Community Vibe
The Emory Nursing Learning Center lives in a mid-20th century bank and office building with what project architects call “good bones.” Emory nursing leaders couldn’t agree more.
“We love the location and history of the building in Decatur,” says Tricia Benson, 86MN, chief engagement officer for the School of Nursing. “We’ve been able to retain several unique features — the bank vault, marble walls and terrazzo floors in the terrace lobby, the wood paneling in the faculty and staff lounge on the second floor, and a 1960s-era starburst clock in the student commons.”
The Beck Group, the design/build firm behind the Emory Nursing Learning Center, worked closely with Benson and others to retain the building’s historic elements and its welcoming presence.
“Nursing is about serving the larger community,” says Ken Higa, lead architect for the project. “It’s about connecting with people.”
The original woodwork is a compelling feature of the faculty and staff lounge.
By design, the two-story lobby is the heart of the learning center — a place where students, practicing nurses, faculty, staff, visitors, and Decatur community members can gather and connect with each other. An open staircase rises from the lobby, or student commons. A tall, vertical video sign, featuring a colorful rendering of the learning center by local artist Sergey Cherep, welcomes everyone there.
“The sign anchors the space, much like a tower in a town square,” says Higa. “It provides information while visually connecting the lobby and second floor.” 
Today, the lobby brims with activity just as it did in 1962, when the eight-level building opened. Back then, tellers with Decatur Federal Savings & Loan Association waited on bank customers. Area residents hurried to appointments at doctors, lawyers, and business offices on the upper floors. Rotary Club members met for lunch every Friday in the Sky Room, an event venue with a panoramic view, on the eighth floor. 
Linda Harris was in high school when she first saw the building, where her father practiced with a law firm and later served as president of Decatur Federal.
“My father took me up to the Sky Room and told me, ‘This is the tallest building in the city of Decatur. You can see Stone Mountain from here,’” recalls Harris, now assistant city manager for Decatur. “My mother used to go to a beauty parlor downstairs.”
Her family walked everywhere in Decatur – to school, to the library, and to a movie theater and shops. Harris bought comic books in the pharmacy on the front of the Decatur Federal building. A restaurant serves breakfast and lunch at the same spot today. 
Decatur has changed and grown in the years since Harris’s own children had savings accounts at Decatur Federal. She and other leaders have worked hard to preserve the small city as a vibrant, walkable community and grow its economy by attracting businesses and partners like the Emory Nursing Learning Center to downtown.
“Having the learning center here creates a new type of synergy for all of us,” says Harris. “We can’t wait to see what lies in store for our community.”
GOOD PARTNERS = GOOD BUSINESS
Once a month, students in Emory’s Wound, Ostomy, and Continence (WOC) certification program arrive in Decatur for Bridge Week, the hands-on clinical skills segment of their continuing education training, offered through the Emory Nursing Experience (ENE). Students travel to Decatur from other states and other countries.
“Emory has been a phenomenal partner for us,” says Shirley Senior, the Courtyard’s director of sales and marketing. “It’s been a huge revenue stream for the hotel, and the partnership and the camaraderie we enjoy with Emory nursing leaders makes that possible. We want to provide excellent service for the students. That’s what keeps the partnership going strong.”
When WOC students arrive for Bridge Week, it has a huge impact on the community, notes Laika Steiger, MBA, FACHE, senior assistant dean of transformative clinical practice operations at the School of Nursing. “They’re staying in a hotel and dining at restaurants within walking distance of the learning center. That’s the beauty of being in downtown Decatur.”
Word about the Emory Nursing Learning Center is spreading. The Georgia American College of Midwives held a meeting there in late September. Hosting events related to Decatur’s arts, book, and food festivals are possibilities as are community talks on topics such as prenatal care, caring for an elderly parent, healthy eating, houselessness, preventing gun violence, and making health care more accessible.
This past May, the Emory Advanced Practice Nurses group hosted a one-day NICU.IMPRINT Conference at the ENE. The group has booked space again for next year.
“There are all kinds of events and conferences that can’t wait to be here,” says Steiger.
