UTHSC Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation / brg3s Architects


© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley
  • Architects: brg3s Architects
  • Location: 26 S Dunlap St, Memphis, TN 38103, United States
  • Project Principal: Brett Ragsdale
  • Lead Designer: Jason Jackson
  • Project Architect: Kate Haywood
  • Area: 60719.0 ft2
  • Project Year: 2018
  • Photographs: Tim Hursley
  • Engineering: Allen & Hoshall
  • Budget: $17,438,000

© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley

Text description provided by the architects. The Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation is the first facility of it’s kind in the state of Tennessee and is one of few in the country pioneering the concept of cross-disciplinary facilities for the healthcare field. This new step in higher education seeks to elevate the student experience through an environment which offers a friendlier pedestrian environment, an immersive clinical experience and more purposeful means of connecting to staff and peers.


© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley

The University of Tennessee Memphis campus has historically struggled with a cohesive, pedestrian-friendly campus, adding structures throughout time with little consideration of consistency or ease of access. The CHIPS building acts as a modern connection between the diverse, urban elements, responding to multiple variables through form, materiality, and function.


© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley

First Floor Plan 2

First Floor Plan 2

© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley

This design is not only aesthetically pleasing but valuable through the means in which it serves the University’s host of cross-disciplinary scholars. In addition to facilitating physical and aesthetic connections for the surrounding context, the CHIPS building also provides a means of progressive student learning. Interior spaces such as the skills labs and multi-purpose classrooms can be transformed based on the needs of multiple healthcare disciplines.


© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley

Each classroom experience is designed to provide immersive situations which imitate real-world functions of staff and patient flow. Together these elements, of creating a consistent aesthetic, providing a safe and comfortable environment for the individual and designing a space that functions seamlessly with multiple educational itineraries, act as a tool which continues push the boundaries of healthcare education.


© Tim Hursley

© Tim Hursley