Construction on new Health Professions building moving fast
Building will consolidate innovative programs under one roof
July 24, 2022
Towson University’s dream College of Health Professions building is quickly becoming a reality.
Located along University Avenue, the 240,000-square-foot, $175-million building will bring almost all of the health professions programs under one roof, including the state‘s only accredited occupational therapy program and Maryland's second-largest baccalaureate nursing program. When it opens in summer 2024, its state-of-the-art facilities will expand high-tech simulation opportunities, and its collaborative spaces will strengthen interprofessional education.
“Each day I walk past the construction site, and each day I envision what our hallways, classrooms and labs will look like when filled with students and faculty,” says CHP Dean Lisa Plowfield. “It’s exciting to imagine the future and think about what each of our programs and students will be doing floor by floor and room by room.”
The new building features 19 collaborative classrooms; 10 specialty labs facilitating hands-on learning in nursing, occupational therapy, pediatrics, anatomy, health assessment and more; 10 patient exam rooms; eight speech and audiology research labs; six specialty simulation labs and an acute care multi-patient simulation environment; and a 300-seat auditorium.
“In these learning spaces we will build community, examine best practices and guide students in their professional development,” says Plowfield. “We will continue to watch with growing excitement as construction progresses.”
The building will advance health and wellness in form and function, incorporating sustainable materials and design elements to achieve LEED Gold certification.
Dr. Jay Perman, chancellor of the University System of Maryland and a physician, was at last year’s groundbreaking and was particularly moved by the day’s activities. He recognized that TU, already the largest provider of health care professionals in Maryland, is now in an even better position to fill the 23,000-person gap in the state’s health workforce.
“The students who are going to come out of this building, they are truly the future of health care,” Perman said. “This building will give us the capacity to close our workforce gaps while giving students the opportunities that they’re clamoring for. They are banging down the doors to get into Towson’s health programs. I hear it, and now you can swing those doors wide open.”
The new building will support CHP’s 184% increase in undergraduate enrollment since 1998 and alleviate space restrictions that limit the college to enrolling just 18% of applicants in high-demand programs.
the future of health professions
Support the new CHP building
With your support, our health professions students will learn together in a modern educational center designed to mirror modern clinical practice’s high-tech, high-touch approach. For the current list of naming opportunities in the College of Health Professions Building, contact Linda Roush, Senior Director of Development, at 410-704-3540 or lroush AT_TOWSON.