which in turn helps regulate mood and keeps employees happier. [ 3 ]

hospital staff station with glass enclosure

Lighting Controls

In many patient care areas, lighting levels are mandated by federal guidelines. It’s important to provide flexible staff areas where light levels can be adapted with dimmers or through the use of individual task lighting. This also means orienting workstations to reduce glare from natural light.

Acoustics

Hospitals are notoriously noisy places and healthcare work can require extreme focus to minimize errors. Acoustical separation when desired and alternative work locations help improve acoustical comfort. Acoustically absorptive materials and sound masking can help mitigate noise in staff areas.

Climate

Providing more individualized control of specific staff work areas can help improve staff focus and performance. This could mean control of a thermostat in a staff respite room or simply access to a breezy outdoor space when desired.

3. Workday Decompression Spaces

Providing various types of staff spaces beyond patient care zones (such as private meditation rooms, small conference rooms, and staff break rooms with access to natural light) allows for staff to decompress over the course of the day or right after an event. The quality of care provided by a hospital is a direct link to satisfaction and value that healthcare workers feel.

Why it matters: Providing and encouraging staff to use decompression spaces dedicated to them shows them that you care about them as individuals. Mental health in healthcare workers has taken center stage with the current pandemic, but even after this has passed, staff will need places to manage their own health throughout the day.

4. Transitional Decompression Spaces

Like all workers, healthcare staff have work and home stressors. Yet few jobs have such impacts when those stressors start to overlap. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of the process to decompress before transitioning from work to home and vice versa.

Why it matters: Healthcare workers need to be focused at work; when their shift ends, their compassion buckets needs to have a little left for home. Allowing for a decompression zone on both sides of the work/life spectrum gives them a chance to re-energize and focus towards the next endeavor. This zone could be a garden between a staff entry and their car, a convenient coffee shop, or well-placed inspirational artwork. It can even be as simple as a well-appointed, aptly located locker room with the right amount of personal space.

5. Access to Basic Necessities

In traditional office environments, we often take for granted how easy it is to access basic necessities like daylight, convenient food and drink, and easy opportunities to collaborate. These common luxuries are often not available to clinical staff. And that can conflict with patient care and safety.

Why it matters: Giving staff access to these basic necessities improves their mental focus and shows how much they are valued and the work they provide.

Daylight

Studies have shown that access to daylight and views is critical to a body’s regulation and health. Providing staff adequate access increases alertness, reduces fatigue and eye strain, and improves how they feel.

Nutrition

Patient care is demanding work, so the ability to stay adequately hydrated helps improve overall health as well as staff comfort and focus during the workday.

Staff Interaction

Providing workspaces that facilitate multiple scales of interaction between staff – from the two-person huddle room to larger staff stations where clinical staff can congregate – allows better collaboration on patient care and the mental support and camaraderie so important to any work environment.

We believe in a post-COVID-19 world, that collaboration will continue to be king. We’re already seeing it in the way we’re working this week. Workplace design will integrate materials and safety protocols from Healthcare, and Healthcare will integrate concepts of ergonomics and office architecture to promote wellness. We’re eager to help influence how this synergy will benefit workers in the future.

References

1. [ https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/health-care-employment-as-tota... ]
2. [ OHSA Ergonomics; https//www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/ ]
3. [ Walker, W. H., 2nd, Walton, J. C., DeVries, A. C., & Nelson, R. J. (2020). Circadian rhythm disruption and mental health. Translational psychiatry, 10(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-0694-0 ]

Angela Kolosky

ACHA, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C

Principal, Healthcare Planning Market Leader

More about Angela

Joe Mayer

AIA, NCARB, WELL AP

Principal, Designer

More about Joe

Education

Considerations for Residence Life After COVID-19

by Ben Niebauer

LEED AP BD + C

Associate Principal, Education Market Leader

Ben Niebauer

LEED AP BD + C

Associate Principal, Education Market Leader

Returning to Work Soon? Make the Most of It

by Nikki Wildman

RA, LEED AP BD+C

Associate Principal, Project Manager

Let’s give Zoom, Teams, Webex, and all their virtual meeting brethren some credit. Despite the tinny sound, janky video, and cheesy backgrounds, these platforms gave us an effective alternative to in-person meetings — a work-from-home lifeline during a public health crisis. But now it’s time to pull out your office wardrobe because people are starting to return to the workplace.

