Washington University in St. Louis is beginning construction on what it says will be one of the largest neuroscience research buildings in the country.
The university says the 11-story research facility on the School of Medicine campus will merge, cultivate and advance some of the world’s leading neuroscience research.
The 609,000-square-foot facility and interconnected projects will bring together more than 100 research teams focused on solving the many mysteries of the brain and the body’s nervous system. Those teams will come from a wide array of disciplines, including the medical school’s neurology, neuroscience, neurosurgery, psychiatry and anesthesiology departments.
“With this new building, we are able to offer the neuroscience community a central home and a laboratory environment that can inspire entirely new concepts that allow us to grasp a much deeper understanding of the brain and have a global impact on health and science,” says University Chancellor Andrew D. Martin.
The building will facilitate greater collaboration between scientists in the medical school’s neuroscience-focused departments and researchers in related disciplines, especially those whose work requires close collaboration with neuroscientists.
“Collaboration across disciplines will be key to advancing our understanding of this new frontier in medicine,” says Dr. David Perlmutter, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs.
The building and related construction, which will be constructed at an expected cost of $616 million, will sit at the eastern edge of the Medical Campus, in the 200-acre Cortex Innovation Community, a business, innovation and technology hub that is home to numerous biotech startups founded by Washington University faculty, staff and students.
“We are constructing the building at the intersection of Cortex and the Medical Campus to encourage efforts by Washington University neuroscientists to transform their research into innovations that can move rapidly to improve medical care and quality of life for people with neurological conditions,” says Jennifer K. Lodge, the university’s vice chancellor for research.
The building will feature research “neighborhoods” and a shared area on each floor to spur conversation and collaboration. The neighborhoods will be organized around research themes that bring together people with common interests from multiple departments. The first researchers are slated to move into the building in 2023. The initial construction will accommodate more than 100 research teams, and additional shell space could be built out later for another 45 research teams.
The additional space created in this building represents the next step in the school’s strategic plan to increase its research base by more than 30% over the next 10 years.
The architects are Perkins and Will and CannonDesign and the builder is McCarthy Building Companies.
