Academic Medical

UNC Rex Healthcare opened the $235 million Heart and Vascular Hospital in Raleigh in March of 2017. Located on the University of North Carolina medical campus, the eight-story, 300,000-sf tower houses 127 inpatient rooms, an intensive care unit, and two large hybrid operating rooms to accommodate complex surgical procedures. General contractor Skanska began work on the facility in September of 2014 for a construction contract value of $93 million.

A dynamic, forward-looking partnership between the University of Michigan Medical School and the A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library has transformed a relatively hidden, introverted, and utilitarian 1970s book repository into a vibrant 21st century learning hub. But the original goal of this $55 million renovation project was much more modest than a whole-building transformation: It was simply to improve the medical student lounge, a windowless basement space that with each passing year had become less inviting to prospective and current students, as other medical schools improved their student-life spaces.

The University of California, San Francisco will break ground in April of 2017 on the $275 million Precision Cancer Medicine Building. Designed by Stantec to optimize the delivery of patient-centered care, the 170,000-gsf facility will provide 63,000 sf of clinical space, 45 infusion bays, two accelerator vaults, specialized medical laboratories, and diagnostic instrumentation suites. The six-story building is located on UCSF's Mission Bay campus and will enable the consolidation of outpatient services in a centralized location.

The University of Texas at Austin used a discovery-driven planning process to design the Dell Medical School, the first new academic medical center built from the ground up at a tier-one public university in almost 50 years. The project required developing an accredited curriculum and designing the initial building without any pre-existing faculty, students, or dean. Designed to connect the campus medical district to the rest of the university and downtown Austin, the new 75,000-sf Health Learning Building features flexible team-based learning studios with natural light, an all-digital library with no books, state-of-the-art medical simulation labs, and abundant indoor and outdoor social spaces that make it a dynamic community hub.

SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital is partnering with SLUCare Physician Group to build a $550 million academic medical center in St. Louis. Sited adjacent to the existing hospital campus, the 800,000-sf facility will provide a Level I trauma center and emergency department, 316 private inpatient rooms, intensive care units, and an ambulatory care center. Ground will be broken on the project in late August of 2017 with completion expected in September of 2020. 

The University of Cincinnati began construction in March of 2017 on the $61 million Health Sciences Building. The collaborative four-story facility was designed by Perkins+Will to support interprofessional medical education programs for the College of Allied Health Sciences. The 117,000-sf building will provide laboratories, classrooms, and offices. Completion is expected by early 2019.

“Convergence” is the term increasingly used to describe the intermingling of disciplines in next-gen academic research facilities. Embodied by today’s moonshot-type initiatives targeting big picture-level discovery, convergence has been dubbed “the next scientific revolution.” It is characterized by collaboration among experts in multiple fields of endeavor tackling the major scientific problems of our time. From a facility perspective, convergence goes beyond the organizational progression that has seen traditional departmental siloes challenged by the move to multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary or clustered research. It brings together many diverse specialties, from biomedicine to engineering to business to law, in a single place.

The University of Southern Mississippi dedicated the $31 million Asbury Hall in March of 2017 in Hattiesburg, Miss. Designed to promote interactive learning, the 86,000-sf facility will provide the College of Nursing with classrooms, an expanded clinical simulation lab, computer labs, and offices. Construction began in late 2014 on the project, which will enable the college to increase enrollment from 550 students to over 800.

The University of Arizona opened the $136 million Biosciences Partnership Building in February of 2017. Located on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, the 10-story, 245,000-sf facility houses the Center for Applied NanoBioscience and Medicine, the Institute of Molecular Medicine, the Pediatric Infectious Disease Research Lab, the Research and Translational Flow Cytometry and Immunology Core Lab, and an advanced cancer research lab.

The University of Adelaide opened the AUD$246 million Health and Medical Science Building in February of 2017 in South Australia. Designed to promote interprofessional education, the 14-story teaching and research facility features 24 advanced simulation training suites, four floors of laboratories, three lecture halls, and a dental hospital. Accommodating 600 researchers and 1,600 students, the building provides a centralized home for the Adelaide Nursing School, the Adelaide Medical School, the Adelaide Dental School, and the School of Public Health.

Froedtert Hospital will begin construction in spring of 2017 on a 165,000-sf expansion of the Center for Advanced Care. Four inpatient floors will be added to the existing eight-story structure. The estimated construction cost of the expansion is $43 million. Located on the campus of Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, Froedtert Hospital is an academic medical center affiliated with Medical College of Wisconsin.

The Dell Medical School Health and Learning Building is the first step in UT Austin’s ambitious plan to build the first new medical school at a Research I institution in 50 years. The 75,000-sf facility, which comprises phase one of the plan, will serve as the face of the new institution.

The Sheikha Salwa Sabah Al Ahmad Stem Cell and Umbilical Cord Center is being constructed in the Sabah Medical District in Kuwait. Designed by SSH, the $26 million facility will provide research and testing laboratories, an outpatient center for adult stem cell collection, a cryolab, and storage banks for stem and cord blood cells. The three-story, 84,000-sf project will also include medical libraries, a lecture hall, and a utility building. Completion is expected in September of 2017.

Sanford Health completed construction in February of 2017 on the $500 million Fargo Medical Center in North Dakota.

Biola University is building the $63 million Alton and Lydia Lim Center for Science, Technology and Health in La Mirada, Calif. The 91,200-sf facility will provide 30 laboratories, three classrooms, faculty offices, research space, and a rooftop observatory. Housing the School of Science, Technology and Health, the center will accommodate a wide range of academic programs with an emphasis on computer science. Ground was broken on the project in February of 2016 and completion is expected in spring of 2018.