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CAMDEN NURSING & SCIENCE BUILDING ENTERS LAST
PHASE OF CONSTRUCTION
Site search unveils family history

At the corner of Fifth and Federal Streets

in Camden, the Philadelphia Inquirer describes

a rising structure as having “a jazzy triangular

shape...and a stylish dash of attitude”.

The structure, about 80% complete, is

the new Nursing and Science building. It is a

welcome addition to the neighborhood, a few

blocks off of the main campus. It is an area

that once housed a thriving retail strip, but

those buildings were demolished decades ago,

and the strip of land, like many strips of land in

Camden, sat vacant.

While it is no secret that Camden has seen

better days, there has been an active, collec-

tive effort of citizens, politicians, and business-

es determined to change the coarse of this

once economically vital riverfront city.

Rutgers University, which has been a part Rutgers new Nursing and Science building in Camden is
of the Camden landscape since the 1920s, is taking shape.

among those entities involved in Camden’s re- storefronts, and provide a much needed booster
newal. The Nursing and Science building is the shot on a once empty, forlorn lot.
university’s latest contribution.
“There is a rebirth and revitalization in prog-
Following the “Eds and Meds” model for eco- ress in Camden, and it is exciting to be a part of
nomic development, which seeks economic growth the transformation,” said Georgia Kyrifides, Senior
through increased educational institutions and med- Director for Project Services. With the building just
ical facilities, the four-story, 100,000 square foot a few blocks from the campus boundaries, Kyrifides,
building will not only provide the Rutgers Nursing and others, are hopeful for an area revitalization.
School with a competitive, state-of-the-art platform
for learning, including smart classrooms and in- In what turned out to be pure coincidence, when
teractive laboratories, but it will also include three Kyrifides was researching the site, prior to the start

of construction, she came across some family

history.

When embarking on a project, University Fa-

cilities investigates the selected site to see what

was located previously on the site. Any issues,

such as the need for soil remediation, will sur-

face at this point; for Kyrifides, what surfaced,

was ancestral history.

“Camden has a website that shows all of

the city properties from the late 1800s. Going

through the site, I found that one of the lots

housed a restaurant that was owned by my

mother’s uncle,” Kyrifides explained. The Lin-

tonia, which, the uncle, Constantine Chigounis

opened in 1932 during the depression, would be-

come a landmark restaurant. He and his brother,

Charles, would run it for 25 years. Chigounis was

well known and active in Camden’s Greek com-

munity. His obituary, which Kyrifides found in her

search profiled an active and beloved resident of

The Camden Nursing and Science building contributes to an area revi- the city.

talization as well as provides a tecnnologically advanced setting for the

nursing program. (Continued on next page.)

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