And that’s a good thing because there’s simply no replacement for the productivity, innovation, and all-around magic that happens in a well-planned, face-to-face work session. LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index found that nearly half of those surveyed believe their industry is less effective under a WFH strategy. AEC professionals are among those who agree.

That’s why so many of us are eager to get back to the office, even with new restrictions in place. As the professionals at DesignGroup (and around the world) prepare for a COVID-19-sensitive workplace, we’ve come up with five tips that encourage what we all crave: in-person collaboration.

We are all #inthistogether and each of us has been uniquely impacted by the pandemic both professionally and personally. But humanity is on our side! Cherish the opportunity to work together; be patient and poke fun at the meetings in this strange, new normal. 

References

1. For more training on big and bold collaboration skills, Graceworks, Inc, can provide workshops and teach tools for effective communication, presentations and writing.

2. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-so-funny-the-science-of...

3. https://www.humormatters.com/

Nikki Wildman

RA, LEED AP BD+C

Associate Principal, Project Manager

Nikki’s a proven team member at DesignGroup, leading and managing the delivery of projects for clients such as Leading EDJE, Franklin Park Conservatory and Cedarville University. Her insights, ideas and experience have been and will continue to be critical to the higher education, commercial and civic/cultural projects in which she services. She has also served in leadership roles for USGBC Central Ohio and DesignColumbus.

Education

Investing in Reuse

by Jennifer Son

RA, NCARB

Project Manager

Welcome to the renovation renaissance of higher education! It is an era whose timely philosophy has generated what some have called the new “new” for colleges and universities, and is an approach born of diverse influences. While not a comprehensive list, we see these influences in the growing competition for students seeking world class campus facilities during a time of diminishing institutional revenue (N.Y. Times, Building a Showcase Campus, Using an I.O.U., December 2012), sustainability goals with campus-wide mandates, and austerity pressures driven by a weakened U.S. economy. It’s an exciting opportunity for architects and university administrators alike to showcase innovative thinking and the increased collaboration required to realize projects under restrictive site conditions and building infrastructure - often with construction in occupied buildings. Implementing new design technologies in existing buildings brings freshly realized value to the structures that have provided the historical growth of many institutions, and highlights a commitment to the responsible reuse of building materials already in place.

Paving the way for a successful renovation project will take greater up-front effort in planning. The right partners in your design and construction teams will help facilitate the process by providing experience and the necessary collaborative spirit to make your job easier. What follows are our big ideas to set you forth with strategic purpose.

Be a Visible Leader

Set your expectations of teamwork at the onset. Make your vision for success a collective vision involving your design team, construction manager, facility manager, and academic leader. Navigating the disruption to the building requires cooperation from each of these parties and by establishing ownership of the process amongst us, we all become facilitators of the vision with a share of the responsibility in bringing it forward. Your kick-off meeting should clearly define the responsibilities of each team member and provide the framework illustrating the importance of their individual contribution. These relationships built early on will have great impact over the duration of the project, either setting up roadblocks to efficient progress or facilitating a process-driven collective effort toward meeting all your project goals.

Unless your building has been sitting vacant, the renovation process will be disruptive to the people on campus who matter most – your educators, your researchers, and your students. Help them understand the value of the project by providing visible leadership that communicates the end vision and a thoughtful plan for the process. Invite them to participate in a town-hall type setting that provides them opportunity to share in the excitement of the project and ask questions about the impact to their workflow. Your architect, engineers, and construction manager are valuable partners in this meeting and can provide answers to technical questions that may arise. Simply offering the outlet for them to be heard goes a long way in illustrating that they are at the forefront of your concerns.

