HOK recently unveiled their design for the state-of-the-art medical school and integrated transit station at the University at Buffalo's Downtown Medical School, which will anchor the vibrant mixed-use district. Designed for the new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the seven-story medical school will bring 2,000 UB faculty, staff and students daily to downtown Buffalo and, at more than 500,000-square-feet, will be one of the largest buildings constructed in Buffalo in decades. More images and architects' description after the break.
The design features two L-shaped structures linked to create a six-story, light-filled glass atrium that includes connecting bridges and a stairway. Serving as the building’s 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 building, which HOK is designing for LEED Gold certification, will have a facade clad with a high-performance terra-cotta rain-screen and a glass curtain wall system that brings daylight deep inside. Incorporating the NFTA Allen Street transit hub into the medical school’s ground floor provides convenient mass transit access, furthering the development of a sustainable, vibrant community.
The new medical school will help the university achieve objectives critical to the UB 2020 strategic plan: creation of a world-class medical school, recruitment of outstanding faculty-physicians to the university and transformation of the region into a major destination for innovative medical care and research.
HOK’s design for UB’s medical school creates the heart for the new Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus while integrating and connecting to the surrounding communities. The building’s atrium will be the focal point for bringing together clinical, basic sciences and educational uses fostering collaboration.
The building’s first two floors will house multipurpose educational and community spaces for medical school and community outreach programs. A second-floor bridge will link to the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the Conventus medical office building under construction along High Street adjacent to UB’s new medical school. The third, fourth and fifth floors of the medical school will feature core research facilities and approximately 150,000 square feet of state-of-the art research laboratories.
The sixth floor will house some of the country's most advanced specialized medical education facilities, including an expanded patient care simulation center that will feature the Behling Simulation Center currently located on UB’s South Campus. It also will house a surgical simulation center where medical students can conduct surgeries in a simulated operating room. A robotic surgery simulation center will train students and physicians in remote control surgery technologies.
The medical school’s administrative offices and academic departments will be located on floors three through seven. The seventh floor will house gross anatomy facilities. From the new school’s active learning environments to the highly flexible research laboratories supporting multidisciplinary teams of investigators, the design supports a range of global trends for the design of academic and research facilities.
The $375 million medical school is funded in part by NYSUNY 2020 legislation. Groundbreaking is scheduled for September 2013 and construction is expected to be complete in 2016.
