Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

HT Building renovations sparkle

Photos and story by James Hill

If you find people squinting over in the HT Building at Sylvania Campus, there’s a good reason. At Early Childhood Education program, staff and students and toddlers are enjoying a new layout of rooms and upgraded facilities. For instance, there is a new infant area, an expanded observation room, renovated bathrooms, kitchen and staff room and redesigned corridors that allow staff and students to move freely to rooms without worrying about interrupting classes."I feel the children’s environment is much more inviting,"said Susan Sager, director of early childhood education program. "The new design will work well with our needs."Dental hygiene and assisting all have new, shiny labs that are better-equipped and state-of-the art. There are 23 new stations in all, with 14 in the hygiene area and nine in assisting, and one large sink for every two stations. All one needs is to saunter through the light blue and crisp white labs and see the refurbished area to be impressed.Ask any anyone, like second-year dental hygiene student Teri Abel, and they’ll gladly tell you how big of a difference the new lab space is."This is modern,"she beams. "Last year, we had old equipment that seemed was from the dinosaur age. It’s so clean and the colors are brighter and more cheerful. All the patients have told me how impressed they are with the improvements and say it feels less like a school in its atmosphere."Abel went on to say that the renovation made things more comfortable for students such as lowering counter levels, improved seats and creating stations that are fully functional that don’t force students to have to constantly get up to fetch equipment."We’ve always graduated successful students, but now we’re going to do it with the type of equipment that is out in the real world,"said nursing instructor Josette Beach. "I think we did really well."All told, the HT upgrade consisted of office staff areas, dental and nursing labs, early childhood education program space. Throughout the labs and offices, new paint, shelves, cabinets, counters, light fixtures, carpet and tele data services were installed. The project costs an estimated $1.5 million out of the construction bond.Ginny Jorgensen, dental assisting instructor, is enjoying the new atmosphere of the labs. "It’s more like a dental lab, which we weren’t before,"Jorgensen. "The old space was configured for a chemistry lab and that presented problems. Now the equipment and everything is so much better than before. The students, staff and patients all love it."