By Anelia K. Dimitrova
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this space we profile up and coming talent in our community. Here, UNI grad, Samantha Edmundson, and her work on the new Department of Nursing and Public Health building at UNI are profiled.
There are many ways to give back to the people and places who helped you along the way.
For Samantha Edmundson the opportunity to reinvest herself in her alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa, came shortly after she earned a bachelor’s degree in interior design there in 2019.
About two and a half years ago, as an interior designer at the Omaha office of RDG Planning & Design, an architectural and design firm, specializing, among other things, in re-envisioning college and university buildings, Sam got the opportunity of a lifetime in her professional career – to collaborate with other creative minds to help design the interior of UNI’s Department of Nursing and Public Health building on campus which is still under development.
Sam calls it a “full circle moment.”
And even though she never imagined it, that moment arrived exactly when she was in the right place and ready to take on the challenge.
When Sam found out that her company had won the bid to renovate the former Innovative Teaching and Technology Center (ITTC) building on campus to fit the needs of the newly opened nursing program, she raised her hand to be included on the project team.
Her initiative, her skills and her connection to campus put her in a position to add an emotional tie in the ambiance of the building, which is now in its third phase of renovation.
She saw an opportunity to give back to UNI by applying, in real life, what she had learned as an interior design student and during her short stint as a young professional on her first job out of college.
“They invested in me and now I get to invest back,” she says.
Seeking to create interior design that conveys the sense of belonging Sam felt as a UNI student
Sam knew firsthand what it feels like to be a student on campus and she wanted to put her talents to work to add to that experience for those who would come here in the future.
In her interior design work Sam wanted to create for others a welcoming environment that elevates the spirits and creates a sense of community, similar to the one she felt when she first visited UNI as a prospective student. For her, feeling at home on campus wasn’t just the friendly people she met. It wasn’t just the nicely maintained campus. It wasn’t just the academic programs the university offered.
It was all of that and more.
She felt she belonged, a feeling she had not experienced on any other campus she had visited.
“I knew I was in the right place,” she says.
How a small town girl came to UNI
Sam grew up in New Sharon, a town in Mahaska County with about 1,262 residents, according to the 2020 Census.
Her parents instilled in her the importance of hard work. She learned design principles early on from her grandmother, Linda Wolf, who taught her how to sew and how to explain to others why she chose a particular material for a particular purpose.
Sam busied herself with hands-on 4-H projects and showed farm animals at the local fair with the help of her grandpa, Curt Edmundson, a farmer.
She also loved learning from her other grandpa, Jerry Wolf, a Habitat for Humanity director. The Wolfs hosted foreign exchange students for many years, and Sam credits that experience with opening her eyes to the world at an early age.
So genuine was the pull for Sam to come to UNI that she persuaded her then-high school sweetheart, and now husband and corporate lawyer, Griffin Wonderlich, to follow her to Cedar Falls.
Here, Sam found her passion for commercial design, formed lasting bonds with peers who have since become lifelong friends and, beyond the diploma, grew up in ways that make her family proud.
Like many students who search for the right path for themselves while on campus, it took her some time to figure out what subject matter really interested her.
“I think in the back of my mind, I always knew that I wanted to do interior design, but I didn’t want to accept that yet,” she says.
Then she had to figure out what aspect of design really appealed to her. It wasn’t until later in her program that she developed a curiosity for commercial design.
But once she started taking the relevant courses, her fascination with the subject turned into a life-changing direction.
“The commercial design courses were probably the biggest ones to prepare me for what I’m doing now, and textiles, you learn a lot about how things are made,” she told me in a recent interview. “But it fosters thoughts on how other things are made as well, which is just as important.”
UNI historic building transformed into state-of-the-art facility for nursing program
What Sam really values in her work as an interior designer are the creative challenges she encounters.
Among them is immersing herself in the working lives of other professionals to learn about their needs.
“I like that I get to learn about a lot of other industries without being in them,” she says.
As a member of the team involved in the decision-making and renovation of the former Old Gym, later expanded and renamed the Innovative Teaching and Technology Center, where the nursing program is now housed, Sam’s learning curve brimmed with creative challenges.
