Creating Cohesive, Local Learning Environments for Nursing Professionals
Five new nursing education facilities for Montana State University will support comprehensive, contextual training with the goal of addressing the nursing shortage and ensuring highly skilled nurses in communities across Montana.
As a design director and principal in charge of research and development at Cushing Terrell, one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work is creative exploration with our clients. When Montana State University awarded Cushing Terrell and our partner CO Architects the design contract for five new nursing education facilities — in Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Kalispell, and Missoula — it was an incredible opportunity to dig in deep, bringing our client into the research and exploration process and merging the best of education and healthcare design.
With the high-level goal for the five-facility project to help build a skilled nursing workforce in Montana, for urban and rural communities alike, we began with answering a few fundamental questions: How can the prospect of becoming a nurse be more accessible? How can learning environments facilitate long-term career success and satisfaction? What are the core design elements needed for a cohesive experience, and how can we build upon those core elements to reflect each local culture and environment?
The MSU Jones College of Nursing projects were made possible by a $101-million investment by Montana business owners, Mark and Robyn Jones, who’ve seen the healthcare challenges people in Montana face and wanted to make a difference. Their intent with the donation is to help address the lack of availability and access to care, specifically for residents in rural communities. Their donation will:
- Provide funding for the five new facilities on each of MSU College of Nursing’s locations, equipped with modern classrooms and state-of-the-art simulation labs.
- Establish five endowed faculty professorships, the first in the history of MSU.
- Develop an endowed scholarship fund that will allow the MSU College of Nursing to keep the cost of nursing education affordable for all students.
- Create Montana’s only certified nurse midwifery program preparing doctoral-level nurses, significantly increasing the number of specialized maternal healthcare providers capable of providing services to rural and remote communities in Montana.
The Research: Field Trips, Design Charrettes, and User Feedback
On the topic of research, many of our activities prioritize client engagement early in the design process. For the MSU projects, we took members of the university’s nursing leadership on tours of three healthcare education projects in Kansas City, Missouri, which were designed by our partner CO Architects. CO Architects specializes in schools of medicine and health professions, advanced research and teaching laboratories, and clinical facilities on university, healthcare, and urban campuses.
The projects, located at the University of Kansas, Kansas City University, and Rockhurst University, made for a convenient field trip with several sites the team could visit over the course of two days. Two of the projects were completed and occupied, while the other was just finishing up construction. These projects gave MSU leadership and nursing faculty a chance to see state-of-the-art programming and learning spaces, showcasing the latest design trends in nursing education.
Cushing Terrell and CO Architects design team members and Montana State University nursing education leadership tour nursing facilities and programs designed by CO Architects in Kansas City, Missouri.
Following the field trips, we brought together members from our multidisciplinary team and MSU leadership, staff, and students for visioning sessions. These sessions included leads from both our education design and healthcare design groups, as this crossover of knowledge contributes exponentially to how we can design spaces that facilitate hands-on, practical learning and skills that translate directly into healthcare settings. We also utilized insights from team members who grew up in and live in the Montana communities where the projects would be located to inform design aesthetics related to placemaking. These local connections brought a more nuanced approach to the design.
The guiding principles for the project, described below, revealed themselves through this series of visioning sessions. The team spent time with MSU stakeholders on the Bozeman campus, with a full-day kickoff in one of the classrooms in Romney Hall, a historic preservation project also designed by the Cushing Terrell team. Our design team took that information and presented it a month or so later to the nursing faculty and leadership for each of the nursing education facilities, who then provided additional input on their specific school culture and what they’d like their learning spaces to become.
We used tools, such as mind mapping, to analyze the feedback, which facilitated our ability to identify overarching user needs and wants while exploring different programming relationships to help meet those needs.
The Design: Form and Function
With the research and user engagement/feedback phase complete, we worked with the client to develop guiding principles for the project that would inform the design.
The guiding principles were to:
- Emphasize a feeling of one college across the five locations.
- Reinforce the connection to the university and its land-grant mission.
- Express an inclusive, family-like culture and community.
- Promote occupant health and well-being.
- Crafting adaptable learning spaces.
- Anticipate growth, curricular evolution, and technological advancements.
- Commit to building performance and holistic sustainable design.
The overarching design concept for the MSU nursing education facilities creates a cohesive visual language that identifies each building as part of the MSU Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing while endowing each building with its own regional expression in terms of form, color, and façade pattern.
Overall Built Program. To emphasize a feeling of one campus across locations, much of the programming is consistent with a “kit of parts” establishing the overall built program. For example, each facility has a front porch, learning studios, and a nursing gallery. While the built program establishes consistency, variables to the design include those inspired by the different regional geologic landscapes such as the design choices for the metal paneling/cladding on the exterior of the buildings.
Land-Grant University Goals. While the mission of land-grant universities has evolved over time, a primary intent is to provide practical education to the local population with direct relevance to improving daily life for people in the surrounding communities. With MSU’s goal to help address the nursing shortage, a learning hub was planned for each of the five significant communities in Montana, creating a ripple effect and the ability to reach surrounding rural communities and have a greater impact.
