UofM Will Open New Community Health Building With Ribbon Cutting Aug. 21

August 18, 2015 - At nearly 200,000 sq. ft., the new University of Memphis Community Health Building will be one of the largest facilities for community health-related education and research in the Mid-South. It will house the Loewenberg School of Nursing, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Memphis Speech and Hearing Center and a future Autism Center.

The UofM will celebrate the opening of the Community Health Building with a ribbon cutting Friday, Aug. 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. on the Park Avenue Campus.

The $60 million facility was funded by private support from individuals, foundations, corporations and a state of Tennessee matching grant. It will feature research and clinical sound suites for audiology research, nursing simulation suites, nursing skills labs and health assessment labs, as well as classrooms and conference rooms. An anechoic chamber, the only one of its kind in West Tennessee, will allow for world-class research on hearing devices and hearing problems that can be conducted only in such a unique environment.

The Community Health Building will support 100+ students and more than 25 faculty and staff in Communication Sciences and Disorders and 1,000+ students and more than 70 faculty and staff in the Loewenberg School. It was designed by Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects.

"The Community Health Building is an impressive addition to our Park Avenue Campus, allowing us to consolidate the Loewenberg School of Nursing and the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders into what will prove to be one of the best facilities in the country," said UofM President M. David Rudd. "Our donors are the real champions of this effort; I could not be more grateful. I'm also excited about the positive impact of the continued evolution of the campus on surrounding neighborhoods."

The building is on the site of the former Kennedy General Hospital, which treated more than 40,000 wounded soldiers during the height of World War II.

Classes at the UofM begin Aug. 24.