UB Unveils Design for New Downtown Medical School

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

At more than half a million gross square feet, the $375 million steel-framed building will be one of the largest constructed in Buffalo in decades. A groundbreaking for the new seven-story building is set for fall, and construction is expected to be completed in 2016.

The medical school will bring 2,000 UB faculty, staff and students daily to downtown Buffalo, and help the university achieve objectives critical to the UB 2020 strategic plan, including recruitment of outstanding scientists, physician-scientists and clinicians to the university; and transformation of the region into a major destination for innovative medical care and research.

The building design is produced by HOK, a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm. The design’s signature feature is a light-filled, six-story glass atrium, which includes connecting bridges to adjacent buildings and a stairway that cascades down from south to north.

The medical school will be adjacent to John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, Buffalo General Medical Center, Gates Vascular Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the UB Clinical and Translational Research Center and other research labs, helping create an academic and health care powerhouse.

The news comes right after First Niagara Financial Group Inc. announced they have given UB a parcel of land to be used in the construction of the new school.

The .85-acre parcel appraised at approximately $2 million is one of three properties UB acquired in downtown Buffalo for its new medical school.

Under the terms of the donation, UB purchased the land for $1.

With the First Niagara parcel completing land acquisition for the site, UB will take the next steps in the medical school project.

Read more at the UB Reporter.