SLAM designs new facility for Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health

The new 180,000-square feet, six-story facility for the Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania (Paul Burk Photography)

PHILADELPHIA, Pa., December 7, 2021 – SLAM (The S/L/A/M Collaborative) is proud to announce the recent completion of the 180,000-square feet, six-story facility for the Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. The four-year, regional medical campus is in partnership with Tower Health. Students will receive clinical training at Reading Hospital, Tower Health’s Magnet-recognized facility, and flagship hospital, located less than one mile from the campus. SLAM’s integrated team provided full architectural design services, programming/planning, interior design, structural engineering, and landscape architecture.

Drexel University and Tower Health have forged a team of innovative leaders in medicine who have envisioned a state-of-the-art community-integrated medical college that will help to expand the class size and medical training in the region, and the ability to recruit and retain doctors in the Reading area.

Team-based Learning Lecture Hall and student observation of simulation in-patient room. (Paul Burk Photography)

Designed to support the emerging medical skills needed of today’s doctors, the new facility features enhanced teaching and learning environments with appropriately sized instructional labs, five simulation in-patient rooms, one for surgery simulations, 12 clinical training exam rooms, and an anatomy laboratory. The simulation training affords students the opportunity to test their knowledge and complex decision-making skills.

Academic life will be balanced by a student life experience that promotes health and wellness through access to a fitness center with indoor and outdoor recreation space. Students will also have access to the Information Commons (a library), lounge area, game room, and a café.

Building atrium and third floor study area. (Paul Burk Photography)

The spaces were designed with flexibility and technology to reconfigure as medical education, research, innovation, and collaboration evolves. The facility offers an open environment with “touchdown space” to encourage staff and faculty from other locations to stay and work at the building. Large, open general-purpose space is available for receptions, donor events, and graduations, including a 120-seat auditorium. 

“Our partnership with Drexel University and Tower Health, two powerhouses in the education and training of medical students, demonstrated our extensive background in medical education,” says Robert F. Pulito, AIA, SLAM president. “Because of our expertise and synergy between the development, design, and construction team, we were able to complete this project in 30 months, staying on a track from the first programming meeting to occupancy, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

About SLAM
SLAM (The S/L/A/M Collaborative) is a national, multi-disciplinary design firm offering architecture, planning, interior design, landscape architecture, site planning and structural engineering. S/L/A/M Construction Services offers pre-construction, design build and construction management throughout the New England region. Our market focus is on higher education, K-12 public/private education, healthcare, corporate, justice, sports and recreation sectors. In 2020, SLAM launched a new brand that underscores our infinite drive to unlock and solve complex design problems, rendering creativity in design to enrich lives. SLAM has offices in Atlanta, GA, Boston, MA, Denver, CO, Glastonbury, CT, Iowa City, IA, Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, Orlando FL, Philadelphia, PA, and Providence, RI. For more information on SLAM please visit www.slamcoll.com