Establishing the five facilities provides local context, keeps students closer to home (and able to bring their education back to their communities), and provides more of a connection to rural areas. Additionally, MSU worked closely with local/regional medical providers to utilize land donated or purchased by these partners. MSU nursing students will have the ability to work with those medical providers for their clinicals while training in those healthcare systems will help prepare them even further.
Supportive Community. To create community, social spaces and nursing galleries add circulation throughout the buildings as well as add a variety of study locations. Nursing galleries have views into other areas of learning/practice to support demonstration, community learning, and a supportive team environment. Communal eating areas and landscaped spaces outside the buildings provide areas to come together in informal settings. With the learning facilities designed near local medical providers (on donated land), these providers serve as partners in education supporting clinicals and opportunities to create real-world relationships with patients and other medical professionals.
Health and Well-Being. To promote occupant health and well-being, the design incorporates sky lights and clerestory windows, which allow more daylighting in administration and demonstration spaces. Student nourishment areas include mini-kitchens and eating areas for busy students on the go. Student study spaces offer relaxation and respite, with lounge-style furniture as well as natural materials and soft color palettes. These areas foster a calming environment with large windows and views that create a connection to nature. Landscaped areas with walking paths and green space support the ability to take breaks from the classroom and enjoy the outdoors.
Adaptability and Evolution. The project principles related to adaptability and evolution are supported through the design of a variety of space types to meet differing learning/teaching styles. Learning spaces such as cohort studios and seminar labs feature multi-functional furniture, moveable partitions, and advanced AV equipment. The design includes state-of-the-art technology and simulation environments specific to a nursing training facility. Students are provided opportunities for hands-on experience that will help prepare them for just about any type of real-world situation.
Building Performance and Sustainability. To meet building performance and sustainability goals, the university and design team are pursuing LEED Silver for each building. All facilities are designed to be solar-ready with the ability to add on-site PV arrays. The Bozeman site will utilize the campus’ geothermal energy system while the other four sites use energy-efficient, high-performance variable-air-volume systems for heating and cooling. Healthy materials are emphasized, with many interior products meeting certifications such as HPDs, Declare Label, or Cradle to Cradle. The interior lighting design uses high-quality LED fixtures with a color rendering index (CRI) of 90, which provides a truer color appearance in the spaces, critical for healthcare applications.
Taking Inspiration from Montana’s Natural Landscapes
Unified by Montana’s dramatic landscapes, the designs took shape based on regional geological forms specific to each facility’s location.
For example, the Great Falls facility features a primarily horizontal exterior pattern but with vertical elements that represent the city’s namesake, the “great falls.” North and east of the city, the Missouri River drops 500 feet in a series of rapids and five waterfalls. The Great Falls Tectonic Zone, situated beneath the Missouri River, is a shear zone resulting from the melting and erosion of a glacial mass that affected the surrounding land. Within this zone, the river resides in a bedrock canyon, layered atop a clay stratum. The creation of the falls can be attributed to the erosion of the softer sandstone layer, while the harder rock beneath forms the distinctive falls. The materiality of the Great Falls nursing education facility draws inspiration from the natural hues found within these layered materials.
Across all facility locations, the architecture is expressed with an outer shell that figuratively and literally protects and provides shelter to students, faculty, and building occupants. Inside the facilities, the design continues the exterior concepts using natural patterns and motifs. You can scroll through the geological and contextual inspiration for each location below.
Great Falls, Montana
The exterior of the Great Falls facility features a horizontal pattern inspired by the predominantly flat landscape but with vertical elements within the overall pattern representing the Missouri River’s five “great falls.”
Billings, Montana
The Billings facility features a horizontal pattern and colors inspired by the Rimrocks, geological sandstone formations that characterize the Billings area.
Bozeman, Montana
The Bozeman facility is defined by a vertical exterior pattern mirroring the patterns seen on the Bridger Mountains and Palisade Falls. Panel folds create a perception of variation of color and light depending on the vantage point and time of day.
Kalispell, Montana
The exterior front entry of the Kalispell facility is defined by both a horizontal and vertical exterior pattern with horizontal bands signifying stratification while the vertical evokes chiseled erosion with a varying order of scale.
Missoula, Montana
The Missoula facility is defined by a horizontal exterior pattern signifying the strandlines seen on Mount Jumbo and the Ninemile Rhythmites.
Upcoming Milestones for the MSU College of Nursing Projects
All five MSU nursing education facilities are currently under construction and planned for completion in the fall of 2026. As we watch the projects unfold, I’m excited to see their future impact on the health of our communities: their potential to bring skilled nurses to more rural parts of the state, help meet the demand for healthcare workers, create rewarding careers, and overall improve healthcare in Montana.
While the design aesthetics were inspired by Montana’s landscapes, the functionality and health and wellness aspects were very much inspired by the MSU staff and the students who will be moving through these facilities and creating a foundation for a future within their walls.
