Construction on the $18.6 million Student Health Center on Volunteer Boulevard began on March 1, 2010, and the building opened for spring semester 2012, being dedicated on January 20, 2012. Original plans to have the building ready for occupancy by July 4, 2011, were trumped by weather-related delays during construction.
The building of just under one hundred thousand square feet combined outpatient medical services and services of the Student Counseling Center and also incorporated the Center for Health Education and Wellness (Safety, Education, and Environment Center at the time of completion of the building) in a structure just under seven times as large as the previous outpatient student health clinic on Andy Holt Avenue. As built, the center contained 30 exam rooms, 10 doctor’s offices, 10 nurse’s stations, a laboratory, a pharmacy, an X-ray suite, urgent care facilities, a physical therapy center, a women’s clinic, an allergy clinic, a sports medicine area, and a variety of other ancillary spaces. The basement provided storage and facility support.
The two-story building with a partial basement employs two colors of brick, metal, and glass to help define distinct volumes and to connect to the palette of other university buildings—old and new. The building received LEED certification at the Silver level.
The building was a joint architectural project of the Lewis Group and Design Innovation Architects, and the contractor was Blaine Construction. It was paid for by bonding against the Student Health Fee, which at the time of construction was $81 per semester.
Originally, the building was planned to be behind the former Student Health Clinic, and a parking garage was slated for the site upon which it is currently located. The building, however, would have covered one acre and would have limited opportunities to develop additional academic facilities associated with the arts, so the site was changed and the plans redrawn for the new site, replacing the planned parking garage.
The full-service pharmacy located in the building filled its first prescription on Friday, November 16, 2012. UT partnered with Keystone Pharmacy to locate the pharmacy in the Student Health Center.