World-class planning and technology deliver a center that will advance, to the highest level, our robust nursing programs, our undergraduate health sciences course of study, and the developing graduate programs in rehabilitation sciences. Poised toward history and the future, the center’s design incorporates elements common to Moravian architectural heritage, such as a gambrel roof, with contemporary clean lines and extensive use of glass.
Soft, open study spaces throughout the building invite students and faculty to spend time in the center, encouraging interaction and collaboration. Currently, nursing students (400-plus) and faculty are scattered across campus.
The rain that had fallen
earlier in the day on Friday the 13th of May did not dampen spirits at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz Center for Health Sciences. Rather, it was a blessing—softening the ground for the symbolic turning of the first shovelfuls of soil at the site of the future building. Enthusiasm for the center was palpable. Ken Rampolla ’79, chairman of the board of trustees, celebrated that the center would fulfill Moravian College’s gaping need for a building to house not only our nursing programs but also labs for our burgeoning health sciences disciplines to include informatics and public health as well as the undergraduate health sciences course of study that precedes our new graduate programs in athletic training, occupational therapy, and physical therapy—disciplines that poise our students to succeed in careers among the most highly demanded in the marketplace now and in the future. As for the building itself—named in honor of alumna Sally Breidegam Miksiewicz ’84, who was a member of the board of trustees from 2008 until she died tragically at the age of 52 in June of 2014—it will occupy 56,000 square feet and feature leading-edge technology, enhanced classrooms and research labs, a health informatics computer lab, a virtual cadaver lab, and creative spaces for student and faculty interaction. In synchronicity with the campus as a whole, the building symbolizes the trajectory of the college from its historical roots into the 21st century. “ESa [the architectural firm employed to design the center] delivered beautifully on a state-of-the-art design that looks to the future while preserving the heritage and culture of the historical buildings of Moravian College,” says Mark Reed, vice president of finance and administration. Join us on a virtual tour of the center on the following pages, and then please enjoy an animated walk-through at moravian.edu/ news/releases/2016/health-sciences-building.
Summer 2016 Moravian College Magazine 21