Creighton University, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Health Sciences Building

Phoenix, Arizona

Firm

RDG Planning & Design

Client

Creighton University

Area

183,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$76,000,000

Completion Date

08/2021

Michael Robinson Photography

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Design Team
Benjamin Kroll, AIA, LEED AP; Mike Houston; Joe Lang, AIA; Brian Halsey, AIA, LEED AP; Scott Lundberg, AIA; Eric Winkler, AIA

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Health Sciences Campus in Phoenix, Arizona, has established new principles of interdisciplinary, experiential, and active learning pedagogies. The campus provides dynamic, flexible, technology-rich learning environments for over 900 medical, nursing, and allied health students. The design of this building reinforces a holistic approach to education, sustainable and WELL building strategies, and distinctive collaborative pedagogy.

The site selection, access to public transportation, and response to the urban condition supported the building’s response to its city and carbon reduction. Slight shifts in the building’s mass and fenestration express the program within, and the building’s glazing reflects its urban and mountainous atmosphere.

The design of the building’s human movement centers on well-being spaces that allowed for access to natural ventilation, outdoor study environments, vertical connections, and diverse technology; these enhance the learning environment and emphasize collaborative pedagogy. The facility’s medical simulation environments, standardized patient suites, classrooms, research and laboratory environments, “vertical learning commons” of interconnecting stairways, atriums, and gathering spaces create collaborative environments with framed views.