Plan It

Determine if your building will need to remain occupied during the construction period. While temporarily relocating may seem like a hassle and an unnecessary expense, the benefits of being able to vacate the building are many.Construction is noisy, dirty, and requires you to share your space with labor crews. This decision has the single-most impact on the trajectory of your construction process.

1. Option 1 – Vacate the Building.
Select your swing space. You will need to evaluate the capacity and infrastructure of the space available. Computer stations need power; laboratories need plumbing and exhaust; book stacks need enhanced structural capacity. If you can accommodate all your needs, budget the move and proceed knowing you’ve saved yourself much stress in the coming months. If costs exceed what you are able to cover as a purchase order it can be run through your construction contract.

2. Option 2 – Maintain Operations in Your Building During Construction.
Depending on the complexity of the academic work being done in your building, this may include a combination of night work and small-scale short-term relocations conducted in phases, with temporary swing space that allows for uninterrupted construction in areas while users work elsewhere. Often, this is accomplished through use of a designated area within the building.

Understanding the costs of phased work in occupied buildings is critical to managing your budget. Second and third shift construction work will require a premium paid for labor and may extend the construction schedule as time will need to be budgeted for daily prep and the clean-up that allows your users to effectively use their space during the day. Even with daily clean-up, the migration of some construction dust is unavoidable and will be noticed by your occupants. Security is also a factor to consider as contractors must be able to move through the areas scheduled for construction. Items of high cost and personal value should be taken off-site as a safeguard against incidental damage and to avoid accusations of impropriety.

Your design team can help you forecast the extent of the imposition on daily life in your building. Renovation of one space might have impact on other areas depending on the nature of the work and where connections to basic components of the building systems are located. Electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems require access to existing components above ceilings and within walls that may require selective demolition in neighboring rooms to complete new connections. Utility shut-downs and work requiring cranes will need to be carefully scheduled as these activities temporarily limit access to and services within the building.

Know Your Needs

Determine, and then share your academic needs. Work closely with the dean or department head to map out exam schedules or other events planned to take place over the construction period. Special requirements for particular research projects can often be accommodated when planned for. Highlight extended breaks in the academic calendar so that construction can be maximized during these periods. These limitations on work hours and milestone dates should be communicated to prospective bidders so that any associated costs can be captured up front and change orders to meet these needs are avoided.

OU HCOM

DesignGroup recently completed 60,000 SF of renovation for the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, co-located with the Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. The opportunity to partner with the university in a renovation project allowed for a partial repurposing of the building, which would have otherwise likely been demolished. The project included redesign of the entry, posing the unique challenge of maintaining access for patients and staff to the hospital, which remained open during the construction period.

Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Lobby Before Renovation

Cleveland Clinic South Pointe / OU HCOM Lobby After Renovation

The project team included the architect and engineers, the construction manager, and project managers from both the college and the facility. The construction manager project supervisor was on site full time and was supplemented with frequent and regular visits by the rest of the project team. Key to the team’s effectiveness was that the owner’s project manager was both experienced in renovations and had the authority to make immediate decisions. She established a culture of teamwork and communication that translated to quick, decisive problem solving.

As the renovation project took form, it became apparent that infrastructure upgrades would be necessary and should start ahead of the renovation construction. An additional project was defined to upgrade building-wide electrical service, HVAC items, elevators, and to replace the roof. Using the same design and construction team, this project folded neatly into the overall schedule and represents the first phase of the work. The remaining construction was organized into two more phases designed around code compliant access routes that accommodated continuous workflow for both contractors and medical staff. Temporary barriers were built and moved around in response to the phasing that kept patients and staff protected from construction activities and contained construction dust and debris. Working in tandem with the contractor’s effort, the Owner provided special staff to assist their patients in navigating through the construction, placing a help desk at the entry to ensure that users of the hospital were guided to their destinations safely.

