Case Stories

The learning environment in the Jenny & Randy Boyd Building at the Strawberry Plains campus required renovations of the 24,250 available square feet to meet the needs of both students and faculty. With enrollment projected to expand, school administrators approached Community Tectonics Architects for help in redesigning the interior of one of the sizable nursing skills labs.

The addition of an operable wall was necessary to better accommodate multiple teaching scenarios, such as learning how to perform and master skills prior to entering the obstetric and pediatric clinical sites. In the second lab, students practice routine procedures, such as inserting IVs or catheters. The third lab is used post-simulation to discuss students’ strengths and weaknesses.

It was essential that the walls in the nursing skills lab could contend with a busy, educational atmosphere. This required them to be durable and easy to clean. The design team focused on delivering a look that exceeded all the project’s requirements for durability, professionalism and cleanliness.

Solution

To professionalize and brighten up the new labs, college administrators requested “something other than a solid color, run-of-the-mill partition,” said Bill Vinson of Community Tectonics Architects. “They chose to incorporate Acrovyn by Design’s Linen pattern in Hearthstone on partition walls to meet this request.”

“Our solution to put Acrovyn by Design on the partition walls makes them as beautiful as they are easy to clean. We are also pleased with the durability Acrovyn by Design brings to Pellissippi’s nursing skills lab. In a dynamic learning space with moving nursing beds and carts, protection for the operable walls was imperative,” said Vinson. “Acrovyn by Design’s Organic Collection fit beautifully into the lab’s healthcare aesthetic.”

Pleased with the beautiful modification of its nursing skills lab, Pellissippi administrators requested that Acrovyn by Design be placed on additional partition walls in the pediatric skills lab, the obstetrics lab and another classroom at the Strawberry Plains  campus as well.