Campus News

A view of the new medical school from Main Street. Image: HOK

UB publicly unveiled today the dramatic design for its new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences building to be constructed on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo.

A groundbreaking for the new seven-story building is set for fall, and construction is expected to be completed in 2016. The new medical school will bring 2,000 UB faculty, staff and students to downtown Buffalo daily.

The signature feature of the new medical school is a light-filled, six-story, glass atrium that joins the buildings two L-shaped structures and includes connecting bridges to adjacent buildings and a stairway that cascades down from south to north. Serving as the buildings main interior avenue, the atrium will be naturally illuminated by skylights and two glass walls, one along Washington Street and one at the terminus of Allen Street.

The buildings faade will be clad with a high-performance terra cotta rainscreen and a glass curtain wall system that will bring daylight deep into the building.

At more than half a million gross square feet, the steel-framed building will be one of the largest constructed in Buffalo in decades.

The building design is produced by HOK, a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm that was selected for the project by UB last year after winning an international competition to develop the best design concepts for the new medical school. Since then, the HOK team has worked closely with UB officials, the SUNY Construction Fund and community groups to develop the design best suited to the needs of the medical school while strengthening connections with the surrounding community. The design process is continuing and is expected to be completed in the next few months.

Whats on the horizon is more than a new era for our medical school and a major new milestone for the university, said UB President Satish K. Tripathi. Its the opportunity to be part of shaping a bold new era of progress, discovery and promise for our city and our region.

Today, we get our first exciting glimpse at what that future will look like. A medical school with such a profound impact needs a truly world-class design, and HOK has clearly delivered just that.

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UB unveils dramatic design for new medical school