As a student, she had never been inside the building, which is next to the library, but as a professional interior designer she got to know it well.
Sam says it was an honor for her and a matter of professional pride to be a part of the conversion of the historic building into a modern space for training nurses.
In the process, she connected to the work of other professionals before her. Architects, engineers and designers had once worked there to create those spaces and now she was tasked with developing them further.
“My hope is that it’s a spot where people can hang out with friends, but then also grow themselves professionally as well and have a campus to be tied to,” she says.
Construction of the gym started in 1903, and the building was dedicated on June 5, 1905, but the structure underwent substantial renovation in 2006 for the purposes of housing of the ITTC. That renovation expanded the space by 13,000 square feet to 59,083 square feet and an elevator was added on the west side, according to the UNI archive.
Sam describes it as “two buildings morphed into one” that had served many generations of students and faculty.
Dr. Nancy Kertz, who helms UNI’s Department of Nursing & Public Health, says when she first toured the building, she was convinced it was the right site for the nursing program the university planned to launch. It fit her vision of developing a program based on integrated learning, where theory and application would go hand in hand.
“I wanted to bring it all together,” Dr. Kertz says.
Today that vision is on full display, especially on the third floor, even though the latest renovation to convert the building to its new purpose as a teaching ground for nursing students is still ongoing (take a tour of the facility).
It is evident in the spacious classrooms that are equipped with tables and chairs one would find in a traditional classroom as well as medical equipment and simulation patient bays one would find in a real life healthcare environment.
Sam, whose work Kertz truly appreciates, says she knows every detail here. Among other things, she made sure there was enough space to fit the specific needs of the students and faculty, while planning the location and size of the rooms as well as the equipment, furniture and storage spaces that would go inside.
What sets the interior here apart from a typical health care environment is an open concept ceiling, which adds character to the building and authenticity to the experience of working in it.
The decision to reveal the original ceiling and to find creative solutions that reconcile the new purpose of the building with its original one was an interior design dilemma Sam and the team wrestled with.
“Putting those together was a really fun challenge for me,” she says. “Instead of fighting what was already there, I thought, let’s just go all in and lean in on what was there and figure out how to blend the two together.”
In a typical health care building, she says, the curtain tracks used in ensuring patient privacy, attach to a ceiling grid.
But in this case, in the simulation rooms, the team had to find an option that would serve the practical needs and yet preserve the atmosphere created by the exposed ceiling. That posed challenges but Sam worked with the mechanical, electrical and plumbing teams to find an elegant solution.
“It was really important that the ceiling remained exposed,” she says. “It was fun, figuring out those little challenges and celebrating it. I am always interested in the past, the now and the future. I think it’s something that will attract students, you don’t normally see exposed wood in those settings.”
Giving back to UNI’s future is the best reward for Sam
Sam takes pride in the fact that she has been with the project since the beginning and the “one consistent person through all three phases.”
Hearing her describe what she has done on the project leaves no doubt that she has poured her heart into her work. Above all, she is focused on anticipating tomorrow’s needs while addressing present-day ones.
“Because I have that personal connection, I am trying to design for that future now instead of them having to renovate again later,” she says.
As part of her inner growth as a young professional working on this project, Sam realized that she leads with relationships.
“It’s been good to keep growing those relationships with people and feeling like I’m doing something back at home, my home away from home,” she says.
“The one thing that I’ve learned doing this project is being grateful for the opportunity and all the things that I was able to learn and the challenges. You learn patience, not to rush things and maybe persistence, to keep going if you have an idea. I think being grateful is probably the biggest part.”
She says she’d love to sit in the newly renovated space once the project is fully done, and observe how students and faculty interact with the space.
It is then that Sam’s full circle moment will have arrived.
“Before it was just an idea, so when I went back the last time, I was able to walk through and it’s really cool to just be able to see something that was in your head in real life.
“And, you know, I don’t even need people to know that I worked on that, but just being able to watch people using the space is enough of a reward for me.”