The HCOM project illustrates a team of designers, contractors, and owners coming together in mutual support of each other from design through construction. The renovation has been met with high praise from both the university and the hospital, and serves as a testament to the sometimes hidden opportunities of renovations.

An Investment in Values

Renovations offer a unique sense of accomplishment and social reward. Transformations to buildings whose design no longer meets the functional needs or preferred nature of a space are especially exciting to the people who inhabit them every day. Today’s strategies to maximize natural lighting and provide increasingly flexible spaces have shown to improve the productivity and well-being of those who live and work in spaces designed around them, and will have even greater impact for people who have occupied your space both before and after your renovation.

The success of your renovation project has value for your campus and beyond. With a focus on the worth of existing building stock, renovation projects celebrate our ingenuity, our willingness to work together to meet logistical challenges, and the values that contribute to an everlasting planet.

Jennifer Son

RA, NCARB

Project Manager

The Whale, the Oculus, and Falling in Love

by Michael Bongiorno

AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Principal, Senior Designer

In the cultural sector, there is a lot of talk about change. Whether you are a museum, conservatory or library, over the last 10-15 years your service and operational models have changed in response to many factors. Be they broader outside influences affecting the change (demographic shifts, the impact of new technologies) or internal ones (content relevance, new revenue streams) your traditional role of collecting, preserving and sharing some type of collection has shifted to one where you are playing an increasing role in fostering more social connectivity and a different kind of interaction with what you have to offer consumers. With so many more options vying for their attention, how do you differentiate yourself?

Making the Emotional Connection

Above all else, at a fundamental and universal human level, visitors are really seeking an emotional connection to a place and opportunities to form positive memories through shared experiences with other people. It’s not just about the collection.

Yet, despite this shift, the visitor experience at cultural institutions is most often discussed in terms of metrics and data in relation to the artifacts for which the institution is a custodian or for the services they provide. As much as I am interested in, and believe in the importance of, the quantitative and functional facets of the visitor experience I am especially interested in a qualitative one, the facet you might call the hidden dimension of the visitor experience.

While this “hidden dimension” is much more difficult to measure and give shape to, it provides the emotional connections that will ensure a return visitor, one who will spend more time with you while they are there because you’ve engaged them in a multi-sensory way at a profoundly human level. In architecture and design, we call this phenomenon a "sense of place” - characteristics that make a place special or unique and foster authentic human attachment, belonging, and memory formation. By focusing on creating this unique sense of place at your institution, and fostering connections among other humans, you will, in turn, bolster the appreciation and experience of your artifacts and services, be they art, horticulture, or information.

In order to realize a true sense of place, we in our practice at DesignGroup, design buildings from the inside out, centered on the personal experiences of human beings and driven by the mission of our clients. In doing so, the buildings we design are a direct reflection of the personalities and aspirations of our clients and the customers they serve. I’d like to share just a couple of the many considerations we think about when designing with a different kind of visitor experience in mind.

Choreography - The Whale

One defining feature of our work is how we choreograph the movement of humans through space and time by creating an unfolding narrative experience as a visitor moves from space to space to allow for discovery, wonder, surprise, and pause. In a well-choreographed building the experience shouldn’t feel contrived, it should just feel right. For most people, though, the experience of a space’s quality occurs at an unconscious level - you might not be able to pinpoint why a space is memorable or makes you feel good, you just know it does. However, in a well-designed environment, intentional design cues play the central role in how you experience a space.
I have a vivid childhood memory of the first time I walked into the Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City during an elementary school field trip.

While it was incredible to see a blue whale hanging from a glass ceiling, what is more incredible to me in retrospect was the choreography that got us there: after winding through formal preceding rooms we passed through a low, dark entryway and emerged into an enormous, blue-lit room with a soaring backlit glass ceiling. Suspended from that delicate ceiling, and over a deep blue floor, was the floating blue whale, carefully illuminated to enhance both its enormousness and buoyancy at the same time. After descending the grand staircase until we were under its body, I lay on the ground under the belly of the whale with my schoolmates, hearts racing yet eerily calm, and staring up in wonder. I didn’t realize it then, but I certainly do now: it is the choreography that gets you - crossing a threshold, the sense of surprise and awe, and then the opportunity to gather and socialize.

