Development News

Oakland U greenlights new human health building

Thursday, July 16, 2009

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Healthcare, Higher Education, Oakland County

Rochester

Oakland University's healthcare curriculum is about to become a bit healthier now that the school plans to build a new Human Health Building.

The 160,000-square-foot building will house the university's schools of Nursing and Health Sciences. The structure will be built on the northwest corner of the university campus and is expected to open in 2010 to accommodate the growing enrollment of healthcare students.

The 5-story structure, designed by Detroit-based SmithGroup, will house both academic and clinical faculty. The professors will take a more hands-on process to teaching with state-of-the-art classrooms, seminar rooms, an interactive media center, physical therapy clinics, and clinical learning labs. These amenities will be designed to replicate what happens in hospitals.

"We believe the students deserve a state-of-the-art facility to experience education and help it translate into the workplace," says Virinder Moudgil, provost and senior vice president of Oakland University.

The state is paying $40 million of the $62 million project. The university will finance the remaining $22 million, plus another $11 million in related infrastructure and technology improvements through general revenue bonds.

This will be the fifth academic building Oakland University has built in the last 13 years. Student enrollment has jumped 80 percent in the same period of time.

Source: Virinder Moudgil, provost and senior vice president of Oakland University.
Writer: Jon Zemke

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