UAA to celebrate grand opening of new Health Sciences Building on Oct. 7, 2011

Friday, Oct. 7, 3 p.m. 3795 Piper Street

The University of Alaska Anchorage will hold a grand opening celebration for its new state-of-the-art Health Sciences Building (HSB) on Friday, Oct. 7. Click here for a map of the building's location. Click here for a Google map.

UAA, considered the University of Alaska's health campus, is home to the WWAMI biomedical program-Alaska's medical school-and degree programs in the nursing, physician assistant, medical technology, dental assisting and hygiene, and emergency health fields. The 66,000-square-foot HSB facility will help the university respond the Alaska's growing need for well educated health care professionals.

The building is on Providence Drive, making it an ideal location for the university to continue to build upon strong partnerships with its neighbors in the growing U-Med District. The medical, nursing, clinical laboratory and physician assistant programs will be housed in the new building. Bringing these health programs together under one roof will provide opportunities for interdisciplinary simulation, allowing students to integrate theory and practice.

With a focus on distance education, the HSB features classrooms with technology that allow faculty and students in Anchorage to connect with students from across Alaska in rural communities. The HSB's instructional spaces are designed for interactive learning, simulation of real-life clinical situations and collaborative hands-on experiences.

The university's newest building is Phase I of what will be a Health Sciences Complex on UAA's Anchorage campus. UAA is already beginning the planning for Phase II of the HSB, which will connect the building with a second 98,000-square-foot, three-story structure that will feature additional lab and classroom space for UAA's rapidly expanding health programs.