 Trident Technical College broke ground Monday on a $30 million nursing and science building on the college’s main campus. The building will house TTC’s three nursing programs and provide classroom and lab space for science classes. (Image/Provided) |
Staff Report
Published June 27, 2012
With the help of local government, Trident Technical College broke ground Monday on a $30 million nursing and science building on the college’s main campus in North Charleston.
Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties are supporting construction of the 90,000-square-foot building, with each county providing a proportional share of the funding — Charleston County, $18 million; Berkeley County, $7.5 million; and Dorchester County, $4.5 million.
“We are very grateful for the support we have received from our county councils,” TTC president Mary Thornley said. “TTC is the largest provider of nursing education in the Lowcountry and the only provider of training for many critical health care fields. This investment will reap great benefits for our community as our population continues to grow and the demand for health care workers increases.”
More than 300 people helped the college celebrate the milestone, including TTC students and faculty, county council members, legislators and other elected officials.
The new building will house TTC’s three nursing programs and provide classroom and lab space for science classes such as microbiology, and anatomy and physiology. The building also will allow TTC to expand its nursing program from 650 students to 1,000.
Currently, the nursing programs and 10 of the college’s 13 health science programs are housed in a 54,400-square-foot building constructed in 1989, when the college’s enrollment was only 5,728. Today, the college has an enrollment of close to 17,000 students, making it the second largest institution of higher education in the state based on undergraduate enrollment.
Moving the nursing programs into a new building will free up space in the current building that will enable expansion of other health care programs. It hasn’t been determined how much any other individual program will expand. The health sciences division has been asked to evaluate their programs in order to determine priorities for use of the extra space.
LS3P Associates designed the building, and China Construction America of South Carolina Inc. received the construction contract through a state bidding process.
Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2013 and classes will begin in the building in January 2014. The new building is designed to meet LEED Silver standards for high performance in the areas of human and environmental health, sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