Our recently completed Margaret M. Walter Wing Addition to the Columbus Museum of Art also illustrates some of this thinking. Prior to opening I was asked, as one of four artists, to create an experiential map of the museum through a unique lens. The map, entitled "Cinematic Experience: Through the Eye of the Architect" contained a series of key points and scenes that provide a way to experience the Walter Wing addition in the way it was conceived. Since the experience of the building was imagined in the same way a cinematographer imagines a sequence of experiences in the creation of a film, the map reads as a storyboard containing a series of vignettes and framed views tied to key points along an imagined journey.

Key Point Map from "Cinematic Experience: Through the Eye of the Architect".

Key Point 4: Cinematic Facade - Experiencing the life on Broad Street from within the museum.

Key Point 12: Cinematic Facade - Experiencing activity within the museum while outside on Broad Street.

Along your journey, you discover the many other intentional framed views that occur between these designated viewpoints. Through the map experience, we encourage visitors to always ask themselves questions along the way: What do I see or feel when I am at the key points and what is the architect trying to show me?

The Columbus Museum of Art Margaret M. Walter Wing. Columbus, OH.

Light - The Oculus

Another defining feature of our work is the unique way in which we use daylight. Natural light is a powerful gift that can create both logical and emotional responses: it illuminates, defines pathways, and creates mood. In our work, we discuss daylight in terms of its poetic impact - the emotional response to the changing conditions of light over the course of the day and the course of the year. We think about how each part of a building responds to different light conditions depending on where the light is coming from, what the light is penetrating through, and what material the light is reflecting off. Every day of the year, the experience is different and year to year, as atmospheric conditions change, you experience light in a new way. While we are thinking about all of this we imagine how the visitor will move through and experience these changing conditions - how they can create moments of quiet, pause and focus or stir up moments of gathering, activity, and conversation.

When I was studying in Rome, I would visit the ancient Pantheon almost every day to experience the poetic power of daylight in architecture.

Within the Pantheon, after crossing the threshold and heavy columns of the dark portico, you enter an enormous, round sky-lit room defined by a soaring concrete dome. At the very top of this dome is a round opening in the roof called an oculus. Through this opening, a shaft of light enters the building and creates a disk of light that moves across the floor, walls, and underside of the dome depending on the time of day and the weather conditions. Depending on these factors, the light changes in color and intensity, but also in density - the oculus is open to the elements so rain, mist, snow define the shaft of light when they occur. If it is sunny, the light is crisp, geometric; if it is overcast, the light is diffused, without shape. The light can be warm, bright white, or a muddy gray.

The amazing thing is that it is different almost every day and I would try to head over for a visit whenever I thought the light would be “just right” in color, intensity, and angle. It is a sublime place and even when full of tourists it has an unmistakable quiet to it. I was deeply moved by these early experiences and felt a profound connection to that specific place which I carry with me to this day. Yes, I appreciated the historical significance of the Pantheon; yes, I understood the structural gymnastics required to create a concrete dome; yes I appreciated the geometric perfection of the building proportions, and even the science of light. But I didn’t keep going back to see the Pantheon, the artifact, I went back to experience the place where the ever changing conditions of light inspired a spiritual moment and a need for me to just be there. Whenever I am working on the design of a building or space, I am always trying to channel how that light made me feel and present it back to my fellow human in a new way.

Falling in Love

It is easy for me to take a lot of what I describe for granted because I dream of spaces for a living; most humans unconsciously recall spaces that have created a memory for them. There are places people go to propose to their future spouses for a reason. Do you remember why you chose yours? I proposed to my wife on the campus of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Neither of us studied at Capital University. We have no ties to the institution. This is just a place where we used to eat our ice cream on our first dates while sitting under the trees in an historic quad surrounded by old buildings that created a nice outdoor room. It wasn’t an iconic space, it was just one that felt perfect.

