T Building to open for fall

The T building is the newest building on the Bellevue College campus. It is located across from the A building, near Landerholm Circle. The building will be dedicated to the Health Sciences, Education and Wellness Institute, or HSEWI, and their offices will move upon completion of the building.

T-Building 2 - C

Some HSEWI programs such as Allied Health, which helps students pursue occupations in speech pathology, physical therapy, have already.

Programs that will be housed in the T building include Alcohol and Drug Counseling, Health Care Technology and Management, Neurodiagnostic Technology and Imaging Sciences. Students in any of the HSEWI programs should also expect to relocate to the T building this coming fall quarter.

The Office of Sustainability at Bellevue College is continuing to expand their efforts into making Bellevue College an environmentally active campus, and they believe that the T building will help advance their efforts. According to the BC Office of Sustainability website the Health Sciences T building will be the “greenest” on BC campus.  It will have a solar array on its roof and be certified as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold like our Bellevue College S building.”

Some other notably sustainable features of the building include geothermal heating, integration of recycled and regional materials and water-efficient landscaping.

“The building will have windows and insulation to regulate heating and cooling, occupancy sensors, skylights and daylight dimmers to reduce unnecessary energy consumption,” according to BC Exceptional magazine, “Overall energy efficiency exceeds the standard used in LEED by 30 percent.”

The cost of the building is $39 million and it is about 70,000 square feet in total.

Through the T building, the nursing program will gain a significant upgrade. Nursing “will benefit greatly from the new facilities, which will feature two dedicated nursing labs with 20 hospital beds, and a five-room medical simulation lab,” said Exceptional.

This upgrade will help develop the bachelor and associate’s degrees for the program and garner more students.

In addition, there will also be new neurodiagnostic technology and phlebotomy labs, classrooms, meeting spaces for faculty and staff, which HSEWI hopes will advance student learning.
The T building will be hosting its first round of classes fall 2015.