The Simulation Center at Illinois State University’s Mennonite College of Nursing offers students invaluable experience in the healthcare field. The GGLD team worked closely with nursing department leadership to ensure our design included everything required for this new space. Inside the school’s training rooms — including practice patient rooms and full-surround VR whitebox rooms — we specified flexible, precise lighting and controls to support multiple light levels and scenarios as students gain hands-on experience. The largest and most flexible training room accommodates up to 100 students and supports both lecture-based instruction and immersive simulations of real-life scenarios. Our team integrated lighting around extensive AV equipment, such as speakers and projectors that display scenes on multiple walls to immerse students in training scenarios. Our design included uplighting from the ceiling beams to increase visibility without interfering with the projections.
This generous uplighting extends throughout the facility, keeping spaces bright and welcoming no matter the time of day or night. At the entrance, the transition from a single to double height space is smoothed through strategically layered lighting, with continuous linear illumination that opens up the corridors throughout. In the sun-soaked atrium common space, the convertible design allows for the attached meeting room to connect, creating an enormous classroom lit for optimal focus. We also lit the building’s exterior, providing ample path and patio visibility. The university’s nursing program is now more equipped than ever before to train healthcare professionals for real-world work, brightening the prospects of students, as well as their future patients.
