The University of Massachusetts Boston plans to build a five-story building to unify consolidate its nationally ranked nursing program and consolidate classes now spread across three buildings.
The project will expand the program’s space for future growth.
The university filed plans this month with the state’s environmental permitting office, describing the new five-story, 285,500-square foot facility, to called the Beacon.
Currently, classes in the Manning College of Nursing and Health Science — the 9th-largest nursing program in the country, according to its website — are spread across the Dorchester campus.
The project, still in the planning phase, includes renovations to the Quinn and Service and Supply buildings, plus a small addition. While no start date is set, state filings indicate it’s the university’s next construction priority, with completion expected within five years.
“The University of Massachusetts Boston is committed to continuing to build on its nation-leading nursing program to help train the next generation of skilled nurses and meet the escalating needs for health care professionals in our city and state,” a university spokesperson said in a statement to the Dorchester Reporter.
In addition to a unified space for the nursing program, the Beacon would also provide a “new welcoming campus entrance at University Drive and a new campus circulation spine to connect to the campus plaza and quad,” according to the planning documents.
Construction would be completed in two phases, with the first to consist of code upgrades and expansions of the Nursing, Exercise and Health Science, and Student Services departments. The second phase would create the new addition, “to address program deficits and projected growth” for the health sciences program, University Admissions department and student study and lounge spaces.
The project is part of an updated version of the school’s 25-year master plan, initially created in 2009. Other new projects described in the updated plan include a five-story addition to the existing Integrated Sciences Complex containing classrooms and lab space, a two-story addition to the Clark Athletic Center housing a new entrance and offices and a building to house a future seawater heat pump system.