Yes, your institution’s focus may be art, history, horticulture or information (or even healthcare, education, workplaces, and places to live). And you may be doing great things to engage visitors with those assets in unique and innovative ways. But, more importantly, your institution is a place where human beings come together to form an emotional connection to a unique, inspiring environment where they can create positive memories through shared experiences.

Michael Bongiorno

AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Principal, Senior Designer

Education

Let the Healing Begin

by Ben Niebauer

LEED AP BD + C

Associate Principal, Education Market Leader

You needn’t look far to find documentation of the current shortage of healthcare professionals in this country. Whether caused by the increasingly stringent path to licensure, the rising costs of insurance for medical practitioners, or simply by rapidly aging baby-boomers in need of a physician, the result is the same: the U.S. is becoming more and more medically underserved.

Universities have taken up the charge of trying to attract the best and brightest students to the medical professions. Medical students spend long days and often nights on campus. Providing comfortable spaces for them to learn and study is essential to help them succeed and graduate. Whether through the renovation of existing facilities, or by creating that “bright, shiny new penny”, the universal goal that we see is the same: it’s time to focus on the future of health.

Identify a Need

A 2013 study by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPR) found that 48 percent of the counties in the state of Arkansas had a shortage of health professionals. The state also ranks 42nd in terms of the ratio of primary care physicians per capita. At that time, in the burgeoning profession of osteopathic medicine, Arkansas was home to only 0.4 percent of the D.O.’s, nationally.

Furthermore, when you look at a map of the United States and plot out where the current schools of osteopathic medicine are located, you notice a large hole whose center is in northeastern Arkansas. States often see that adding a new school of medicine to their region creates a ripple effect, wherein they find that the number of students who graduate with degrees and who set-up practices in the area increases dramatically. Given these two truths, it is not hard to envision that a new medical school could do great things for both the economy and well-being of the region.

Location of NYITCOM at ASU in comparison with surrounding osteopathic schools of medicine.

Enter New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and Arkansas State University (ASU). NYIT, which already had more than 12,000 students in its system of five schools of medicine around the globe, was looking for another location where they could add value to an underserved area. ASU, which is located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was already in the process of vacating a historic, 80,000 square foot structure in the heart of its campus. Arkansas had the need, NYIT had the program and the faculty and ASU had the space and the infrastructure to support a new school of medicine.

The two universities saw an opportunity to do great things together and, in 2015, engaged DesignGroup to study the feasibility of a new NYIT school of medicine at ASU. A few short months later, the universities hired DesignGroup – in partnership with AMR Architects out of Little Rock – to design their new college of osteopathic medicine in ASU’s existing Wilson Hall. The project had a very aggressive schedule, but when Wilson Hall re-opens its doors in the summer of 2016, it will more than double the number of students enrolled in D.O. schools across the U.S. who hail from the state of Arkansas. In its first year, the program has already brought medical jobs to the region, and hopes that many of its students decide to practice locally after they graduate from NYIT at ASU.

Rendering of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) Lab at ASU.

Creating Partnerships

In 2012, Ohio University (OU), was faced with some similar challenges of wanting to increase their presence throughout the state of Ohio. Their Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (HCOM) was already a well-established beacon in the largely rural southeastern Ohio; and, for several decades, had been sending its students to The Cleveland Clinic to complete their medical rotations. So, when thinking about how and where to expand, the College realized it already had a friend in northeast Ohio. The institutions saw in each other a similar strength in partnership. They looked at the issue of medical education through a series of lenses: Where is there the greatest need for more doctors? Are there underserved areas in northeast Ohio where they could do the most good? Is there available space within the Cleveland Clinic’s vast network of hospitals for a new school of medicine? As it happened, the answers to their questions were easy to find.

