KAI served as the architect and MEP/FP engineer on the newly christened Nursing and Health Sciences Center at St. Louis Community College (STLCC) at Florissant Valley in Ferguson.
The $62.9 million facility will address the immediate job training demands of St. Louis’ area hospitals and healthcare systems, and KAI CEO Michael B. Kennedy said the effort is part of his firm’s mission to improve the community.
“STLCC’s vision for the future and thoughtful consideration of the workforce needs of our community is evident in this facility. KAI is grateful to be their partner in now two buildings meant to address and meet those needs,” said Kennedy.
“The Center is a beacon of hope for the future of healthcare in St. Louis. For the residents of North County who see the progress and investment being made in their community, this symbol of growth is exciting for them, too.”
After breaking ground, the Center welcomed its first students in January 2025, and an official ribbon cutting celebrating the building’s opening was held on February 27.
The four-story Center is designed to be “the front door to the campus” with its large windows, exterior wood elements and prominent location adjacent to I-270.
It includes Indoor and outdoor student gathering spaces and state-of-the-art learning facilities come together to create a building that is both modern and welcoming to its end users.
The Center will house STLCC’s first-ever bachelor’s degree program in respiratory care, increase student capacity for the nursing program and bring several new programs to the Florissant Valley campus such as dental hygiene, radiologic technology and paramedic technology.
Other programs will include behavioral health support, deaf communication studies, patient care technician, and medical assistant. An on-site dental hygiene clinic will offer free and low-cost services to the community.
Other features of the building’s design include hallway windows that provide views into labs for accessible tours and program visibility; gathering and study spaces such as lounges, study rooms and multipurpose rooms; and science labs for anatomy and physiology courses, completing a self-sustaining health sciences hub.
“This state-of-the-art building will enable us to provide an even richer environment for the next generation of front-line healthcare heroes in the St. Louis region,” said Florissant Valley Campus President and Chief Academic Officer Elizabeth Gassel Perkins, Ed.D. “Students who study and learn in this facility will be well prepared to excel as they enter the workforce. Of course, we are most excited that this new building will provide an opportunity for the expansion of programs to the North St. Louis County area.”
KAI also designed the new Nursing and Health Sciences Center on the Forest Park campus, which opened in 2019.
The facility was the campus’s first new building in over 20 years. The four-level, 96,000-square-foot learning center sits along Oakland Avenue and was designed to achieve a LEED v4 Silver certification.