Five shortlisted firms are competing to design a building for UB's new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which will be located in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo.
Once a design is selected and executed, the current medical school on South Campus will be demolished.
"This will allow the completion of the Hayes Loop and allow all the academic buildings on South Campus an address on the loop," said Robert Shibley, dean of the UB School of Architecture and Planning. "Further, this will reduce the expensive operating costs of the current building, because the facility is out of date related to our current needs. It will allow for a more logical and coherent campus."
The new campus, which will be built as part of UB 2020's comprehensive plan, will house a number of premier healthcare and research institutions. The first phase of construction will be completed by 2016.
"Some of the medical school activities will remain on South Campus," said Suzanne Laychock, senior associate dean for faculty affairs and facilities. "Such as the laboratory research activity in the Biomedical Research Building and perhaps some of the research in newly renovated space in other buildings."
Shibley is leading the competition for the new medical school's downtown design.
Five firms – Cannon Design, Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Gensler, Grimshaw Architects, Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, and Rafael Vinoly – will be presenting their proposals at the end of March, and a final selection will be made on March 29. A completed design is slated for 2013, and construction will begin soon after.
"We were looking for an architect of record, who had experience, especially with medical schools," Shibley said in reference to the criteria used in the selection of five out of 19 firms for the design of the new school.
The new building's location has not been determined. Currently, three sites are being considered, according to Laychock.
The move will offer many benefits to the students of the medical school, according to UB spokesman John Della Contrada. In accordance with the Comprehensive Plan, more faculty will be hired after the new medical school is built.
"It will allow the medical school class to grow from 140 to 180, so that more physicians will graduate from UB and stay in the Western New York area," Della Contrada said. "The medical school will expand into 20 more clinical service areas, which will make it more attractive to students. They will also be closer to the region's other research assets such as UB's new Clinical and Transnational Research Center and the Educational Opportunity Center."
The intent is to integrate the school completely with the surrounding campus and "place it in the appropriate context of the surrounding community," according to Shibley.
"The new School of Medicine will be integrated with the Buffalo General Hospital, the Gates Vascular Institute, the Biological Sciences Incubator and The Women and Children's Hospital," Shibley said.
When the first phase is complete, the new building will be 520,000 gross square feet and will hold the dean's functions, biomedical education, the basic sciences' departmental space, and most of the research and faculty, according to UB 2020's website.
"Moving the medical school downtown also will significantly improve and enhance the region's medical care, benefitting people throughout Western New York," Della Contrada said. "The goal is for Buffalo to become a destination for outstanding, innovative health care and medical research."
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