Warrensville Heights, Ohio's South Pointe Hospital, which had already been an exceptional partner as a teaching hospital, was located in an area around Cleveland that was struggling with not only a decline in population, but also a decline in services. South Pointe also had an incredible asset: a medical campus with not one, but two large hospitals on its premises (one of which was sitting half empty). Negotiations began, and in 2013 OU decided to make its Cleveland home at South Pointe.

DesignGroup, teaming with local architectural firm, Perspectus, was hired to design this new home for OU. HCOM Cleveland saw its doors open in 2015, and has been a model for collaborative environments and modern medical education.

Entry lobby at South Pointe Hospital/OU HCOM.

Virtually Real

Hopefully, you’re seeing the common thread here: public-private partnerships, operating in remote locations and building a team of highly qualified design professionals to shepherd the process. Once the needs were identified, the partnerships were in place and the schools had to execute the plan, the question became: how do we leverage our expertise in medical education with new faculty and new facilities and from afar?

Enter technology. But not just any technology: specific technology that supports the space and the pedagogy of the program. The integration of audio/visual and I.T. components into all spaces must now be both seamless and pervasive. In simulation environments, these advancements in technology have not only become more real, but they are now able to be taught/observed/shared from any location and in any format. Direct visual observation, while sometimes preferable through a two-way mirror, can also sometimes be just as effective via webcams, microphones, networks or a decent Wi-Fi signal.

So what? For years now, you’ve been able to take online courses and lectures. Why is this new wave of technology different? It’s not so much that that the technology has drastically changed, it’s more that the application of it has. A student will find that when they graduate, they are often part of a team of physicians, nurses, administrators, specialists and other professionals. In their practice, communication needs to be as open and transparent and seamless as possible. The educational setting is now mirroring this practice. With the push to more case-based and group-based learning, the applied technology now allows for this transparency.

Emergency department simulation lab

Not Just Bricks and Sticks

So if you build it in the right place, and if you have the right partner and if you put the right technology in the rooms, the program will flourish, right? Well, maybe. Designing schools of medicine is not like baking a cake; there is no one magic recipe. Or, if it is, it’s just like the cake your mom used to make you for your birthday. Do you remember what her secret ingredient was that made her cakes so wonderful? It was love.

Close your eyes and try to pull-up a mental image of your home. What do you see? Are you picturing four walls and a door, or are you picturing something more? I picture sitting on my back patio on a crisp Saturday morning; steam rising from the lip of my coffee, which is perched on the arm of my Adirondack chair while the birds cheerfully greet the day and each other with chirpy songs. I picture serenity. I picture comfort and warmth and a knowledge that I am safe. I picture an environment that I can control and shape and mold to suit my changing needs. Why should a medical student’s home on campus be any different? Why should the spaces they inhabit daily not be shown the same love and thought that your mother put into that delicious red velvet cake?

Medical education can be an emotionally charged experience. Students (and faculty) are exposed to imagery and engaged in situations and exercises which can be emotionally and physically exhausting, simulated or not. They need to be able to escape the high stress of these environments so that they can focus recharging their batteries. They need a sense of place, a home. An environment that is as customizable as it is comfortable. It is as important to get the interstitial spaces correct as it is the anatomy lab, the simulated ER, the mock exam room, etc. The successful spaces cannot be measured in metrics, nor tabulated in tables. They must be lived in and felt.

Student cafe at ASU

The Recipe for a School of Medicine

So, what does it take to make a new school of medicine? It must be viable, sure. It must be necessary. Find the right partners; there is no need to go it alone. The right people out there will want to help you. Use technology effectively and appropriately. Listen to and be mindful of pedagogy. Add this ingredient or that. Heck, put all the ingredients in you like. Just make sure you leave room for the secret ingredient that makes it feel like a place students and faculty wish to return to daily.

Ben Niebauer

LEED AP BD + C

Associate Principal, Education Market Leader

Healthcare

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Healthcare

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

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