British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) held an official groundbreaking for a new 107,000 square-foot Health Sciences Centre on Dec. 3.

The new centre will be a four-storey, net-zero carbon emission building. The centre will accommodate and provide learning spaces to approximately 7,000 students, including part- and full-time students. It will house a number of health-sciences programs, including cardiology, sonography, nursing, pediatric and nuclear medicine.

It will also be the most sustainable building on campus, targeting WELL Gold certification.

“This new state-of-the-art building is going to be a game changer for healthcare students at BCIT,” said Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. “It will be more than just a building. It will be the training grounds for the next generation of highly-trained health specialists. It was designed with students and the environment in mind and fits squarely within our government’s CleanBC plan.”

The new Health Sciences Centre will replace existing simulation space and will replicate the work environments for a variety of hospitals and laboratories. This centre will enable students to learn in an innovative, cohesive space that improves their quality of education.

“Stantec is proud to celebrate the groundbreaking of the BCIT Health Sciences Centre. Our design blends immersive technology, a range of low to high fidelity rooms and collaboration spaces, connected via a continuous ribbon of social spaces to support a variety of learning modalities and experiences for students, faculty and staff. This building is also pursuing aggressive sustainability and social inclusivity targets, making it a one of a kind in British Columbia,” said Stantec architect Eleonore Leclerc.

The province of B.C. is spending $66.6 million of the project’s $78.3 million budget and completion is expected by late 2021.